Stove/Pan tests

Following on from my tests with the Gram Weenie stove on Monday 26th July.

I decided, against my better judgement to splash out and buy a Titanium pan. I say against my better judgement because they are so expensive and it's only for boiling water.
However if i was going to satisfy my curiosity on performance i had to have one.

After much searching i decided on the Evernew 600 from Backpacking light. No sooner had i placed the order when it arrived. So thanks to them for a speedy service.

On the weight front, my current Aluminium pan and lid weighs 140gr. The new pan and lid weighs 110gr.

I also decided that i was going to make a cone windshield which hopefully would improve heat transfer and therefore save time and fuel.

The shield.
Having now purchased the material which started life as a backing tray. I started to work out the sizes required and to make the template using the formula for the frustum.

Then i made a paper template and set about cutting the basic shape.

Once thats done its just a matter of putting some slots in to aid combustion and to decide on how best to join the ends together.

I decided after much experimentation to make a double grooved seam lock joint. With material so thin it's quite an easy joint to make and it's a secure lock which requires no separate pieces to loose in the field.

Now to test out the options with the new pan.

I used the Gram Weenie and my own make of Aluminium bottle stove, both which require the pan to sit on top of the stove to "Pressurize" it. I had to make separate bases for the stoves so that i could test them using the same windshield as the stove heights are different.

I was a little surprised to find that with both stoves there was an adverse effect.
It took longer to boil the 430 ml.
I new that titanium was not as good as aluminium for heat transfer but i wondered if the cone was lacking oxygen.
I put another 3 slots in the shield and tried again. Results were better but not as good as the tests done in July with the straight "open" shield.
I was disappointed to say the least that the results didn't improve performance.

I then tried my old Trangia burner with the set up and i got an improvement over previous trials.
The trangia is not a pressurized burner.
In previous tests i got it to boil 430ml of water in 6.00 mins. With the new set up it boiled it in 5 mins 15 seconds. A fair improvement and i was pleased that my endeavours were not in vain.

I can only assume that the pressurised burners require a lot more oxygen to combust efficiently than an open burner.
So armed with the results this photo shows the set up i will be using in colder months.

The weights.
Shield 27 grams.
The pan and lid 110grams
Burner 60grams
Base 3 grams.
Total 200 grams.

I then realised i could save 30 grams by deleting the original pan lid and make one from foil.

Final weight 170grams.

The shield can either be rolled up and packed or as i prefer it, can be left fully open and slid down the back of my sack where the water bladder goes. (I never use bladders so its an empty space in the sack.)

Well i have had fun making this and trying out different scenarios, and i am pleased that i found some improvements both in performance and weight saving. So it was a worthwhile exercise.

Scotland, The Brave.

How i love holidays in Scotland.

Picasa error

Google
	Error

Request-URI Too Large

The requested URL /gadgets/ifr... is too large to process.

Brian,
This is the error message that i keep on getting in my Picasa box, although the problem is strangely intermittent. You would think that if a URL was too big it would be too big all the time.
Looking at the start of the URL which says /gadget the problem may lie elsewhere but like i say it's in my Picasa box.
I have checked my gallery headings and all would seem to be ok. So i don't know what URL it finds a problem with.

I find it annoying.
Brian, i am not changing over from Picasa due to the error message. I am changing simply because i bought a year subscription with SmugMug.
The error message just pushed me a little faster to change.
 I have no issues with Picasa and would use the service again.
Thanks for your quick response.

Error message - Picasa

If any reader is getting an error message on my Picasa gallery. I don't know why it's happening.
 I am now using SmugMug for my images so the images on Picasa will be gradually changing over, bit by bit.
And then Picasa will be removed and all will be well hopefully.
Sorry for the problem....Alan

Gram Weenie stove test

The postman was early today and with him came a package from Australia.
It was the Gram Weenie stove.

I have now spent a couple of hours this morning testing it out and here are my findings.
On opening the package you will find:-
1. The stove
2. Windshield
3. A 5 Fl oz fuel bottle (approx.)
4. Priming pan
5. Instruction pamphlet.

The 3 containers i have used for testing are as follows.
From R-L.
 Hi Gear 105mm diameter, 0.75L pan. (Aluminium)
Optimus 95mm diameter 0.5L pan. (Aluminium)
 Lifeventure Titanium cup 80mm diameter 0.43L.

First of all what does it all weigh. (measured by me)

The stove - 19 gr.

Windshield and pan 55gr.

Fuel bottle (empty) 25gr.

Total. 99gr.

My first set up was with the Lifeventure mug because this was the lightest container and i was hoping to use this in the field.

I put 1 fl oz of meths in the stove, as per instructions and a couple of drops of meths on the priming pan.

Then ignited the fuel and waited until the flames blossomed from the small jet holes. This took about 45 seconds.

Then i put the pan on which contained 430ml of cold water and then wrapped the windshield around.

The 430ml was determined from the fact that most dehydrated food packets require in the region of 400ml to rehydrate.

The wind was swirling and ambient temperature was 11 degrees.

After about a minute the flames went out so i set it up again and the flame went out again.

I decided to try out the test in the kitchen where it would be out of the wind. Not a good start as you cannot do this on the fell side, but at least the results will be made in stable conditions.

Anyway, this is what i found, using the same amount of water in all the pans and 1fl oz of fuel in the stove.

The Hi Gear pan - 6.00 mins to boil and then the flame burned for another minute.

The Optimus pan - 6.40 mins to boil and then the flame burned for another 30 seconds.

The Lifeventure cup - 9.00 mins and just as it boiled it went out.

From the results i ascertain that the stove works better if the pan is wide and shallow rather than narrow and tall.

Having got these results it was now time to take it outside again and use the Hi Gear 105mm dia. pan as the best test.

Set up was as previously stated.

The water boiled in 7.00 minutes and the stove burned for another 20 seconds after.

My conclusion is that for the UK hills this stove is too small. 

In very blustery conditions, which is the norm here, there is a good chance that the stove will not boil your water in time, before it goes out.

 Also there is the chance that it could self extinguish depending on the wind speed and if it's blustery or your pan is too narrow.

It also takes too long to boil.

The windshield is very light and i will have to find a way of keeping it on the ground when its windy.

