R.I.P. My Trusted Friends

Sadly on the day of the 14th February 2010, after many years of trusted service, my warm dry cumfy boots have been invaded by maggots and have been put to rest.

 

Leason be learned, never leave your boots in the shed with a pair of used garden gloves on them, because you never know who or what's going to crawl into them !

 

Goodby my boots, you served me well :-(

 

 

Some of the guys at Sty Head

Mikey Dread, Van Cleef, Hawk, Mad Micky & Topgear

Memory-Maps Adventurer 2800 GPS

Is this a poor cheeky clone of the rather splendid Satmap unit, or will it perform !

http://www.memory-map.co.uk/adventurer/index.html

 

Satmap Active 10

http://www.satmap.com/about.php

 

 

 

 

British Army PLCE Bergen Maintenance

Well it's that time of the year where I give my main bergan a soak in the bath.

It's been hung up in the shed for a few months and has taken on that damp smell.

 

All I use to wash it is shower gell, as I've found in the past if I use washing powder it takes forever to rinse it out.

 

Now some people will be crying at the thought of me washing a bergan and killing its waterproof qualities, but save your breath, no bergan is waterproof, ok it might be for a few days when it's new if you're very lucky, but it's never going to be 100%, not even close.

 

The best way to keep the contents of a bergan dry is to line it with strong heavy duty rubbish bags.

You don't need fancy drybags, just a good strong rubbish sack to line the main compartment.

For extra security and peace of mind I also seal my sleeping bag inside a rubbish sack.

 

Water will find its way through the best bags in the world and even spraying the bergan with a proofing agent is a waste of time and money.

 

Save your cash and line the main compartment with one HUGE sack, then find smaller sacks to line the side pockets.

Nothing will get through plastic bags unless you puncture them.

 

Now I have to go and do a few fixing hoop modifications that are long overdue, including replaceing the worn out thin bungee that holds my Trangia fuel bottle on the one side of the bergan, and also replace the worn out bunjee on the other side that has held my Fiskars Axe in place for the past five or so years.

 

I will post a photo of the finisshed bergan and the mods soon...........

 

 

 

 

 

Tesco Rucksack for £9.50 is it any good !

I needed a mid sized rucsack to use as carry on flight luggage for my trip to Canada.

 

It needed to big enough to hold my laptop and all my goodies, but still be small enough to meet the airline size regulations.

 

I spent a week looking at various packs around the 35 to 45 litre size and to be honest none of them suited my needs or pocket, what with some of them hitting £50+

 

So.....walking around Tescos with food on my mind I came across the reduced section and found this gem of a bag that had been reduced from £18.50 to £9.50

 

Now if I had the chance and money to ask someone to design the ultimate 45Litre rucsack for my needs, then this was or is the pack for me.  It's loaded with features, it's strong, nice looking, cumfy to wear and for £9.50 it's pocket money priced.

 

I loaded this pack with the following:

Laptop + leads + psu

eTrex GPS

Camera + spare batts

Meds + firstaid

Fleece jacket

Snacks 'n' sweets

Pens, paperwork, passport, money, etc....

I had plenty of room left in it and had not used the side pockets.

The only limmit was the weight regulations or I could of got more gear in if needed.

 

I bounced it around three airports, took it on three flights and in the boots of two cars, sorry one was a trunk as I was in Newfoundland by then ;-)

 

It feels as cumfy fully loaded as it does empty. The padding on the straps and the ventilated back system do the trick just like they should on a pack £80+

 

I Looked hard for faults but can't find a single one, I even love the way that they've lined the zipped pocket that holds the rain cover, so if you put it away wet it will not be against your gear.  I also like the fact that the zip on the top pocket faces the back of my neck, making it harder for Mr Naughy to get at my goodies while I'm stood with my back to him.  The Ice-Axe/Walking Pole hoops are not mentioned in the discription, and under close inspection they're tuffer than they need to be so that's another bounus.  I do like where they have the D rings on the straps, my two way radio fits on the one in a perfect place to use without having to remove it, and the same can be said of putting my GPS on the other strap, it's just where I need it.  The chest strap is also very cumfy and incorperates a very loud whistle.

 

Seven weeks of abuse and it's still going strong.

I would of been happy to of paid more for it.

 

Go out and buy it.

