The scientific apprenticeships of botanists Lucy Moore and Lucy Cranwell took place between 1928 and 1938. Moore described these busy times as their 'rucksack botany days ... filled with high adventures, exciting discoveries, lovely places, amusing incidents and meetings with famous men and women'. This essay is a closer look at shared adventures, discoveries and friendships that characterised this phase of their long and celebrated careers. It reveals something of science education in the 1920s,job opportunities in the biological sciences in the 1930s, and links between local and international researchers.