I don't think i would depend on it at the moment, unfortunately.

The next time we go backpacking, in about 3 weeks time, we will take this stove as well as our gas stove and see if i am correct with my findings.

Back to the drawing board. Maybe a new cone type windshield next. Mmm
Oh. And i must say that this testing has been done for my own personal use and there is no commercial involvement whatsoever.

A strange bird

Below are 2 photo's of a strange bird that has just landed in the garden. We have never had a bird like this in the garden before.

Apologies for the lack of clarity but we didn't have time to get the good camera and they were taken through the window.

Have any of you twitchers got any idea what it is?

For scale purposes the baskets below the bird are around 2ft tall.

Sent from my HTC

Recycle and save money.

I was clearing away rubbish to the recycling bins when i realised the foil bag was still in an empty wine box.
So when i separated the box and discarded it, i found not a foil bag but a polythene type bag similar to dedicated water carriers.
It had me thinking i could use it for backpacking and save a little cash.

The tap came out from the bag quite easily and my first thoughts were, how do i get rid of the smell of the white wine.
I filled a basin with boiling water and soaked the bag and tap until the water was cold. Most of the smell had gone but not enough.
I then soaked them again in sterilising solution for 4 hours and it was good enough.

I filled up the bag with around 2.5 litres of water, replaced the tap and threw it around a bit to see if it would burst. It stayed intact.

I braided a lanyard, making a loop in the centre and glued it around the outside of the seam on 2 sides so that i would be able to hang it when in use and also strengthened the corner with duct tape where the strain would be taken.

On completion the carrier weighs 40 grams.

                                      

When rolled up the carrier takes up very little space. This is a 3 litre bag and it takes up about the same space as my 1 litre Platypus.

I suggest that when the tap is pushed back into the bag, only go about 3/4 of the way in. It's still secure and watertight, but it makes it easy to remove to fill it up.

The above photo shows the bag filled with 2 litres of water. I didn't want to put 3 litres in at this time because the lanyard had only been glued for about 1 hour.

I think if i did need to put 3 litres in, i would probably leave it on the ground anyway.

All in all i think it's a good bit of recycling. If anybody wants to me to make them one please send a new box of wine to me at........... only kidding.

And if it bursts at anytime just think of the pleasure you can have in emptying another box. 

The Samaritan Negotiator

Yesterday turned out to be a strange day. Sat in ST. Ann's square i saw a bag get snatched from a vendor stall selling the Manchester Evening News. At first i just thought it was the vendor, but a minute or two later the yellow jacketed vendors turned up and realised that they had been robbed.
I went over and told them what i had seen and said the robber cannot be too far away so lets go and look.
After a couple of minutes the vendors decided that he would have been long gone and called off the search.
Fortunately only a few minutes later and while i was walking down Deansgate i spotted him and went back to the vendors to tell them.
Well cutting a long story short, we ran after this guy and we got him and all the belongings back.


Then after i had calmed my nerves, i went into The North Face store on Deansgate because i had been considering buying a lightweight belay jacket. The one i had in mind was the Patagonia Nano Puff pullover (stupid name), but i couldn't find one in Manchester.
I saw TNF had one called the Zephyrus and it looked ideal. Then i saw the price £139.99! Too much i thought and left the store.

Only a couple of hundred yards further up the road i called into another outdoor shop and saw the same jacket a bit cheaper. I said to the sales guy that i liked the jacket but i didn't want to pay that much. So, after a bit of negotiating i actually bought the jacket for £78. Fantastic deal.
Weight 260gr. Filling Primaloft.
It just shows you how bad the outdoor industry is doing at the moment and always haggle with them.
But the stupid thing in my view is that TNF store wanted £139.99 and i had bought it at almost 1/2 the price in a store 2 minutes away. And the store i got it from was obviously still making a good profit.
 I walked out of the TNF store, because they are charging top dollar. How many potential customers do exactly the same. Their was also more staff than customers.

Gram Weenie Stove

Recently i have been using the Optimus Crux stove with the foldaway burner. I bought it with the solo pan set and it all fits together nicely. Great for 3 season use.
I have posted previously that the regulator is poor but if you are just boiling water then turn it up and it works fine.
   In the past i have made numerous stoves, too many to mention and i have been generally successful in my endeavours.
Last week while browsing i came across the Gram Weenie pro stove, there are other stoves of similar design, ie the White Box Stove but at 19 gr in weight and even smaller than the WBS, it got me thinking about buying it.
    I checked out the availability and found that it was available in the US from End2End trail supply or Australia via Mark at Light weight hikers blog.
As we have family in Australia i decided to ask them to buy it for me. I have found buying from US can be a long job whereas Australia just isn't.

The stove has now been ordered and i wait eagerly for it's arrival and testing it out.

   As the days get shorter and colder i find gas stoves are just too unpredictable even with the gas mixture for cold temperatures. I much prefer the use of Methylated spirit stoves when the frost is down.
When it arrives i will test it out and post the results.

Cumbria Weekend

Welcome to my blog to Phil and Mark.
We have just arrived home from the Lake District. This was our tri-weekly trip up to Sheila's mums.
Thankfully we wasn't camping. It barely stopped raining the whole time.
Locals were telling us that thursday night was really bad. There was plenty of evidence of the storms as the roads were littered with tree debris. Also we had no signal on the phone or the internet.
Today was also bad for the weather. Heavy rain,and mist down very low. Not much wind though thankfully.
Driving back over Birker fell this afternoon we passed some young un's walking along the road. I presume that they were D of E going from the numbers and the style of equipment. Visibility was quite bad on the fells.
They were like drowned rats. Poor things.

We called in to the Scree's pub in Nether Wasdale on Friday night. This is one of my favourite pubs in the county. It's now under new management and i can say that we had a fine meal and there was a definite improvement in the atmosphere.. It was good to see some old faces back in as well.

Saturday night we had our usual night in the Gosforth Hall. It's always a good meal in here and Rod keeps 4 casks beers in good order. It was quite a surprise to see that this weekend he had put on a cask conditioned, hand pumped lager. Yes lager. I tried a couple of pints and i must admit that it was very good. Unfortunately their was quite a large group of people in for a meal so it wasn't long before it had run out. But he will be getting some more in.

