At the first sign of it getting colder and the leaves turning we loaded up and headed for an overnight trip down the Wye to catch the early autumn mood – leaving enough time for a late Autumn trip to follow before winter hopefully…
Category Archives: Bushcraft Gear
Ray Mears' Swag Camp
You can catch Ray in his swag bedroll in the Australian desert: on DaveJaVue channel tonight at 7pm if you have Sky TV. Here’s a couple of images of his desert camp from the show:
For more on swag camping, see our main post about “swag” camping here: “Me Ol’ Swagaroo”
Ray waking up in the Desert in a traditional Australian 'Swag Bag'
A beautiful desert camp spot for Ray Mears
Ray packing the Swag back in the 4 x 4.
We love swag-camping – if you want to get yourself a swag see our post on “Where to Buy a Swag in the UK” and also see our “Duluth Bedroll” post for a Canadian ‘swag’ option!
For more Ray Mears swag camping see this clip from his DVD from YouTube, showing 4×4 swag camping in places with a lot of biting insects, so a fully enclosed mozzie net features heavily in the swag he uses here – You’ll need to view full screen because there’s an awful lot of split-screen editing gone on in this one!
Autumn is Axe Time…
Just sought out a new axe for Autumn and Winter ahead. Found this lovely one from B&Q of all places: Has a real Hickory handle and 2.5lb head… superb action and excellent strike force. It’s big for taking on trips although it will soon be a permanent fixture in the Landrover, but I love it so much I may yet take on the next canoe trip rather than my small hatchet.
The weather finally cleared up for several lovely days of perfect September “Indian Summer” sunshine, and gave me the chance to use the axe in some “Backyard Testing” and also to get some real iconic photos!
River Wye – Get Out and Stay Out!
A Late Summer trip on the River Wye – just a 24 hour ‘get Out & Stay Out” trip, but a great one – highlights included a 2 foot Pike jumping out of the water within about a foot of the canoe – teeth bared!
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Dry Bags – Storage for canoe travel
Looking into what gear you need to keep your stuff dry there’s various options – many canoe-hire companies will give you a big blue plastic barrel which seals around the top with a metal clasp and that takes care if it. In a capsize event the barrel will be buoyant and worst case it’ll float off down the river and you can grab it later out of a tree as you go by, but your stuff all stays dry.
classic canoe barrel
But that means traveling with a giant toxic waste barrel in your boat – I’m not a fan of them on that side – they’re big bulky and inflexible, make a lot of noise banging around and if not the noise then I reckon the sight of a chemical barrel coming down the river is enough to “spook wildlife and fish”….
So what choices? The standard canoe/kayak drybags like those from SeaLine or Ortlieb are mostly PVC which is tough and usually shaped in a long tube with a roll-sealing opening at open end.
These are good and can be carried in and out of the boat easily, stow well, and will be waterproof of course, if they’re well made and the seams last. But the downside is you’re forever trying to reach down into the sac to get things out through the narrow hole – you can bet the stuff you really need suddenly is right at the bottom – it always is! Also the narrow shape ‘tube’ doesn’t fit a lot of odd-shaped items, although it’s great for clothes, so you still end up with stuff you can’t put away. I’ve had the same problem with my usual gear choice of a classic ex-army ‘kit bag‘ (with drybag liner) – the shape just isn’t that great for being in an out of all day…
When it rains you have to get your stuff out one by one and put it to the side where it gets wet while you get the one thing you really wanted out, then put it all back in again! In a canoe you don’t want tonnes of stuff sitting in the bottom of the boat
So I’ve been looking for more of a holdall shape, and found the Lugga Cargo 90 on sale at the giant outdoor store GoOutdoors.com.
Made of tough PVC and with plenty of straps and a big opening with a splash cover, I reckon this would be ideal – the barrel shape will squash into the bottom of the canoe easily, and it gives a possible ‘one-bag-for-everything’ approach. GoOutdoors has a sale on which makes this a ‘budget bushcraft’ buy at only £22.99 (with the discount card) down from £39.99.
So I’ll get one of these and do a trip – hopefully this will work out well. But its not totally waterproof of course – for that we found this: the UK-made Lomo 150L Monster Drybag!
What a Monster! 150 Litre dry bag!
The Kelly Kettle
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