I have been thinking along these lines too (just a thought at present) but my ‘solution’ was more a U-shape (like carrying a bag of grain on your shoulders). The hobo’s swag is another example I suppose. See Humping Your Bluey and The Ultralight Swagman. This one looks a bit complicated. However, the point is […]
Hard to believe it has been 11 years today – how time passes when you are having fun! We just returned from South Coast Track, Tasmania. The track was really too wet so mud, mud, mud up to our knees or worse for 7 days. Also track times and distances were much longer than quoted
Comfort. That’s what it’s really all about. A few extra ounces ought not to be sacrificed to inadequate rest. That’s why we always carry our Cyclone Chairs @ 180 grams so we can really enjoy the time at the end of the day. We use Thermarest Neoair Xlite Women’s sleeping mats @ 340 grams and
OK, so you have your ultralight knife (eg the Kabar Johnson Adventure Piggyback I have recommended so often (Carry a Knife) which you have used so many times for cutting up your lunch on the trail (Lunch on the Trail) or splitting twigs to make a fire in the wet (How to Light a Fire
A friend of mine (Leanne) and companions walked there last weekend reminding me of our trip there twelve years’ ago, not long after the 2007 fire. The bush has changed a fair bit since then. She kindly shared their photos with me, so I have been able to construct this photo essay about the trip
Making drinking straws into mini containers: Now that is a genius idea: DIY Single Use Antibiotic Packs ‘Place the straw over the opening of the ointment tube and carefully squeeze in a small amount of the ointment that is approximately one quarter of an inch in length. You’ll notice that transparent straws work best for
Getting dry, staying dry, that’s what survival comes down to. Alan Remnant founding pilot/owner of Wings on Water, Te Anau, Fiordland who has flown me in to Supper Cove so many times (one of the world’s greatest trips) tells me he has often had to ferry deceased hikers out of there too, folks who could
Sometimes in winter on trails like the EBC etc there are dangerous patches of ice which need to be traversed. Obviously if you were expecting this as a constant situation you would be using more serious crampons. Vargo have just updated their ultralight pocket cleats (62 grams each) which can be quickly attached to your
This hand made cutter has successfully hand drilled many hundreds of metres of water wells. For example, on our Hazelwood flats farm we drilled 10 of 25 metre deep 100mm diameter bores which collectively provided enough water to irrigate 50 acres ie66 megalitres (660 million litres) of water annually. Compare that to your ‘normal’ domestic
This is the Morwell River somewhere neither you nor I (probably) ever thought to canoe. I present it here as an example: The great adventures are mostly over. People have crossed all the continents and seas, plumbed the deepest depths and ascended the tallest mountains – but they haven’t been everywhere. There is oft surprisingly