We called in to the outdoor shop in Broughton in Furness and i spotted some self inflating mats, they had the name Trang on them so i made a mental note to check them out on the internet when i got home.
I have now had a look and cannot find them, that's strange. I will have to go back in and have another look at them.
Anybody else heard of them?

Midges

There is a new midge spray out called Incognito. It works by masking the odour that we give off, that the midge is supposedly attracted to.
It says that the fragrance is so strong that the midge just "Fly bye"and don't land on the skin.

Well if it works it will be great. Has anybody tried it?  I would be interested to hear if you have.

If you want to read more then just click on the link.

Windshirts

Over the last few weeks we have had numerous discussions on windshirts. Whats good, whats not. What we like etc etc.
Some of the prices are quite expensive but we pay for them because we like them. They are light, pack small, are showerproof and do what we want, be windproof.

Well let me throw this one in the pot. It does the same as the rest but costs a fraction of the price. IE £25. Its Pertex Quantum so thats good. It hasn't got a full zip but to me thats not a problem. Weight 80gr.

If you are in the market for a windshirt and are scouring the web for a good deal then have a look at it. You can find it here.

The Crinkles and Pike o'Blisco.

On the way back from Scotland we took a sidestep right and went to Langdale NT campsite. Normally this place would be way off our radar as we just can't be doing with the crowds and tent encroachment. But as it was midweek and not school hols we thought it would be ok.

                                  Bowfell from the Crinkles.

Checking in has changed somewhat and for me i think it is a joke. They are spending money on the wrong things and making customers pay for the unnecessary.
 I don't want to open a slanging match here so i had better keep my opinions to myself hadn't i.

On pitching the tent we pitched next to Robin, AKA blogpackinglight . We had never met before but something kept telling me that i knew him from somewhere.
After a quick question ie, "do you have a blog site" we introduced each other.

A very pleasant 20-30 mins followed of gear chat. Robin was off to Eskdale and we were off to do the Crinkles and Pike o'Blisco. After farewells we were all away.

We bumped into each other again towards the top of the Band but from there our routes took different directions.

Sheila had never done the Crinkles before so she wasn't sure how bad the "Bad Step" was going to be. In the end it was easy for her although she has a little scratch on the knee that she doesn't want to heal up. It's proof you see.

                     Walkers check out the "Bad Step" on the 2nd or 4th Crinkle depending on which direction you do the walk in..

It's all down hill from the Crinkles to Red Tarn and the masses were on there way up from Three Shires.
The ascent up Pike o'Blisco from Red Tarn is very pleasant and it doesn't take long to get to the top.
It's a great top for views all round.

Pike o'Blisco

Sheila and I stood at the cairn on Pike o'Blisco. 

I may be wrong but i am sure this cairn used to be a lot higher than this. 

We chose the east route off the top. For me this is the best way off but now the NT path team have been here and done what they excel at! The path joins the road just before Wall End farm.

It had been a grand day. The weather was just right although it was probably too hot for backpacking. We retreated to the Old DG for a beer. Well you have to don't you.

The days photographs can be found here.

The Lightload towel part II

Following on from my earlier posting on the Lightload towel.
We used this throughout our recent trip to Scotland and now that we have given it a thorough testing i can say with conviction that we liked it better than any of the micro fibre towels we have used.
It will now join our backpacking kit and replace the microfibre towel.

Size for size it rolls up smaller and weighs less than the fibre towel.
It's not as strong as the fibre towels and you have to take this into consideration.
It feels much more like a proper towel than a fleece towel does when using it.
When wet or after washing it. Don't wring it out but compress it to remove the excess water. If you wring it out then there is the danger of tearing it.
Even after compressing the excess water out it will still dry you.
I didn't notice that it held any bad odour with use, like some of the fibre towels do.
It dries very quickly.
It washes well at low temp on short cycle or by hand wash.

If on a campsite, keep it off the shower floor and walls as it will soak everything up quickly.
It's cheap enough to replace at any time.
Sizes are available to suit what ever you require.

We cut our purchased towel in half and after 2 weeks the cut edge hadn't deteriorated.
No bad points really. A good buy.

Even if you don't like it you can always use it to wash to car or the windows.

Our view's on the Rob Roy Way. (Our way) What worked and what didn't.

I say "our way" because we strayed away from the designated route on a number of occasions. But in the main we followed the general direction as laid out in the guide book.
The RRW is a long distance route that starts in Dryman and ends in Pitlochry. A distance of 80 miles.
We decided to make a few changes, as follows.
1. We started from KinlochArd where we were able to leave the car for a long period of time without any worries.
2. We wanted to go up Ben Venue, Ben Ledi and Ben Lawers on route so this would mean going north of Loch Tay instead of on the southern track.
3. We knew that there was a track on the south side of the River Tay between Aberfeldy and Grandtully so we took this instead of the dangerous road walk on the north side of the river.

As it happened we didn't get to go up Ben Ledi as the pull to watch the England v Germany game got the better of us. (No comments please, we know)

We did a food parcel drop at the Golden larches cafe opposite the Brae's caravan site at Balqhuidder station. It was very kind of them to allow us to do this and therefore kept the rucksack light.

We also did a rucksack drop off at a B& B we were going to stay at in Callander. This enabled us to just use a small Gym bag for the first part of the walk.
So thank you ever so much Mike and Lesley at the Westerton. And also for putting on the match and providing beers and nibbles.

The guide book by Jacquetta Megarry and Rennie McOwen is well put together and very informative. The book was written in 2002 and quite a few views have changed as the forestry has grown considerably in some areas.
Do buy the guide, it's worth it and it's waterproof. But don't forget to invest in the latest os maps for the areas, paths have a habit of changing over the years.
We think that the route follows forestry paths far to much and it does spoil it to some degree. However don't be put off by this.

You can do this route without the need to camp or backpack if thats what you want to do, there are plenty of places to stay along the way and plenty of places to eat.
The only place you could have a problem is between Killin and Kenmore. You need to ensure that you have accommodation on this section.
Check this section carefully to avoid being stuck if you are going down the B & B route.

There is good local transport from all the villages into larger places such as Pitlochry, Callander, Stirling etc.

