Orange Plastic Bivvy Bags.

[The Cumbrian]

There is a thread on Black Sheep Paddlers at the moment about bivvy gear, and orange plastic bivvy ( survival ) bags were mentioned. I responded to the the thread with this, which happened long before I could afford a Goretex bivvy bag:

I was 13, and along with two friends ( brothers aged 13 and 15 ), I spent 5 days walking and camping in the Ennerdale / Buttermere area. Equipment consisted of cheap framed rucsacs, inadequate sleeping bags, building site waterproofs, Doc Marten boots, tins of hotdogs, tins of beans, Super Noodles, packets of dried soup, a Camping Gaz Bluet stove, army mess tins, not an item of clothing that could wick a bead of sweat, orange survival bags and no tent.

It rained almost constantly for the whole trip, and the only time that we managed to partially dry out was the night that we spent in the ( now sadly demolished ) Forestry Commission hut near Black Sail.

The highlights included waking up with the bottom of my orange survival bag full of water on the first night ( I was sleeping head uphill, and cut a couple of slits in the bag to drain it ), a slight navigational glitch resulting in us summiting Kirk Fell rather than Great Gable ( we thought that Beck Head Tarn was a puddle on Windy Gap, not surprising after all the rain...), the younger of my two friends getting hypothermia on the slopes of Starling Dodd, eating dried soup in cold water after running out of gas and eating dried soup washed down with mouthfulls of water after spending ages trying to make it into cold soup.

To top things off, on our final day, which was mostly dry, we were sat just off the footpath near Scale Force, having the luxury of warm soup heated over a heather twig fire, when we were passed by an affluent looking family. One of the kids turned to his mother and said: "Look Mummy, nomads".

One of the best times of my life, and I still look back on it fondly.

What are your memories of the Orange Survival Bag?

Cheers, Michael.

 

[lab72]

camping in orange bivvy bags on the gower and waking up to find it had rained frogs ! oh happy days

 

[dorkingbushcraft]

scout survival evening,
navagated in dark 7 or so miles, got to site, pitched up builders tarp(7 under one tarp! well still better than the previous year, 4 under 1 poncho), found out two of us had fogort their ponchos, then sat down for some dog food (rat packs) but we still had our bright orange survival bags by our side.

 

[iano]

Worst ever bivvi bag (not orange plastic) experience was curling up in the bottom of one and trying to make the head hole small as poss to get away from mosquitoes that were eating my face alive as I tried to sleep.

Result: Waking up 2 hours later with a headache that would've killed Chuck Norris due to lack of oxygen/breathing my own recirculated CO2 for the past while!

Never repeated that one again, even when cold as hell or being rained on... I thought how close I might have been from not waking up at all...

Still use a bivvybag over my sleeping bag and still keep an orange plastic one in the bottom of my daysack if I haven't got sleeping kit with me tho, just in case.

 

[John Fenna]

Hmmm - orange poly experiences...
I spent a week in North Wales living in one (up in the mountains) as I went for solitude and hard walking to get my head together after my Mothers death...I had a little condensation in the (double size) bag but careful propping open of the opening and positioning of my bag acording to wind etc kept it to OK levels. It was the noise that was a drag!
Using the bag as a makeshift stretcher to carry a light girl 6 miles across rough moorland after she burst a bunch of internal stitches. This was in the days before mobiles and air ambulances. Our whole team of somewhere around 30 bodies was totally exhausted by the time we got to the road! The girl survived.
Using the bag as a make shift buoyancy bag containing my clothing and gear while I swam across the River Nevern estuary at high tide.
Using the bag, full of brash and leaves, as a matress on a survival camp (again - noisy!).
Using a bag to collect rainwater for drinking on a survival camp, cutting one open and roofing a shelter with it...and more!
A very versatile and useful bit of kit!
I have used the old "survival bag" for many perposes both "for real" and just as a convenience and my daypack always holds one. Cheap and chearful but thoroughly reliable kit!

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

my first ever scout "survival camp", we were about 12 we made our natrual shelters and fires, we'd been given a rabbit to skin and cook, my friend went at it with a machete, the result a very floppy bunny, (i think i had a fish) he ended up smoking the rabbit in it's skin next to the fire (don't know why) me my brother and my friend slept in a shelter I had designed for 2 just in our survival bags, it was warm.
in the morning I realised I'd sweated so much my clothes were soaked in sweat, so much so, that i took them off and wore just my PVC waterproofs instead for the rest of the day...ugh!


another time on the way to some army training me and 3 other soldiers were travelling in the back of a British army 4-tonner (truck).
because there were only a few of us we didn't benefit from the stack of Bergen stopping the wind coming through (normally stacked in a heap at the front) or the generated heat of about 20 men.
It was raining and cold, if you've ever been in one in the cold and rain you'll know how cold it can be! and we would be in there at least an hour.
we were so cold that we all sat together and squeezed into a military see-through poly survival bag which was far better! (not quite an orange bag but close)

 

[Crowe]

Now I have a little wisdom; I realise ther is a right and wrong way to use orange survival bags. The right way being to cut a face hole or slot about 300mm down from the closed end . Then put the bag over your head and fold the open end under your feet. That way your head is protected from losing heat.
Crowe

 

[Kerne]

Used to take kids canoeing from Aldeborough up to Snape, and bivvy on a river beach in orange plastic bags. Sweaty, sleepless nights and back next morning for brekky. Highlight of the trip for the kids.

 

[bigbear]

Using them as very fast sledges down the steep slope off Mam Tor towards Edale.
Bivvying out in a cave on Pule Hill and trudging back down the road to Marsden at 3 am when we realised that the wind had pushed rain into our badly set up orange bags and we was soaked.
Carrying the same one for years and years and being quite upset when it finally was so dirty and rotten with bits of yuck that I had to replace it.
I believe the youth of today would call it "old skool", and none the worse for it !