Fuel Test: Firestarter Matches v2

As the flame from the Firestarter match (test one) wasn't high enough to use on the woodburning stove, I thought I'd try my only other suitable stove. This was the White Box Stove (previous test). As this is a meths (alcohol) stove, the ventilation is different, so the flame died in a couple of minutes.

Set up

Burning merrily.

Lack of ventilation - doh!

I re-used the unburnt blocks with the hex burner- I'd snapped the match into 3 sections to fit into the stove.  These caught light with one 'normal' match.

Enough hot water for breakfast as I listened to Radio Scotland's "Out of Doors" and last Monday's TOS Podzine - before facing the washing up. Wishing I'd spent the week on something more productive than a doze of man-flu. that Cateran Trail is sounding shiny. I'd spoken to one of the chaps at the Outdoors Show - nice to hear the importance of tourism to the economy (yup, multi-day hikers are tourists too). Not being wealthy, I would of course be wild camping. For the same reason, I won't be walking St Oswald's Way until wildcampism ends.

Radio 4's 2.0 show back on the air

iPM is back on Radio 4 this afternoon. It uses a blog and forum to generate user discussion for  the show. It is led by Eddie Mair, once an armchair general on a BBC2 wargaming show (not many of them to the pfennig)

Site link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ipm/

Just by browsing the links I find some interesting stuff. A civil servant being taken to task by her employers for her blog, and some "griefers" causing, well, grief, by using javascript on an epilepsy forum. Real life isn't a computer game.

Link 1: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/25/civil_serf_blogger_suspended/

Link 2: http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/03/epilepsy

Fuel Test: Firestarter Matches

I spotted these Bryant & May Firestarter matches, 20 in a box for £1.48 in my local Asda. According to the box, burns for 15 minutes, no kerosene, no smell, clean hands. Hmm.

Next day, I've dug out the cheap HiGear portable cooker (see Hex Stove test) and set up 500ml of cold water in an old mini-Trangia pot. Set it up with two firestarter matches, and placed pan on top, angling the sides to the stove in to support the pan.

2 minutes in - thick smoke coats base of pan. Burner hot to touch. Water still cold.

4 minutes in - bubbles forming in the water on the base of the pan. Water warm.

7 minutes in - water hot to touch, but not boiling yet. Matches burning along whole length.

9 minutes in - first bubbles break surface of water. Burner too hot to touch.

 

12 minutes - water boiling on surface. Poured off coup for a brew. In free Charles MacLeod cup (old design). Which was nice.

22 minutes - still burning merrily. Water boiling in pan.

23 minutes - surface flame of firelighter/match goes out. Block smouldering and solid. Scorch marks on fibre-board are from hexamine fuel tablet test. No marks this time.

33 minutes - I knocked the small amount of ash out of the stove. Blocks still solid, and snap easily. Soot washes easily off pan. No chemical residue or smell.

I found this better than the hexamine blocks (which were not from Esbit). I think a further test is needed.

Scots Wha Hae

We have wild camping laws up here in Scotland. Apparently we might be losing them piecemeal up here. Changes in the set aside laws mean it'll be more difficult to camp in farmed land - something I have avoided anyway, but could make it more difficult to complete the eastern end of the Southern Upland Way. From the lack of response to communiqués to Scots folk, it also seems that we're not bothered about enlightening our southern brethren to out eccentric northern ideals.

Maybe there are so few people that see the advantages up here, and are happy to listen to the faux "wild campers" damaging the land. Of course, if land managers want rid of wild camping access, then everyone's going the right way about it. I don't know what the solution is, other than increased publicity. Obviously spending a night in the outdoors in the wild country or when on a multi-day trek isn't as exciting as canoeing (or is it kayaking?) or mountain biking or bouldering. I don't know, and I'm starting not to care either. About any of it.

McNeish at Large

Well. I did not realise that. I suppose it should have been obvious before, but, well, I did not look at the title of the column, and there was no author listed on the web page. No doubt the newspaper has his cheery visage beaming out across the page.

I'd previously commented on an article in the Strathspey & Badenoch Herald about a piece on wild camping: Strathspey-Herald-article.html

Until I went back to look at the Scottish-set target (1500 people consulted over the Scottish Outdoor Access Code), to see how the English & Welsh petition is going (1,140 online signatures; so 360 to beat the Scots), I did not realise that the article was part of a series "McNeish at Large". Of course, it could have been another McNeish. Couldn't it?