Also there is a new service operating which is called Demand Responsive Transport. You can call the company on 08445675670 or go to www.aberfoylecoaches.com to book a pick up. You should give the company 24 hours notice of your requirement but they say they will try and fit you in anyway.
The service provides taxi like service at local bus fares.
We used it from Callander to Aberfoyle and it's great.

The dreaded midge!!!
Did we get bit! Bet your life we did. KinlochArd, Aberfoyle, Callander, Strathayre had some midge but not a problem. Then we got eaten alive in Balqhuidder. It was the worst i have ever seen them and that goes for Norway and Iceland too. They were in everything, your meal, the tent, your eyes and ears, just everywhere. Nothing put them off. Skin so Soft! they were not worried one bit. They loved the stuff. Nothing stopped them.
We were so pleased to leave Balqhuidder brae's site.
Stay at the Kingshouse, thats what i say.
We didn't encounter the problem once past Loch Earn head although we were told that Crianlarich had them bad as well.

What did we take that worked and what didn't.
The lightload towels worked a treat. They are better than the microfibre ones and we will use them again.

The travel tap water filter we got from BPL failed after 2 days on the trail. The filter body sheared off where the threads enter the bottle lid. Very disappointed to say the least as it's not cheap. I had been having some trouble with it leaking so i can only assume that there was a crack somewhere within the threads and on this occasion it broke off.

The Optimus crux stove proved a winner.

My new camera the Samsung NX10, i was very pleased with the weight of it and i never had that feeling that it was too heavy or clumsy.

The Rab Aeon Tees were fantastic especially with the hot and sometimes humid weather we had.

What is it?

On route along the River Tay we came to these huge plants. Has anyone any idea what they are?

The Rob Roy Way (our way) photo's.

I have now finished downloading the photographs from the Rob Roy Way. Well our meanderings which basically followed the Way with a few detours.
They are here, so we hope you like them.

Loch Tummel

Having now got the car we decided to have a drive down Loch Tummel and onto Rannoch. Having done the touristy bit with a photo of the Queens View we headed off west. We were looking for somewhere to stay and as we passed the Loch Tummel Inn we asked for and got a room for the night.
I remembered seeing this on Martin's Banfields fine blog. (Postcard from Timperly).
It is a great place to stay and we do recommend it, the food is fantastic as is the good conversation with Tom and Amanda, the proprietors.

Martin, they only had good words to say of you!

Aberfeldy to Pitlochry

We were up bright and early and set off for a bacon butty and a cup of coffee in the little cafe just 100yds from the camp site. Between 7am till 9am this only costs £1.50.!!
Then up the road we went. Passed the Dewer's distillary, no we didn't call in, but we stopped to take some photo's.

The RR way shows the track following the B road on the north side of the river, however there is a good path on the south side of the river which goes all the way to Grandtully and is off road. A much better option.
Just as we got onto the disused railway track, a deer shot out from the undergrowth. It was no more than 6ft away and scarred us both to death. It was so quick.
When the track meets the road at a small turning circle, there is a track which goes to the left, down hill, take this route rather than staying on the rail track as it leads down to the river and is far more scenic.

At Grandtully we stopped for coffee.

Once over the bridge the way takes a right turn following the B road again. If you need any supplies there is a small store just a hundred yards further on in Strathtay which has everything.

The track then leads to the Tulliepowrie burn and heads off uphill into the forestry. Take a last look back at the lovely Tay valley.
I'm not a lover of forestry so i was glad when we started the descent towards Pitlochry, and just as you come out of the trees there is a splendid view across the River Tummel.
Across the suspension bridge and we were in Pitlochry proper and the end of the RR way. It was still early and the place was packed with trippers.
We headed for the campsite only to find out that it was full. So we decided that we would get the train to Stirling and then head off via Callender to Aberfoyle on the bus.

Aberfeldy back to Kenmore?

Yes that's correct. We decided to have a stop over here in Aberfeldy. We got the local bus back to Kenmore and had a good look round. We went to the Crannog centre which was very interesting and then we went up to the folly at Acharn, just by the waterfalls.
Then back to Aberfeldy for a beer in the Black Watch pub. We can recommend this hostelry.

Boreland track to Aberfeldy

We kept on losing signal which is always a pain. So i am now going to put the posts on that we should have been on days ago. I will keep them in order.

Having contoured round Meall Greigh we were pretty tired out. The heat of the day had taken it's toll. We decided to set the tent up just before the forestry path which leads to Boreland.
Luckily the ground was firm. I expect that after heavy rain this area could be quite boggy.

We did have a little rain but not too much and we slept well. Just as we packed up the rain started getting a bit heavier as we set off into the forestry.
Within the hour we passed the Culdees bunkhouse. So we called in for a look see. It was a little surprising to say the least. It's not a walkers/climbers bunkhouse, it's more for the eco warrior style of person. It's owned by a Dutch lady who wants to pursue the self sufficiency cause. It sleeps around 20 people and it was clean.

Out through the small village we picked up the forest trail again which led us to Kenmore. What a delightful spot. A very pretty place and one we wanted to spend so more time here but we had to push on.

On the other side of the village we picked up the Rob Roy way again. Mainly good track through farm land all the way to Aberfeldey. Care needs to be taken as it's quite easy to take a wrong turn being in farm land.
Just prior to dropping down to Aberfeldy you come to a Gorge with a bridge crossing the gorge. Take the path across the bridge. The view of the waterfall is spectacular. This is known as the Birks of Aberfeldy.

In 40 minutes we were in Aberfeldy village and heading for the campsite. What a fantastic site. So much better than we expected.

Sent from my HTC

Killin to Boreland Farm

After excellent food and night in the Lochay hotel, we accepted a lift to the Ben Lawers visitors centre. This is now closed. We set off up Ben Lawers and at 12 noon we were at the top. The day was warm and the views were stunning. On the way down we saw hundreds of deer. We headed for the old dam to the east of Lochan nan U an. From the dam we contoured round to.the forestry below Meall Greigh until we picked up the track down to Boreland.

Balqhuidder to Killin

After a awful might at the Braes campsite, caused by the horrendous midges and noisy traffic we got up early completely wrecked and eaten alive. We packed up and set off via Rob Roy's grave at Balqhuidder village to Killin. This is an easy walk following the disused railway. Having looked at the map, the route along the south of Loch Tay seems boring, so we opted to go into the village and find a b & b. We found a b & b at the bridge of Lochay hotel.

