long term travel with detector

[TORRERO]

I'm wondering if anyone has any experiance traveling with a detector long term.
I'm not talking about going to the beach for a weekend and carrying it on a plane,
I'm talking about like a hiking trip accross Europe or following the coastline of Europe or a South American country.

All the detectors I have seen do not break down small enough to fit in a backpack, the box may well
fit, but the poles in themselves are way to long to try to put inside or strap to the outside.

I have long considered this to be something I would love to do, because I lived in Spain with a huge
coastline, and lots of camping places, and the ability to maybe catch a train or bus to the next
town, set up camp, hit the beaches for a few days and move on...

The potential is there to live this way for a long time, but you would have to find a machine that
can be broken down small enough to fit inside a backpack, durable enough to hold up to long
travel in a pack without breaking down, (I would consider the Tiger shark) and able to work well on Salt water beaches, but maybe without great depth, but great gold capabilities.

(I say not great depth because you would have to carry something relatively large to dig those deep signals, where-as you could carry a small trowel for shallower targets)

Although living completly off your finds might be impossible, obviousely using your finds to help you live is the goal here....
Any comments appreciated, anyone with 1st hand experiance trying this appreciated.
Obviously there would not be a car involved, but maybe a motor scooter or something for short travel distances, or maybe even a bicycle...
Richard

 

[texan connection]

My Minelab SE Breaks down pretty small

 

[TORRERO]

My Minelab SE Breaks down pretty small

All poles to all machines I have ever seen are at least 1 & 1/2 feet long they are really too long to fit inside a backpack if your hiking somewhere. If the poles were in 8' or 10' or 12' sections you might be able to break them down small enough.

It would be nice to be able to break it down and throw it in a small backpack I could carry on my back
and take it out when I arrive on the beach, and put it back for the walk home after hunting.
A lot of targets on the beach I can get by simply kicking the sand aside with my foot, to uncover the item.

 

[texan connection]

The 2 shafts are 16" and the control is 18". Ive backpacked mine , with the coil attached the lower shaft stuck out a bit.

 

[Treasure finder]

See if you can get a used Fisher 1266xb, the rod breaks down into 3 pieces and has
a carrying case. Don't have that Fisher myself, but should be a goodie.
http://www.detection.com/Fisher/1266xb.html
Rich