So...I called out Scotland's cuddliest hillwalker (or whatever they call him on The Adventure Show). Oops.

If you wish to read some more of Cameron McNeish's articles, you'll find a list here: http://www.strathspey-herald.co.uk/news/categoryfront.php/id/41/McNeish_At_Large.html

And with the timing of irony, a very cheery postman delivers my PacerPoles back from their servicing (woo hoo), and a fresh new copy of TGO magazine.

I'll get my coat.

April Fools Fun

Playing the annual game of spotting the fake news stories in Radio 4's "Today" programme. I reckon it's the RSPB repatriating birds that overstay their welcome. An hour later there was an interview with the head of a new government department of statistics. Their job being to release any new official statistics daily on a website. Honest. 0930 today, www.statistics.gov.uk - hmmm, maybe it is real.

This time last year

This time last year, 10 days into my Easter break, I was 10 days into my Southern Upland Way trek (vidclip). I bumped into Jo and Alan a couple of times on the journey, and they now have their trip journal completed at: www.adventurejournal.com/Southern_Upland_Way They also have other trip journals, and scary photos of ticks on the West Highland Way.

Cross-overs...

Beehive Bothy

That was me arriving late.

Morning

Hmm - I plod along, but did the same journey in a day-and-a-half as they have done in 2 days. Not sure about the lack of motivation, as I have plenty of time to walk across Scotland. Later there was a day when I only walked 10 km, not miles. Hmm again - if I decide to do something, then I do it. I don't think that is motivation, but stubbornness.

morning Day 5

That's me. Moving slowly, though not spending lots of time to take amazing photographs and panoramas. I get up late, bimble along, and keep on going until I stop or until I reach a place that'll do for the night. On my Day 4, I did fail to get to St John's of Dalry and camped out on the hills.

Day 7

I'd spent the night in the Chalk Memorial Bothy, arriving before nightfall and deciding not to bother pushing on.

And the catch-up at Brattleburn Bothy - the comments about kit are right, as I have spare kit that I don't use much or at all. And I babble too much about kit. But I'm also carrying enough food for the journey as I don't want to be tied to heading in to towns for the shop opening hours. If I was a fastest (i.e. fitter) walker of better planner (i.e. smarter), then I would have taken less food. But I saw how few villages there were on the crossing, and knew what village shops are like for opening hours, so took the lazy option.

Day 10

LOL.

Over Phawhope Bothy - they rest there the night. I had done a small amount of tidying up after lunching there.

My slowest day had been the one ending at the 'Airborne Bothy' (outside Traquair) - starting late and finishing early. I picked up the pace after that, my blisters were healing and pack weight more manageable. I think, psychologically, it was also nearing the end of the trek, which was now perfectly "do-able". If I timed it right, I'd even have a spare day before starting back at work.

As I read the last few days, I grow envious of the time Alan and Jo had to enjoy them. But then, when try pacing my trips to meet a schedule, I end up getting concerned and fretful. Just the sort of person I am. I lightened up my kit more when I got back, and had found out what was causing my blisters (heat and boots too tight) and had no new blisters for the second half of trip. I came back with less body-weight and an edge that I hadn't had in ages. Confidence in myself, I suppose, rather than the worry that some form or other hadn't been filled in correctly - the sort of knocks that day-to-day life throws up. I never got that out of going to the gym. Confidence that I can do something like walk across Scotland with just the kit on my back and get to my destination without major incident. It is, after all, just a walk, and not a major expedition in a dangerous country filled with weapons-toting insurgents and wild animals.

A year later, and I'm in need of another long distance trek.

And the motivation to walk to the post office.

Best wishes for the next adventure, and I look forward to reading the journal.

ePetition

The Wild Camping ePetition has reached 1066 - I wonder if Darren's noticed the number? One in the eye for him if he has.

Road Trip: the Minch

Heading to Ullapool. Not as windy as forecast, but ferry has tilt as wind hitting her from south. Starboard. Tomorrow it will be summer. Strangely we find an Isle of Ewe on the nautical chart. It is down the coast from the ship's route. And poisoned island.