So far

Left callander and walked along Loch Lubnaig. Plenty of wild campsites along the first half of the Loch. Stopped at Strathayre village shop for a pie and coffee. The forestry road from Strathayre is steep and brings you out at the bottom of the kingshouse at balqhuidder. Another mile and you reach the campsite at the Braes opposite the golden larches cafe which is very good. more later.

Loch Ard to Callander

An easy walk along the Loch to Aberfoyle. This is where we pick up the Rob Roy Way. The trail follows the line of the Menteith hills along a steadily rising trail. much of the route is through forestry but good views can be had as Loch Venachar is reached. To the east yesterday's summit Ben Venue is clear and to the north Ben Ledi. The last three miles is a road walk into callander where we are staying the night in a b & b. Some wild camp sites can be found along the shore of Loch Venachar as you walk along towards the dam. Today has been very humid again. My Golite flytrails are now in the bin after they fell apart on yesterday's walk. I am now in my Meindl boots so the feet are not happy.

Ben venue

This image was taken from the top of Ben Venue yesterday .  Weather was very hot and humid.  Today walking from Aberfoyle to Callander along the Rob Roy way.

Sent from my HTC

A mad week

We are off to Scotland tomorrow, heading for Loch Ard, Aberfoyle. We are in general terms following the Rob Roy way to Pitlochry and then up to Blair Athol. In between we will be doing a few tops.
There is no defined plan apart from the start point. We want to enjoy the area so it will not be rushed.

I say it's been a mad week because as we all know getting the gear together for a two week trip is fraught with doubts about the packing list and food organisation.
Also my Imac has now gone back to be fixed. It turned out to be a failing LCD screen and the connecting cable.
Should be due back early next week, so need to organise that delivery.

Just started making up the food parcel for delivery to Balquhidder when i realised the muesli  supply was too low. I also needed some smug mugs for lunches. So off we went to Tesco, our nearest large supermarket.
We picked up our few items and went to the checkout where we was told Tesco are not supplying bags anymore. Well behind us was a couple with a huge shop being laid out on the conveyor. Chaos was looming large. Why no bags they asked. Management decision came the reply. So what are we supposed to do with all this then? I can get you some boxes the cashier said.
Well i won't go on because you can imagine the rest of it.

So Tesco have gone green. But they are being a little short sighted because they presume that everybody who shops there has a car (how green is that) so they can push to trolley to the boot and unload the cart.
How stupid can Tesco get.
I agree that plastic bags need to be reduced drastically but not everybody carries cotton bags around with them all the time. Some bags of either card, paper or whatever still need to be provided for the customer.

It's been quite a while since we have been in Tesco but we won't be going there again soon.
This is not an isolated branch, we were told this is going to happen nationally, so be warned, make sure that if you shop at Tesco to take plenty of bags with you.

So food parcel is now packed and addressed, rucksack nearly finished. I'm sure i have  forgot something. I had better go and check.

Latest Acquisition

Last week i went into Clas Ohlson store in Manchester. Just mooching round looking for new items of lightweight gear, i saw this small tent made by Asaklitt.
No i have never heard of them either. The tent was of similar design to The NF Tadpole. Thats what caught my eye.

There was no information about it and it wasn't in the shop catalogue. I picked up the tent and it was a reasonable weight. The price tag said £39.99
They had one erected so i had a good look around it.
First thing that grabbed my attention was the bathtub groundsheet it looked excellent. Not cheap and nasty but very similar to my Odyssee.
All the seams both on the groundsheet and the Fly were taped. The poles were Alloy.
The inner was of mixed material of nylon and mesh with a double skin door, nylon and a zipped mesh.
It looks a good tent, especially for the price.
So having now got back from the lakes i have erected it in the garden and weighed all the component bits.
It weighs in total 3 kilo's. Not backpacking light but ideal for touring, cycling or just throwing in the car for base camps etc. and it can be split into 2 even packs to share the load.

There are some pictures below to have a look at.
Now that i have had chance to appraise it properly i think it's excellent value for money.

              There is plenty of space inside. 2 people sharing don't even have to be good friends, it's that roomy.

Some dimensions that i measured are as follows:- Inner, Front to back -- 2.13 metres. Inner - width at widest point 1.5m, Inner - height 1.12m. Inner -narrowest point 0.71m.

Porch width at widest point-  1.28m, Porch front to back 0.7m, Width at door - 0.8m.
There is also a small hood at the top of the door so that the outer door can be opened when it's raining, for added ventilation.
You get a brochure with the tent which is in perfect, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish. Nothing is in English, but i managed to work out that the Flysheet has a 4000mm specification and the groundsheet has a 5000mm spec.
 When everything is packed away the overall size of the package is very good and i have put a photo below against a size 8 (42) training shoe for comparison purposes.

This tent cost me £39.99. Yes that's right £39.99!
Yes it's a too heavy for backpacking unless there are 2 of you sharing and just away for a weekend with little food, but it's fantastic value for money.
It has not been used in anger yet, obviously, but i don't have any doubts that it will be fine in the wind and rain.
More to follow later.

This was taken outside the Screes inn in Nether Wasdale on our walk yesterday.

Sent from my HTC

View from Sheila's mam's house

Sent from my HTC

Gosforth Weekend

This weekend saw us going to Sheila's mums in the small village of Gosforth West Cumbria.
There was obviously still great shock and sadness about the unfortunate souls who lost their lives here recently.
Dorothy usually walks down these lanes daily and it hits home just how lucky she was that she was indoors at the time and not in the wrong place.

However we got her out for a low level walk down to Santon Bridge and on to Nether Wasdale where we had lunch and then returned the same way.

We had lunch in the Screes Inn which is now under new management. The menu's have improved and we couldn't fault anything.
It was wonderful weather and everwhere lush and green. . It seems most places have been fortunate this weekend.
The views across to the Screes and down Wasdale valley were superb.

                On the way to Nether Wasdale via Santon Bridge.
Some more images can be found here.

LightLoad Towel.

