Equipment Outfitters

Headgear

It’s ironic that in eras gone by, when comparatively little was known about the harmful effects of the sun, hats were everyday wear. Today, however, it’s still unusual to see people wearing sunhats unless they’re on the beach.

The best hats for the harsh African sun have a full crown and a wide brim to keep the sun off your face and neck. An adjustable under- chin cord will keep your hat on in the wind and a fabric sweatband will absorb perspiration. Read the rest of this entry »

Caravanning and Camping Barbecue Units

Portable barbecue are becoming more popular among travellers as the designs become more sophisticated and the products lighter and more efficient. Kettle barbecue are a good example as they are lightweight and long lasting. They come in a wide range of manageable sizes and can be used to make a wide variety of foods. With the lid on, the air flow can be finely tuned and they are mercifully easy to clean. More important, they contain heat well and are considered a perfectly safe place to make a fire when there are non-permanent places available. Their ideal fuel is compressed charcoal brikettes, which are light and conveniently packaged. Read the rest of this entry »

The luxury motorhome must surely represent the ultimate touring vehicle. As a combination of large vehicle and caravan it offers the benefits of both, and allows the traveller the sort of freedoms one would usually find only on a yacht! Passengers, for example, are able to sleep comfortably stretched out while the kilometres speed by.

Modern motorhomes are made for comfort, lightness and aerodynamic efficiency — they’re certainly more evolved than their older relatives. The interior layouts are more sophisticated and well thought out and the specification levels are higher. Although a common complaint is that the smaller versions are underpowered, fuel consumption is an important aspect of touring; while bigger engines have more power and are more exciting to drive, they are very much thirstier. Read the rest of this entry »

Thick, strong sticking plaster with powerful adhesive qualities should accompany you everywhere, but make sure you have some form of gauze to stop it sticking to the wound itself. Always carry a pair of sharp scissors or knife to cut it with, as it is almost impossible to tear. The stickiest plaster does not usually allow much air to penetrate, so you may also wish to carry a different variety that does. Read the rest of this entry »

Swimming into the deepest reaches of the ocean is a feat that many divers have experienced to a degree. Some may go below 200 feet (60m), others deeper. All would be lost without the air they bring with them. There is a special breed of diver who can go deeper than most, without air tanks. These freedivers have pushed the limits of unassisted breathing dives to below 400 feet.

Tofreedive to depths of even 50 feet (15m) is an unsettling prospect for all but the strongest swimmers. To dive much deeper requires holding a breath for minutes. In fact, the world’s best freedivers hold their breath for periods that rival many marine mammals. Read the rest of this entry »

A good knowledge of first aid is essential out-of-doors. Accidents in the wild are happily rare, but when they do occur, proper medical assistance is rarely immediately available. Moreover, in the natural course of events, there is liable to be a succession of minor injuries like cuts or blisters, which, with a little knowledge and a first-aid kit, can soon be put right. But first, what exactly is first aid?

First aid is the assistance given to a casualty at or about the time the injury actually occurs. First aid aims to keep the victim alive, prevent the injury from getting worse, help eventual recovery, and last but by no means least, relieve the pain. Read the rest of this entry »

Jungles

To go to the other extreme, let us examine the tropical rain forest, or jungle. The first priority for entering the tropics, even without leaving the city, is to check on local and endemic diseases.

These thrive in the hot, humid, steaming tropics, so it is advisable to get a full range of vaccinations, inoculations and pills. Anti-malaria tablets need to be taken before the trip starts, and personal hygiene is most important.

The humidity in the tropics can be enervating, and time for acclimatization is advisable. Read the rest of this entry »

In the wilderness hazards are mercifully few and far between. Even where they exist they are merely potential hazards, quite safe if you, the traveller, take the correct action or observe a few simple precautions. The main danger lies in failing to recognize the existence of this potential danger. Unfamiliarity with the terrain is a prime cause of hazard, and any city-dweller venturing into the wild is automatically at risk for this reason. The same would be true of a shepherd who leaves his flocks and wanders among traffic.

Two good examples of terrain which will always be unfamiliar to the majority of outdoor people are deserts and the jungle. Unfamiliar as they are, they can still be entered in safety, provided certain basic situations are understood and allowed for. Read the rest of this entry »

Shell clothing

A full set of ’shell’ clothing, giving protection against wind and water, is essential in winter. People maintain that with the waterproof protection of shell clothing, you can wear down garments and thus keep them dry, and in theory to a certain extent you can. However, I have tried this out in prolonged bad weather, and in practice you still get wet, if not from rain, then from condensation. Condensation is the real enemy of the winter camper.

Porous materials like GORE-TEX may well provide part of the answer to the condensation problem, for they permit body heat to evaporate and yet prevent rain droplets from beating through. Read the rest of this entry »

Many outdoor enthusiasts avoid the winter entirely, put away all their gear, and go into hibernation until well into the spring. This is quite unnecessary and rather a shame because in spite of generally inclement weather, winter has a great deal to offer. It is a challenge to your skills and the crowds have either departed or are much reduced. When the snow and cold weather set in, a whole new range of knowledge and technique is necessary to ensure your comfort and survival.

As a personal choice, I prefer the winter season, and would urge all outdoor people to extend their season beyond the autumn and see what the cold-weather camping has to offer.

