Recently I drove to Corryong and back to scan a heap of photos and documents which had been collected by my (late) first cousin which had become the property of his son on his death. It turned out there were 614 family photos and about 200 family documents – quite a trove, so as you […]
I guess you realise I have been haunting this wonderful valley for decades, but now that I am over half way though my eighth decade I suppose I will be doing such big tough trips less than I used to. However I was up there for a few days a couple of weeks ago. I
I have posted dozens of times about this wonderful trail which (in an extended version) can be walked all the way from Moe to Lilydale. Here is some indication of track times and distances and here is a detailed set of instructions. Below you can find some of my posts about it in the order
It is easy to make an ultralight alcohol stove which will boil water (instructions here and here – and in the comments below) but a bit more difficult to make one which will simmer. Many of my recipes require that the food simmers for 10 minutes or so (usually to soften lentils etc). I guess
I recently modified my Waratah Quilt and Zpacks Quilt so that they would better fit me, would be easier to enter and exit, and in the case of the Waratah be fractionally lighter as well. I found Kam Snaps to be just the trick for these mods. As I said in that post I will
There is much debate about which is better, a sleeping bag or a quilt? But why not have both? In most cases it is easy to convert your old bag so you can use it as a quilt. I just did this with my old Montbell bag – and it works a treat. The conversion
If you are into DIY (as you should be unless you want to be a perpetual victim/pauper) then it’s about time you discovered these wonderful plastic gadgets, an amazing (ultralight) improvement on the traditional press-stud. I had a need to modify a couple of quilts I have been trialing as they weren’t quite right for
(or, A Further Use for Toilet Trowels) Disaster will sometimes happen upon you in the wilderness. The important thing is to survive it – as less experienced folk frequently don’t! For months I have been ‘stir crazy’ what with slow recovery from my back operation and (seeming to) need a new knee, but I have
While we are on the topic of sleeping (which we are), I have also really ‘lashed out’ and added an excellent $2 pillow to my sleeping arrangements from Aliexpress. I should add that I have modified my Waratah Quilt so it is a little lighter and easier to enter and exit. It is already delightfully
So, as you know I bit the bullet and bought myself a new Thermarest XTherm at 440 grams for its standard 6′ model. Though I definitely did not ‘need’ a new pad I wanted to see whether I could reduce size/volume in my pack – and I was just curious whether the improvement in the