EveryAktoMan: Reprise to John Hee

John Hee recently wrote his state of the nation post, 2008: Blogs & the 'traditional' press (Part 1)

I haven't researched this piece, but what the heck, here goes anyway. I see the future for all media to be in the "on demand" mode. If you think why we read, watch, listen to media - it is to be entertained, educated and enlightened.

• News articles: up to date information. Well, magazines are dated by the nature of their timeline.
• News exclusives: contacts can be used to dig around for an exclusive article.
• In depth articles: these take a while to compile and ...
• Reviews: more chance of getting freebies for review, and for labs and scientific testing of gear.

I think that online media is good for some of it, or enhancing static media (eg. print) with multimedia. Far quicker and cheaper to post video online than to press dvds for inclusion with a magazine.

Humans are social animals. We like to communicate, to discuss, to argue our points and to make up afterwards. I still think that current online media (blogs, forums, chat rooms) are static. They replace the printed word with ... well, the printed word.

Some content providers/magazines, eg.  Trail and TGO are providing multimedia feeds and ways to communicate with journalists and authors. We see that on TV too. You know the sort of programme: "if you are affected by the issues in tonight's episode of Songs of Praise, please go to our website where Aled Jones will be available to sing to you". Online forums offer reviews by staffers and users, who also generate content.

Humans fickle though. At what point do the users who generate content realise that they are as important to the online entity of the 'magazine' as the staffers. At what point do the über-users get tired of chances to win at competitions and start to demand financial rewards? Will this happen in flickr and youtube? We see TV shows made of clips from sites - are their creators getting financial benefits, or does the small print from the video host say otherwise.

Humans have limited time and unlimited imaginations. We like learning, playing, thinking, poking at ant-hills with sticks. Are you up to date with your podcast listening? I amn't. Nor am I up to date with my blog reading. Nor forum reads. And my recorder is getting full. My book collection grows, along with dvds, and magazine articles that I'll return to.

But at least with printed media that I own, I can pick it up and read it when I choose. Or play it on my dvd player. I don't see the same being true of the transient timeline based media of blogs and forums. Granted the texts are still in the archives, but reading a review by a trusted reviewer in a magazine will give you more return on your invested time than if you search through the Net.

I heard a quote recently. A book is like a shark. Sharks have been around for millions of years, because there is nothing better at being a shark than a shark. There is nothing better at being a book than a book.

Magazines are an expensive way to buy information. You are buying many serialised books. You are buying the knowledge, time and journalistic tenaciousness of the writers. I have yet to see that repeated monthly online. Anywhere.

On demand is great. I can choose where I read a magazine on the loo or what book I pack with me on holiday or what I fill my iPod with for the journey to work. Who provides me with the content - the media companies. These companies can churn out the surprising news, the great article that I would never have searched for online. I demand this. I demand to be entertained, educated and enlightened. If you fail, I go elsewhere. My needs and wants keep on changing.

Do I care that circulation figures for certain magazines are dropping? No. Will an increase in price stop me from renewing my subscriptions? Yes, of course. Do I care is a magazine has 3 times as many online readers of its forum than purchasers of its magazine? Yes, as it may be affecting the price of the magazine.

These are interesting times for the media. It has a new communications system to deal with. The telegraph, radio, television, and now the Internet. Gosh, it's only been around for generations and now people are getting to grips with the new threats and opportunities.

Like all businesses, media is affected by the growth in social networking. This Web2.0 thingamyjig that's being bandied about. It is, however, undemocratic and can often be ignored. We are social animals, but we have limited time. This is why we demand to be fed regularly with our RDA of entertainment, education and enlightenment. Where the outdoors fits into this depends on the individual.

To the media types out there: good luck. I'm off to bed to read a book. It was printed in 1930. I bumped into it by accident in a sale a few years back. It is only now that I got round to reading it, mainly to to a lateral interest in the subject via a hobby project. The author was fictionalising events from The Great War. I'd never have picked up his work if he'd written them in a magazine over months, or on a forum or blog, or recited in a podcast or video feed. If I can't empathise with the world being described by the author, then I am not a sentient human being.

The state of the magazine world - "changeable". And I haven't even mentioned the number of Freeview channels yet!