The challenge

If you live in temperate latitudes with few extremes in the weather, then the winter is less of a problem, except where, as in the U.K., the weather is always unpredictable. Where winter sets in with a vengeance, in such northern latitudes as the Eastern U.S.A. or Canada, or in the high mountains, then your complete range of equipment, clothing and technique must be extended. All must be capable of coping with whatever weather can hurl at you. Read the rest of this entry »

Priorities

To state priorities for a set of stock solutions is not possible, for the range of problems is infinite. However, certain steps must be established, and the following are fairly typical and should serve as guidelines. In a survival situation you should:

1 Treat any serious injuries, if they exist, or send for medical help

2 Seek shelter

3 Get warm

4 Eat

5 Try not to worry and don’t panic. Read the rest of this entry »

The best way to deal with trouble is stay out of trouble in the first place. This is not quite as obvious as it may appear. A pure accident is quite rare, and in nearly every survival situation, those involved have made a considerable contribution to their own predicament.

Survival techniques depend very much on the actions you take before the situation becomes critical. Once you are in trouble you are largely at the mercy of circumstances, despite your ability to cope. How much choice you have among solutions will depend very largely on your equipment, your experience, and what basic precautions you have taken before you set out.

Behave responsibly

Can you, the leader, honestly answer ‘yes’ to the following questions? Is the party equipped and experienced enough for what is proposes to do? Is everybody fit and well? Does there exist among the party members all the necessary skills? Have you noted down the location of mountain huts, rescue services and doctors? Has a route card been prepared and checked and a copy left with a responsible person? Have you obtained a weather report, and up-to-date maps? Are you all quite happy? Read the rest of this entry »

The mayflies are without doubt the most abundant mayfly in our stillwaters and in someareas provide consistent action for several months of the angling season. They often provoke highly selective feeding, and the spinner falls of these minute mayflies offer the angler a unique opportunity to go one-on-one with large trout using small imitations and light tippets.

As a neophyte fly-fisher I was fascinated by *fish fly- fishing magazine articles on the emergence of Caenis mayflies on stillwaters, and the name ‘Anglers‘ Curse’ left me in no doubt as to what they did to anglers in the United Kingdom. However, as I became acquainted with Tricorythidae mayflies and learnt more about their life cycle and the angling techniques used when fishing appropriate patterns, I came to enjoy the challenges that mayfly emergences provide and began to look forward to the dense hatches that came off on many of the stillwaters that I fished. Read the rest of this entry »

The Stimulator is a favourite dry-fly pattern, which, coming from someone with vastfishing experience across the globe, says much for its effectiveness. It will take fish under varying conditions and Randall uses it on lakes and streams, but is at its best in fast water. The Stimulator is a combination of several attractor and exciter patterns and imitates caddisflies, stoneflies and, at a pinch, grasshoppers.

What makes the Stimulator so effective? Like many successful dry flies, the Stimulator imitates several food forms in general, yet nothing in particular. By varying tail, hackle, body and wing colours a variety of insects — both terrestrial and aquatic — can be matched. The Stimulator combines the general shape and characteristics of patterns such as the Trude series of flies with the attributes of more established downwing patterns such as the Sofa Pillow, all of which were designed initially to imitate the adult stoneflies found on rivers in the western United States. Kaufmann’s Stimulator, however, is not limited to the imitation of stone- fly adults: it is used with great success to imitate other aquatic and terrestrial insects, including adult caddisflies and terrestrials such as grasshoppers and cicadas. The Stimulator has all the characteristics of a western-style dry fly designed for fast-flowing freestone waters and consequently is ideally suited to the fast pocket-water stretches of South African rivers and streams. Read the rest of this entry »

Like ants and grasshoppers, beetles are terrestrial insects that do not willingly enter the water. When theydo, however, they are usually eaten by observant trout on the lookout for an easy meal, and consequently deserve the attention of all fly-fishers. Fishing terrestrial beetle imitations was perfected by anglers such as Vince Marinaro, Ed Koch, Joe Brooks and others who frequented the fertile spring creeks of the Cumberland valley in Pennsylvania. These creeks are home to large, shy, selective brown trout that often ignore hatch-matching patterns, yet frequently succumb to terrestrial insect imitations such as the Crowe Beetle and Letort Hopper.

My research indicates that anglers fishing the Pennsylvania spring creeks were using foam beetles as early as 1960. Vince Marinaro used a beetle consisting of a coffee bean glued to the hook shank, while Don Dubois used a pattern called a `Flure’ — a combination of a fly and a lure. The Flure was made by tying a section of oval foam to the top of the hook shank, but many anglers refused to use it because it wasn’t made of the traditional fur and feather materials. Today, almost every fly-shop sells foam body material. Read the rest of this entry »

Ants, which play an important part in the diet of trout, occur in every terrestrial ecosystem except in Antarctica. Because they forage for food in bankside vegetation they are easily blown into the water where they form an abundant food source for trout. When falls of flying ants occur on streams and lakes (this is not common) trout will usually feed selectively on them to the exclusion of all else, making for particularly frustrating fishing. While most anglers encounter ants at some point while fishing, and despite the fact that ant imitations often fool wary fish that may shun better-known and more widely used flies, almost all fly-fishers neglect the role of the ant in fly-fishing. Fly- fishers will find that it pays to carry a selection of bothwinged and non-winged ant varieties. These tiny imitations may save the day when fish begin to take ants that are trapped helplessly in the film. The best falls of the winged ants occur on hot, humid days, either during or after a spell of rain, whereas the terrestrial ants encountered along streambanks can be found on the water during any warm month of the year, especially when strong winds are blowing. Read the rest of this entry »