 

Specs:

45 Litre Rucksack

600D Polyester with diamond Ripstop trim
Easy access vertical zip
Padded shoulder straps
2 bellow side pockets
2 side mesh pockets
2 quick release adjustable compression straps
Neoprene carry handle
4 compartments
Bright orange rain cover (elasticated)
ventilated back system
Hydration compatible

Dimensions L32 X W17 X H49cm
1.3kg empty

 

Ray Mears and the BBC iPlayer

Just went onto the the beebs iplayer to watch the two episodes of Ray
Mears Northern Wilderness and see a few nice changes, mainly in the
form of not having to be online to watch missed program. You can now
download the programs you want and they will remain watchable on your
computer for 30 days. As soon as you start to watch a program it's
state changes and you're only alloeed to watch that program as many
times as you want in the next seven days. Anyway it's a nice touch if
you want to download and take your viewing with you. I was also happy
with how fast the programs downloaded. I had thre programs all of
630mb on the go and got them all in just over 20mins.

Have fun watching Mr Mears.

Turn Your Water Bottle Into A Solar-Powered Lamp

Now this looks like a great Idea, and something that I fancy giving a blast, however I'm not going to pay £8, soooo I've got my eyes on butchering one of my solar garden lights and have already found myself a donor bottle for this project. Coming soon, BG's homemade bottle light ;)

Read this guys review.......

The LightCap 200 turns any of those ubiquitous wide-mouth water bottles from Nalgene or Camelbak into a solar lantern. The LightCap is, as its name implies, a replacement cap for a water bottle, but with four bright LED lights on the underside and a small solar panel on top. Fully charged (about 12 hours in direct light), the LightCap 200 will yield an amazing eight hours of light, which is more than enough to sustain most camping trips or outlast a power outage. More on my time with the SolLight LightCap 200 after the jump.

I've often cursed the waste, and weight, of fuel or battery-powered lanterns. So, I was thrilled to try out the LightCap 200 on a recent backpacking trip. It weighs next to nothing on its own, and since I had to carry full water bottles in my pack anyway, I had no extra weight in the form of batteries, fuel, or lantern. Since the LightCap 200 is waterproof, there's no problem screwing the cap onto a full water bottle. However, I strapped the LightCap 200 to the top of my pack for the hike in, to give it some time to charge in full light.

After using the light on the first night, I only had to leave it in the sun on Day Two and it was charged up and ready to go the next night. Due to the LEDs, the light is rather focused, rather than diffused like a regular lantern, but it provided ample light for food prep and a card game. Even better, I had no fumes or fire hazard to contend with while reading in the tent at night.

Click on the tittle of this post to see a video of the lightcap in action.....

Survival Playing Cards

Jans mom gave me a usefull pack of playing cards while I was over in Canada.

 

Each card gives strategies and tips on surviving out in the wild.

No deed to take a pocket survival guide and a pack of playing cards now ;)

Categories include:

* How to survive a forest fire.
* How to survive an avalanche.
* How to fend off a black bear attack.
* How to avoid snake bites.
* River safety.
* hunting for survival.
* Finding water.
* Useful knots.
* First aid kit.
* Drowning.
* Plus 42 other categories!

The Big Guy Returns

I'm back in Blighty after seven weeks in Canadas Newfoundland wilderness, just me, the mrs, the bears, the moose and the whales.

It was a trip of a lifetime, fantastic scenery, great people, stunning locations, splendid food, and more wilderness than you can shake a stick at.

Click on the picture above to see the moooooooose......

Rise of the Hammock

Hammock Central

Last weekend was spent in the forest with the Mad Crew, unfortunately the Big Guy has disappeared off to Canada and obviously couldn't make it, he must have found those real mountains and endless miles of forest far too appealing, I expect he is waiting for the snow to arrive to he can go joy riding in a Skidoo :-)

This was the first expedition where everyone was sleeping in a hammock. Is this start of something new for the crew? Sleeping in a hammock is fun and you don't have to worry too much about what is on the ground, especially during the warmer weather when the floor is alive with bugs! Getting into your sleeping bag with a hammock is fun, the trick is to get into your bag while standing on the ground, pull it up over your head as far as it will go, then carefully sit in the centre of the hammock and swivel yourself in. Falling off just adds to the entertainment!

Tom look at a Sparassus Crispus

Find of the weekend has to be this Cauliflower fungus (Sparassus Crispus), first time any of us had seen one, probably because we are usually mooching around the forest out of season for this Fungi, it was certainly a fine looking fungus, apparently it's edible to. There where plenty of Toads to be seen and we also found the cutest little Pond Froglet you've ever seen, unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me a the time ;-(