I had noticed these towels on the US backpacking or through packing sites. On checking out the suppliers website they sounded perfect for what i was looking for.
The only problem was that they were only available from the US. Considering the small cost and the usual tribulations of ordering from the US i decided to hang fire.
I kept a look out but nobody Europe based seemed to have made any comments or done reviews.
Strange, i thought, as its a light weight piece of kit.

Then a few weeks ago i noticed that a few new suppliers, UK based had got them in. So, in for a penny in for a pound. Well £6.95 actually. I ordered a large beach towel. 90cm x 150cm, thats 36" x 60" in old money.

It arrived forthwith from Amazon and i couldn't wait to get the tiny parcel open.

As you can see, against the CD its tiny. How do you get a bath sized towel into such a little space?

Having taken off all the packaging you are left with a very compact stone like disc.

How the dickens do you open this i thought. Its too tight to peel apart. So, back to the wrapper.
It said hold under water or something like that, to release. So i did.
And open it came like a spell from Alladins lamp. Out came this bath sheet. Laugh, well never mind about that. There it was in all it's glory.

So, what do we have?
 Is it Egyptian cotton, nice and fluffy? No.
 Is it just a nice cotton towel? No.
Is it a big J cloth? Well it looks very similar, if it isn't.
It feels like a J cloth. It looks like an unbleached J cloth with a pattern on it. But! Does it work?
Lets Try before you Dry.

Sheila and i both showered and used the towel. Believe it or not it dried us both far better than our Lifeventure soft fibre towel. It soaks up the water far better than i thought would happen.
We were impressed.

When the towel was dried out it weighed 100gr. So we are going to split it in half which still gives us a fair sized piece of towel and it will be about 20gr. lighter than our current Lifeventure towel.

On the down side. With it looking and feeling much like a J cloth, it's a wee bit more delicate than a soft fibre towel and it will rip with rough handling.
All in all i would say its worth the £6.95. But it won't last too long.
We will be taking it on our next backpacking trip to Scotland in 10 days so the proof of the pudding will be in the eating as the saying goes.
More to follow later.

Mad Mac

Just what i needed! The graphics card on my 15month old iMac has packed up and has to go back for a repair.
I'm not happy.
So i am back on the PC for a little while.
The LightLoad towel has arrived so i will do a review when i have tried it out.

Gear from Bygone times.

While is was reading the excellent post from Mac E's blog. (Hope he doesn't mind me putting in the link.)

 I thought about the old gear that i had, and i have lots. One of my favourite pieces of gear from bygone times was the Sprayway Yeti. (I think thats what it was called) but i could be mistaken.

It is a full winter jacket that i purchased roughly in the early to mid seventies.

 I cannot remember how much it cost then, but i expect that it wasn't cheap.

                              Here is a photographs i have just taken.
It's basically a 3/4 length jacket, made of Nylon with a Polyurethane coating. Then it has a fleece lining which is unattached at the base for air circulation.
It has 4 very large outer pockets and 2 hand warmer pockets. On the inside there is one pocket.
It has a waist drawcord and an Opti heavy duty nylon zip.
All the fastenings are heavy duty studs.
Nothing has ever failed on this jacket. Even the coating is still A1 and the fleece looks new.

On the inside it says this jacket is made by Chris Barnett. So well done to him and to Sprayway.

                      Photo of me wearing it when i was backpacking in Iceland.
            Sorry the quality of the Iceland picture is not that great. Old photo's don't keep well.

It weighs 1.4kg. I can't believe that i used to wear or carry this on long backpacking trips.
However at the time it was fit for purpose and i must have thought a lot of it because i still have it.
It never let me down and i cannot remember ever being cold or soaked through when wearing it.

Sent from my HTC

Phone trial run with pics.

This is just a trial run getting photos running from Sheila's HTC phone. So take no notice. There should be 2 

photo's in total, taken at last weeks fell race.

Sent from my HTC

Fell Race

This weekend has been one to remember. The weather for one thing was near perfect for both the fell race and taking photo's with the new camera.

Sheila with Mike Breslin who completed another race. Mike is in his 70's. He'll hate me for saying that.

As one of the previous post states, we went up Grey Friar on Friday and it was a scorcher of a day. Seathwaite tarn was about 6ft lower than normal and there was very little ground water about. The views were good in all directions.

We hoped that Saturday was as predicted, a little cooler, especially for the runners. The day started off very warm and i had the thought that it was going to be another scorcher. However it started to cloud over somewhat and the temperature was down a little.

We headed of up to Swirl How from Three Shires and we got there in around the hour. We like to get there a little earlier than required so that we can take in the views and then have lunch.
We were being spoilt again as the scenery and the cloud formations were stunning.

Eventually the marshals at Three Shires came over the radio to say that the runners were coming through their check point.
We had a great view down Wet Side Edge and it wasn't long before the leaders came into our view. From that point on we had a very busy afternoon.

There was the occasional lull that enabled me to get some pictures. At one point the sky went dark and we thought we might get a drop of rain, but it soon passed us and the blue sky's returned.

There were plenty of walkers around, and showing an interest in what we were doing and the details of what the runners had to achieve.
The race is 20 miles and starts from Seathwaite, Duddon valley. They run up Harter Fell, Hardknot, Little Stand, Three Shires top, Swirl How, Dow Crag, White Pike and finally Caw before decending back down to Seathwaite.

The record for the race is 2  hours and 44 minutes, completed by Billy Bland.

Finally the last runners came past us and we were able to check the numbers tallied with Race Control prior to standing down.
A few more pictures and then we were off back to the Seathwaite for the presentations and the evening entertainment.

The music and dancing was great and went on until, (well i'm not sure what time we finished)!
The midge's were out in force but luckily they didn't cause me any problems.

It had been a super event, well managed and enjoyed by everybody.
I've put some images on Smug mug and you can view them here. If you wish.

swirl how

Just arrived at the top of Swirl How it took us an hour. Weather is sunny but a great breeze. We are now in place for our Marshall duties.

Fantastic views over to scafell's, Bowfell and the Crinkles.

mad dogs and English men

Set off at 10.30 from Seathwaite, now 1 pm and just having lunch at the top of Grey Friar.

Walk up was very hot and glad for a bit of a breeze at the top.

