Hey whitefang
These are my thoughts!
whitefang wrote: The only reason I have the mug in there is for measuring water for food. Or if my friend walks with me I use the mug for coffee as well while he uses the pot. We just use the bags the food comes in as bowls.
If this is the only reason, I would probably not take it and would scratch small marks into the side of the trangia pot instead. Or of course you could just put some permanent texta markings on the outside of a water bottle. However, I usually like to take a pot and a smaller cup (I've got an MSR Titan one which is light) because I like to put enough water in my pot for a cup of tea/hot chocolate AND my tea so that when it's boiled I can have a hot drink whilst the rest of my water is in with my tea cooking
Whatever works best though. I personally wouldn't drop my cup for weight because it's so convenient for my needs - I don't want to have to waste time/fuel putting the stove on twice for a drink and meal.
Pongo wrote: I prefer to use a smaller pot that doubles as a mug / bowl. Doing this would enable you to give the mug the flick. Again this is a duplication thing. I'm using the MSR titan kettle, which is at the least, a good example of what I'm talking about
Depends on your eating arrangement though - I always just eat out of my pot for breakfast and tea. I don't really have a designated bowl. Of course it's a different thing if you need two pots to cook with - a non-metal mug isn't going to get along with your stove in which case the titan kettle would be justified. But if you only require one pot for cooking (which I think most people only would) this is probably a backwards step given the kettle weighs 118 grams and the current cup weighs only 62 grams.
Pongo wrote: In my experience the cheap thermals are close to just as good as the expensive ones. If you're looking at saving a buck, Macpac do 3 for $50 deals on them and you can often get some knocked off that
I'm not sure what other people's experiences have been with the Macpac clothing but I would certainly not go anywhere near their merino stuff again. I bought a jumper and thermal top off them last year and after just one wash both of them looked like a piece of Swiss cheese! Sooo many holes. If merino is what you are after I would look at the likes of Icebreaker. Much more expensive but at least the stuff lasts. Of course polypropylene stuff is great too. A lot cheaper than merino and very hard wearing. Definitley not knocking Pongo's idea here because I don't know what deal/materials were being referred to...I just thought I'd let you know my experiences with their merino gear. This was also mentioned in another review on the Macpac website...
Pongo wrote: Ditch the trowel and use a sturdy tent peg instead.
I wouldn't bother taking a trowel on the OLT given there is drop toilets at each campsite. Using a tent peg is going to save weight on other walks too. Probably depends again on what value you put on weight and convenience. I've found in the past that when you have to go, a trowel is much more effective at digging a hole quickly than a peg
I've also used my trowel a few times before at highly used campsites to get my pegs out of the almost concrete like ground. I would have been there for much longer had I not had it.
whitefang wrote: Since it was quite cheap I am happy to outlay a bit more money for something lighter and probably more fuel efficient than using the trangia with esbit stand.
Fuel efficiency will increase with a canister or liquid fuel type stove but so will weight. The best combination for you probably depends on the length of your trip - if they're going to be shorter I would opt for an alcohol stove type like what you have but if your trips will be longer, the extra fuel you will have to use due to poorer fuel efficiency will go against the alcohol stoves. A cheap/light option would be using a stove like Andrew Skurka's cat food can stove which is probably like 10 grams (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pajkt594Ruw), a piece of aluminium foil for a wind shield and the pot you have or something marginally lighter like Evernews 900 ml titanium pot if you want to spend some money...this system is reliable, and would weigh a lot less than your current 300 gram arrangement. If you put your fuel in one of the more solid PET bottles you could also drop the weight of your fuel bottle. Of course you would have to ensure you weren't too rough on this then though...You probably couldn't beat this system easily for weight so give it a go and if it works it works, but if it doesn't or you feel like/calculate you could be carrying less weight at least you haven't lost a lot of money experimenting
What clothes you bring ultimately depends on the weather and the unpredictability of the area. I haven't been to the Flinders Ranges before but I would say that if the weather is forecast to be sunny for all the time you are there, there probably isn't a lot of need for the rain pants and gloves. However, I would be taking these items regardless of the weather forecast for more alpine areas like the OLT. I guess it comes down to risk and consequence + knowing the capabilities of your gear from testing them out at home/in safe environments first...
As for photography, the same questions rolled over in my head when I started thinking about bringing a camera with me. I use my phone camera myself as it is small (I can easily put it in my short/jacket pocket and get it out again), lightweight and reasonably robust - I have an "Otter box" case for it that has protected it from a number of drops that I would not like to give my proper camera. I also have all my normal phone functions with it and can of course take calls with it when in range. It also has a huge storage capacity - I took 2500 shots on the OLT with it at the start of this year and I had many many more I could have taken if I wanted to. It is a Nokia Lumia 920. Takes a pretty good shot I think (although fanatics may disagree with me here) for what I get out of it. I think the 1020 is out now and would definitely recommend giving it a look if you are in the market for a new phone.
Sorry for the long post! Good luck and I hope you have a great trip
) or another stove. As for the photography I originally purchased my camera to take walking with me, but I have come to the realisation that my photography skills at this stage are not good enough to justify the weight and I could probably get photos of the same quality from something like the Sony RX100III. These changes would save about 1500 - 1700g alone. I still have to add in the weight of the extra gear I still need to purchase, but I can't see that all being heavier than the weight saved. 
