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'You can have it cheap, you can have it durable and you can have light - pick any two' In the 45-50L range, LA, Berghaus, Deuter, Jack Wolfskin and of course Osprey all do good ones. The Berghaus Arete is the cheaper end, for £67 from go Outdoors at the moment -...

One of these - http://buffusa.com/ - basically the old 'headover' reborn. Incredibly useful, and has reached to point where a 'buff' is how you describe pretty much anything similar. Not the cheapest, and there are lot of similar ones out there, but having used a cheap one and a Buff (bought...

You can have it cheap, have it warm and have it light - pick any two . And thats even more true with the classic 'camp' style bag - there aren't that many higher level ones around, and many of them will have to be imported. Temp range you'll be using it in, budget, and which is the most...

There was a point where I started getting headaches, and thats when you really need to go to decaf! Four cups of strong coffee a day is probably OK (and I should go back to grinding some beans - it does taste nicer), but having a coffee machine in the office, or a mug which keeps a lot of...

If your looking at the £100 mark, see whats available on Ebay etc for 2nd hand down bags - warmer for the weight, smaller bulk and longer lasting.

I must admit to being shocked at the size of the industry devoted to modifying a long issued piece of equipment, simply in order to make it comfortable. As a taxpayer I'm miffed that service people are shelling out their own money to do this, and that I'm shelling out on stuff which is less...

Vac off what you can, and chuck it the bath, and put some Vanish or similar in with it, and leave to soak for a little while. Then a good scrub (an old washing up brush works well), and perhaps some stain remover spray to get rid of really stubborn stains, then a quick rinse and dry it out of...

School teachers do suffer, but slightly less often than you'd expect. Teachers tend to build up resistance, but it takes some time, and this time of year is generally the worse. I work part-time in a school, and what tends to happen is a lot of low-level illness which doesn't go away until the...

My wife had to fly to the Philippines for work a couple of years ago while having a cold, and thanks to the pressurisation, said it was far worse than just suffering at home, with her sinus's being very painful. There is some evidence that flying can give you colds, thank to lower humidity...

Much as I wanted to a buy a lot more, I could only justify a pack of socks and a cararbiner, but if anyone is after a big ticket item like a sleeping bag or heavy duty duffle, then fill your boots.

A heads up that Alpkit are having a sale - https://www.alpkit.com/sale . The Mountain Ghost 200 is down to £65, and the Skyhigh 500 (2-3 season) is down to £130 (their Pipedream 200 is £120, which is a really good deal). Lots of nice things in the sale generally, but thanks to having to pay...

fair enough, but why a 'modular system'? Buy a summer bag (1-2 season, or perhaps a decent 3ish season), and then buy a warmer bag for winter - just use which one is appropriate. If your buying the Carpathian system, your spending almost £300 on two synthetic bags, which could get you down to...

Why a modular system, why military type, and why synthetic? Down is much less pricey than it used to be, much less bulky and weighs less. A good 3-4 season down bag and a cheap synthetic bag for the summer might not be much different in price, but will pack down smaller. I know I'm not going...

Glad you had a good time, and tried out various options. I was the one that said: My mess tins are also issue ones (dated 1954!), but the problem I found with them is that while you can fry stuff with them, its a right pain to get stuff out of them, because of the high sides,plus the metal is...

I dont think your allowed those either now. Might have to just scope up as much of the plastic cutlery as possible, and cut your way though the undergrowth very very slowly.:)

True. There is nothing wrong with taking a small FAK, key chain torch (these are about a tenner, and very bright - https://olightworld.com/store/flashlight/i3e-e0s-black.html), something to drink (small bottle only), painkillers/imodium and earplugs, plus a book - thats the sort of thing you...

Ultralighters are a bit of an extreme. For most of us, going that stripped down looks pretty uncomfortable, or your spending a lot of money to get kit down to the weight/bulk that you want. There is one big difference I've noticed between a lot of bushcrafters and most hikers, and that is...

But the reason for that was the unfounded fear that the Obama administration was going to crack down on ammunition, etc, and so there was panic buying. Thus the classic laws of supply and demand kicked in, and supplies dwindled (even though manufacturers ramped up production) and prices went up...

Sorry about that! Now you get the part about being paranoid, and dont even start on Googling about them - my wife began doing that and the horror stories just made it worse. There was one guy in New York who was sleeping on a table, with the legs of the table standing in old paint cans - which...

Cotton is cheap and easy to clean (which is pretty much why your using a liner in the first place), but does like moisture, which is why cheap sleeping bags have a cotton inner (they say its for comfort, but we all know because its cheap). So they can be sweaty. Silk 'breathes' a lot better...