New camera seems good and will post some photos on Monday.

Looking forward to Swirl How tomorrow, hope the weather holds.

New Camera

My Sony Cybershot was getting a bit too familiar so i thought it was time for a change. Just like all technology, new and better gear arrives daily and so i decided it was time to upgrade.

I had been pondering about which camera to get, as you do, and have read loads of reviews and asked knowledgeable people what they thought.
I ended up with a short list of 3, four thirds cameras. This terminology was new to me as i was basically a point and shoot auto setting man.
They were the Panasonic Lumix GF1, The Ricoh GRD 3 and the new Olympus Pen.

So off i popped into Manchester, list in hand because i am hopeless at remembering names and i had a lovely afternoon walking around town in the sunshine.

I ended up in Jacobs camera shop and presented my list to a very helpful chap. After a little uming and arhing about my requirements i had a look at the GF1 and the Pen, they didn't have the grd3.

He also said that i should look at the Samsung NX10. Oh no i thought, not another choice, especially one that i new nothing about.

Well after much zooming, shooting, button turning, lens swapping, viewer gazing, battery life checking, weight comparing, JPG considering, Raw browsing etc etc, i plumbed for the Samsung NX10.

I am now trying to work out how to switch it on. I will let you know later if i was successful.

The Duddon Valley Fell Race

I need to start sorting out the gear to take to the Duddon Fell race this weekend. It's a complete change of gear from the usual backpacking lightweight stuff to the more spacious base camp gear and other luxury items.
The race is on Saturday 5th. No we are not running, we are part of the Marshalling team.
Although depending on the weather it can be quite an ordeal staying on the high tops for hours and hours.
How many times during hikes to summits have you said "come on lets get off the top it's too cold and windy".
Many i would guess. Unfortunately we have to stay there.

We are on Swirl How at the end of the Old Man of Coniston ridge. If anybody is passing by, then please say hello. We will be there from around 12.00 lunchtime until 4.00pm.

It's a great day out and i always enjoy browsing Pete Blands outdoor gear stall on the race field.

Post race there will be live music playing from 5.00pm until late in the beer garden at the Newfield Inn.
There is a good campsite at Turner Hall Farm for anyone wanting to stay for the weekend.

Sheila has made a good curry for saturday nights tea, although for the masses, food is available all day at the pub.
Hope to see some of you.

Optimus Crux stove

I bought the Optimus Crux stove for this trip. I admit that this is the first gas burner i have bought for decades.
I see lots of gas stoves in the hills but i have always used meths stoves. So i thought i would take the plunge and give one a try.

I also purchased the small Optimus pan set with it.

When it arrived from Ultralight outdoor gear, which took 2 days from ordering. Fantastic company by the way. I couldn't believe just how small it was and how it all fitted nicely together underneath a gas cylinder.
It weighed 90 gr.

I purchased a 120gr Go Systems iso/butane mix cylinder and couldn't wait to try it out in the field.

I kept a log of how much water 1 off 120 gr cylinder would boil. It achieved 5.67 litres. I thought that this was a fantastic achievement. I was very surprised, it just kept going.

One thing to take into consideration was the high ambient temperatures which i guess averaged around 20 degrees and topped 29 degrees one day. So for planning purposes i would take off around 20% and work on 1 cylinder boiling around 4.5 litres.

One thing i wasn't too pleased with was the simmering and the controllability of the gas power. When the gas was turned down the regulator decides to go to the absolute minimum it could get without going out.
I always had to check and see if it had gone out or not.

When on high output it was brilliant and very fast. The most water i boiled at any one time was 0.5L and it took just a couple of minutes.
I was also using the Primus windshield which worked very well.

Summarising then, i think there may be better burners out there that regulate finer. But to simply boil water and pack away into a tiny space it cannot be knocked. A bit expensive as well i thought at £45.
It would be interesting to compare how the new Go Systems stove, which looks just like the Crux but costs £25, works out against it.

Our Lakes walk photo's May 2010

I have now loaded the photo's from the Lakes walk and they can be found here. We hope you like them.

This was our first night wild campsite GR NY22572 06288. Just below Central pillar on Dow crags, Upper Esk.

Sunday 23rd May 2010

We are back home now after another scorching night and day.
Its been a very pleasant trip and i will put the photos on when i have time to download them.

Although the day that we wanted to do Bowfell and the Crinkles didn't come off we still enjoyed the walks we did.

We tried out the new Optimus crux stove and i was very surprised with it's performance. More on this to come.
We enjoyed the Mug shots for lunch which were recommended by Gibson, his very good blog is here. So thanks for that Gibson we will be getting more.
One of the best new things we tried was the Real Turmat dehydrated food. I must agree with Alan Sloman, his very good blog is here,  that the Wolfish casserole is number 1 and closely followed by the Game casserole.
But to be fair they are all very nice. They are a bit pricey but worth it in taste.

Next to our pitch in Seathwaite, came 2 chaps who were getting fit and gear testing for the Saunders marathon. They had purchased the new Vaude Power Lizard. I had a good look at it and i was surprised to see that it had equally as much floor space as our own Odyssee winter. It weighs in at 1Kilo.
Both chaps were taller than me, i guess one was close to 6ft and the other about 5ft 9. They said it was great and better than the Laser comp.

The pegs looked poor and would pull out quite easy in strong wind, i would guess. They may be ok for comps but i think i would change them for backpacking even though it might add a little extra weight.

I will certainly be interested to read any reviews that have been written by any one using the Lizard on the current TGO challenge.

The first few days of our walk was also a try out of Sheila's new blogging phone. The HTC Desire.
As you can read, the blogs posted ok but the spelling was a bit poor as was the punctuation. I could go back in now and edit the posts but i am going to leave them so that we can laugh at them later.
She just needs to get the hang of the keyboard and adding photos. It is certainly a smart piece of kit and the camera quality is fantastic.

Right, now to get the washing machine loaded.

Saturday 22nd May 2010

We left the Coniston Hall campsite at 8.15 and we are glad to be on our way. This campsite is like Glastonbury but without the music. It was guy rope to guy rope.
We were quite surprised that although it was packed there was no noise after 11.00 pm.
However there was some very large fires and we were glad that there was only a small one near our tent.

