Good thread.
Bear is a twonk, we think so in the UK too. He has a nice life making TV programmes with lots and lots of back up, support and in the field help and assistance. As I recall even the BBC were not too impressed when it came out he was, for want of a better description, pulling cons in the field. He is best watched with the same regard as watching any other light entertainment show and he is definately no substitute for training followed with experience.
I made my first PSK over 30 years ago and even though I am now a civilian I still have one which is updated and modified regularly.
Back to the origianl question of what would I need for 60 days in the ulu: My old survival instructor would give me a clip on the back of my head and tell me anything more than a knife is classified as camping.
What I would want most is knowledge. You can never know enough.
A decent blade would be good: 4 inch drop point full tang blade with black micarta handles. Bushcraft style, plain, simple, reliable.
My PSK, containing:
fish hooks
fish line
micro leatherman, the scissor style version
micro LED torch
needles with large eye and small eyes (this allows use of thread or paracord inner cord)
potassium permanganate powder
6 ibuprofen tablets
full size space blanket (in a small ziploc and kept compact with about a yard of electricians tape)
half a dozen or so cotton wool balls for tinder (smeared with vaseline and zip-loced)
one inch length of swedish firesteel (needs to be cut under water)
10 * strike anywhere matches
2 * sachets of sugar
2 * sachets of salt
pack of scalpel blades
4 inch length of hacksaw blade
craft knife blade
12 inches 100mph tape
pencil (borrowed from IKEA, this has the 100mph tape wrapped around it)
handcuff key
tiny magnetic multi colored flashing light (for parties and attracting SAR)
This is all squeezed into one of the old decontamination kit containers, you know the plastic pot thing a bit like a tupperware container. It is kept closed with 6 elastic bands and then double bagged with ziploc bags that are intended as water carriers. I used to have a folded aluminium foil food container kept under the elastic bands but used it a while back and did not replace it (down and give me 10). I was taught to make a reduced photocopy map of the area I would be in and stash that in my PSK also, just in case. I know some guys who stash a sachet of sports drink powder with their PSK and then put the PSK into a clean pair of socks and then double bag it ....... go juice and clean socks.
My boot laces are all 550 cord, the cords in jackets have all been replaced with 550 cord and I carry around a 5 foot length of 5mm kernmantle to use for making bow drills ......... IMHO paracord/550 is kack for bow drills.
Direction finding: Shadow stick; sun rise & sunset; stars. The watch method has been shown to be unreliable by academic gentlemen using far greater knowledge than my own so I defer to them.
Fire lighting: Bow drill; hand drill (painful, but I have managed it); Swedish steel; flint and steel using charcloth or dried fungus as the tinder; if you have a carbon blade knife you can use the back of the blade against a flint to produce sparks; spectacles if you wear them to ignite tinder. My survival instructor told me to always carry about six Bics dotted around various smock and trouser pockets, I added a twist to this taught me by a USAF Vietnam vet. He said that in Vietnam a lot of the guys used to put an elastic band around their zippos to make them slip-proof so they would not fall out of their pockets ... so I added an elastic to my Zippo and my Bics.
Eating: Running after antelope or wilderbeast and dropping them with a pithy little spear works for Abo's and bushmen. Personally, I have problems snaring rabbits so I try to learn about edible plants to make sure I will not starve.
Shelter: My tarp and hammock would be nice but if not then I would find high ground and make a nice thermal 'A' frame with a well placed fire and reflector.
Water: Boiling at the very least, preferably filtering followed by boiling which is better. It is not too difficult to improv a decent filter using tree bark, moss and charcol from the campfire. A pot to boil in is the big problem, not many of those in a PSK as they are generally only intended for short time frames. Still, if it was all there it would be camping and not survival.