I love hiking. I think you’ve got a decent start with what you’ve written already. I would advise getting familiar with navigating yourself with a map and compass, a lot of places don’t have phone signal so at a minimum download your map and make sure you’ve got the battery to last the trip and some extra. I definitely agree with your thoughts about carrying more water than you think you’ll need, generally water will be the heaviest thing will carry but one of the most important.
Snap. My dad was always conservative but generally a pretty accepting person. Brexit and COVID really sent him down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole and he’s gone full blown racist nut job. There’s a huge amount of topics which are just off limits with my family now in the efforts of retaining some sort of relationship. Fortunately they live 6 hours away so we don’t see them that often.