Lucky 13

This is my 1300th post here at the Ultralight Hiker! That’s probably about a million and a half words (more than a dozen novels worth!) and over 25,000 photos. Quite an achievement in four years since May 2015 when I began this blog.

It has been 200 posts since the 1100th post in May 2018 when I last wrote up a summary of our doings in the last 100 or so posts, so I thought I would showcase the highlights of the last couple of hundred posts here.

Unfortunately I/we have not been as active over the last year as we would have liked due to health issues: Della’s heart and my back and knees. We hope that these can be moved to the past and that we can get on with things a bit more from now on.

Back in May 2018 we had a couple of weeks in Scotland allowing Della to catch up a bit with her dad’s home which she had of course heard much about but never seen. We converted the hire car (a VW Golf) into a camper so that we could stop pretty much anywhere we liked. They are very liberal about camping and wandering there. You can see how we did it here: Car Camper Conversion $50

Some other of our Scotland posts: Beach Burial #2: The Cat, Car Camping Scotland, Great Scot…

I got a write-up on Stuff NZ about my long search for the elusive NZ moose which I still hope to gain photos of in the future. 2019? If I can get this back and knee up to the Dusky I will be back in late summer. I have a (new) strategy which I think might work. See New Evidence of Fiordland Moose.

I continued a series of reminiscences: Mattresses I have Known, You Must Learn to Shoot Your Own Dog, Pack Raft Saves the Day, Trapped by Flood Waters, Johnny Cakes…

Some more advice about Deer hunting: The Deer Hunter’s Apprentice #1, Poacher’s Moon, All Flesh is Grass, Follow Your Nose, Embryo Wire, The Seventieth Birthday Platypus…

Ultralight hiking advice: Beginning Hiking, How much weight in fuel? How Many Clothes Should I Take in My Pack? How Warm a Bag or Quilt Do I Need? More Fun in the Rain, Gully Walking, Free Stuff for Hiking, Neat Feat, Lightest Cheapest Powerbank, Ultralight Cutlery…

Lots of general advice, eg: The Compleat Survival Guide, The Spanish Windlass, Wire Tricks, Cobb and Co Hitch, Make Your Sleeping Pad Warmer, It’s Not My Fault, Nuts to ‘Leave No Trace’, Cure Back Pain, Kill Wasp Queens Now, The Happiness Trick…

Places to see: NZ’s South Coast Track: Westies Hut to Cromarty, Liptrap to the Five Mile, Alps Walk, Long and Lazy River, Wirilda Reflection, Halls Gap, Sand and Sea Training, The Ultimate Hunting Trip…

Jobs around the farm somehow still continued despite stays in hospital, etc. I built a new wood shed (Several Winter’s Fires), managed to still get a whole lot of new farm trees planted The Tree-Planting Team Today, and Electric Drill Earth Auger, built some more new fences (Wildlife Proof Fencing), a New Bird Feeder for Della, pulled an old shed down, installed new rain water tanks, built a new archway for Della – and of course we had the fires: Fire at Jeeralang

Lots of new DIY hiker ideas have been developed. A lightweight trick to keep your shoulders warm in a hammock (<5 grams), the No Cold Shoulder Spreader Hammock), an ultralight saw (28 grams) How to Carry a Saw, A Wider Lighter DIY Sleeping Pad, Seamless Tyvek Tipi, Extempore Hiking Poles, Stop Losing Your Pillow, A Hiking Bidet, Thermoplastics #101…

Finally a set of instructions for the fabulous Upper Yarra Track and a complete track description with by someone else: Upper Yarra Track Instructions, & Upper Yarra Walking Track, and a map: Upper Yarra Track Map.

Some fabulous recipes: Della’s Way Bread

And there have been lots of gear reviews. Some of the things I have most liked have been: a Clever Titanium Windscreen, The Pack Rifle, 3F Ultra Cheap Tents, Two Great Cheap Tents, The Ultralight Barista, Ultralight Glasses, Ultralight Bivy Bag, Tinny’s Gnomes, The Olfa Knife, The Dragonfly – Ultralight Titanium Knife, Down Socks. A couple of wonderful tent stoves: Winter Tent Stoves & Tim Tinker I think my favourite (for comfort and warmth) is the Exped Synmat HL Winter M.

200 posts in just over a year is not too bad for one person – well over a thousand words written on average every day! Not so bad for an old bloke who will be 70 this week.