We were looking forward to a breakfast in Coniston village but we found out that nothing opened until 9.00am. We decided to wait as we didn't want to set off up the Walna with empty stomachs.

Our bacon barms, orange juice and coffee was purchased from a very nice Italian cafe just opposite the main carpark. I think it was called the Lakeland. We can recommend this place.

So at 9.25 we set off up the road past the Sun hotel and onto the track proper. Wow is this road steep!
It had been a few years since i did this route and somehow i had forgotten how steep it was.

The temperature was a scorching 26 degrees and blue sky. We must be reasonably fit because we started to pass the day walkers who only had small sacks, or no sacks and just a map. Sheila was quite impressed with this as she always thinks she is finding the up's a struggle.

It was a very hot pair of backpackers that set down the sacks at the top of the Walna and it was nice to get a bit of a breeze blowing over from the Duddon side. The temperature was 29 degrees.
We drank lots of water, the travel tap we bought from Backpacking light was certainly working overtime.
We stopped for about 15 minutes for lunch and then headed off for Turner Hall campsite at Seathwaite Duddon valley.

We arrived there and found the site relatively quiet and we had no problems in pitching. So once pitched, we were off to visit our friends in the village and to sample the local beer in the Newfield Inn.

A very good night was had.

Friday 21.5.10

set off langdale this morning, still very cloudy and overcast but looked promising. followed the track past blea tarn to fell foot. across the bridge just after fell foot farm and picked up the track for tilberthwaite. went up tilberthwaite ghyll after a ten minute stop. weather has really picked up and the tops are now becoming really clear. very hot now 25 degrees as we approach copper mines valley. walked through coniston to campsite arrived at campsite at 2pm. very hot 28 degrees. just going for a dip.

Thursday 20.5.2010

Thursday . set off from the campsite up onto lingmor fell and Brown How .Walked into the mist, no visability above 300 metres. Followed quarry track down to little langdale where we are now having lunch. good low views across the valley. we will be heading to Baysbrown and not the 3 shires. along the river track to langdale campsite. yes the old dg. hope the mist clears tomorrow.

wed 19 may

having found the motorway, sorry path from ESk hause to Rossett ghyll we made our way down to the olddg. just had tea and a hot shower. the weather has booked up overcast but at least not raining. hope to get up the crinkles tomorrow .

lake walk

we set of from seathwaite yesterday morning and headed up the esk towards scarfel.lovely day Sunny and clear. wild camped at lingcove beck. woke up today in the mizzy. no view raining but not cold. found ESk hause . very foggy decided not to go up higher but head down to langdale.

Lakes backpacking

We have been sorting the gear out for our weeks walk in Cumbria. We have not decided on a complete route as we want it to be a leisurely affair, and not that we have to be somewhere at a certain time or day.
We are starting off in Seathwaite, Duddon Valley, where we will leave the car with friends. From here we are heading off through Wallabarrow Gorge, past Grassguards, skirting Harter and heading for Brotherilkeld.

From here we will head up the Esk towards Lingcove beck and find somewhere to park the tent.
Then we will head up to Esk Hause and go to Great End, then back to Allen Crags and Glaramara before finding somewhere else to park up.

From here it gets sketchy, we have not decided whether to head across to Raise and then into Grasmere or whether to go Bowfell/ Crinkles route and then through Little Langdale, Tilberthwaite, Coniston.
I think it may be the latter.

Like always, i have packed and repacked the rucksacks, put this in take that out syndrome has been prevalent.
I am reasonably happy now, the rucksacks weigh 11 kilos including food for 4 days, spare clothes, tent, fuel, sleeping bag etc etc.

Checked my Golite Flytrails and i have noticed the sole on the heel of one shoe is detaching. Just what i needed today.
So i got the Araldite out and glued it back together. I just hope it stays together for a week.
I am a bit surprised at this because they have only done about 100 miles.
I really like them and didn't want to part with them so soon, but it's looking like i will buy a new pair of Inov-8 Roclite's at the Duddon Fell race when i see Pete Bland next month.

We are not putting boot to trail until tuesday morning. We have to go to Gosforth first to Sheila's mums and then we are visiting Seathwaite and staying with friends on monday night.
We are so looking forward to this trip and i am sure Sheila will be trying out her new blogging toy when ever we have a signal.

TGO challenge

I thought it would save quite a bit of time and typing if i put a message on my blog rather than everybody else's individually.
So for all those lucky people  taking part in this years TGO Challenge i would like to take this opportunity to wish you all good luck, a safe and extremely pleasant trip. 

I hope that all the super new gear that you have been buying up, and denting those credit cards, works well and i look forward to reading your reports on what worked and what didn't. And the walking/drinking  reports of course.

Sheila and i will be off to the Lakes for a weeks backpacking. Not the same really is it but there we go.

Their will also be a first for us on this trip as we will be using a gas stove! Aghast! Not used gas since i was in the scouts 40 something years ago.
I have purchased an Optimus Crux, so we will see if i like it better than my little meths burner.

Sheila has had to buy a new pair of Integral Designs shortie gaiters, as she has lost one of her original pair. They are so light and small that you can easily lose them without realising. Not cheap either.

So for now. Bon Voyage everybody.

HTC Desire phone

I (sheila) have to say that i am very impressed with the new HTC Desire phone.  It does everything we desire. pun

The Digital compass is very clear and precise as Alan has checked it against his silva compass.  The maps are very clear and the free gps works.  He must be sick of me saying OMG this is wonderful.  We have also tried blogging and this is fine and the emails work great.

It is such an easy phone to use, once you understand the principle of the android system.  There are loads of free apps and after ten hours of playing, i have decided to keep it instead of going for the apple.  The only disappointing thing was that with it being an Android phone i expected it to be delivered by R2D2 and it wasn't. HeHe.

More blogging phone stories

Prior to Sheila getting an iphone on her contract renewal, she has got an HTC Desire, just to try for a couple of weeks. Does anybody have an opinion on this phone and is it a decent blogging phone?
It looks the business and i am envious but i would like to hear from anybody who blogs with it so that we can make a decision if to stay with it.
We have decided not to use a phone as a mountain GPS, so that issue has been put to bed, thankfully.
Any assistance would be most welcome.