Mark 3 Wood burner

My Dad made the mark 3 wood burning stove today. Thanks, Dad. We (stress 'we') got it heating water in ... well, my Dad reckons I could have set up my tent, had my brew, and my dinner, broken down the tent and be on my way again before the 'me' using the woodburner had it warm enough for a brew.

Then we thought that was unkind, and we needed to sort out a wind shield for it. Maybe some rocks. Like a pile of stones in some sort of hearth-like arrangement. Like a hearth. Where we could set a fire. And then we wondered why we needed the tin can. But the soup that we bought with the can was nice. And I have a can with eyes holes in it. Maybe it'll come in useful at Hallowe'en? Boogie woogie.

Road Trip: Stornoway

After being treated to lunch by my folks, we tourist shop in Stornoway. Mike goes off alone into Charley Barley's for the marag dubh and other goodies. He's under instructions to ask for a free mug as i may be recognised.

Rambling about Ramblings

Clare Balding is back on Radio 4 with her "Ramblings". This time she's rambling with Mark Thomas. There'll be a listen again and a podcast no doubt. Maybe even a tea-towel.

Official site (with or without tea-towel)

--

Wild camping ePetition now up to 1014 signatures

Add your name here: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/wildcamp/

Official site (definitely no tea-towels): http://www.legalisewildcamping.com/

Wild camping epetition

I here on the grapevine that the pro-legal wild camping petition has just broken 1000 signatures. Which is nice.

Road Trip: The West Side

Off to the black houses at Garenin and on up to the Butt of Lewis (maplink).

Clouds coming in off the Atlantic spoiling any chance of photographing the sun descending into the sea. Hey ho.

Snacks for tea and then sat down at Eoropiadh beach for our last chance to photograph an Atlantic sunset. Next landfall is Labrador in Canada. maplink

We're Going to Need a Bigger Can

Experiment in making one of J. Falk's wood burning trail stoves. Courtesy of my Dad, who jumped at the opportunity after I mentioned the design. As we were loading up the car with camera gear, he proceeds to start making the Mark 1. Two hours later, we're still at the house. The food cans are too narrow and too tall. But it turned into a family exercise as my niece appeared from play school, who then went round the croft finding suitable kindling. 25 minutes on the stove warmed a 500ml pan of cold water.

Link to J Falk's design.

--

Mark 1

Would the cut-away handle a pan of water? A 14 pound weight is dug out.

The best we got with the stove.

But it got my Dad thinking about heat transfer and bigger can size.

Road Trip: Callanish

Mike finally gets to the Callanish Stones. It is amazingly quiet. A dog barks across the loch behind me, i can hear the footfalls of people walking around the stones and the traffic on the road, not traffic en masse, but individual vehicle noise.

--

We set off across the moors, past where we used to cut peats, and maybe that'll be built over to provide Glasgow with enough power for their televisions and microwaves.

With the Harris and Uig hills to the south, who wouldn't want to destroy this? Maybe the driver of the black Ute that refused to reverse to their nearer passing place because their car might get dirty.

Carrying along the road, and stopping to catch the view before even reaching Achmore. Maplink.

We get to Callanish early for some photos and plan to return there for the sunset later. Mike said he'd been wanting to get here for years, so I stood up on the hill to capture the moment. Here's the clip where the chap in cammo sees the 3-4,000 year old standing stones (website, maplink).

A few more photos before heading off west.

Sun over Loch Roag. The sun's the bright object obscured by cloud.

The broch at Dun Carloway is a mere 2000 years old. Click on the image for a bigger picture. maplink

With the sun going down, we head back to Callanish and see the water has settled down.

The sun disappears into the clouds after this glimpse.

No pretty pictures of the sun dipping between the stones. Dutch tilt to get away from standard tourist shot.

Ghost sheep lurking in rocks on way back to car park.

As the night is fine, we stop off at Cuddy Point to get some photos of Stornoway at night.

And finally a nip out in the handy passing place in front of the Castle.

Road Trip: Stornoway

Noticed earlier that "an seachd: the inaccessble pinnacle" was playing at An Lanntair in Stornoway. It's a cracking movie. If you have a chance, see it. Filled with gaelic humour and stories. And the scenery at the end is stunning. I'll never see it without a change in lifestyle and a supply of brown trousers. Stopped in The Clachan on the way home to show Mike a traditional bar.

Wild Camping ePetition

As the ePetition to legalise wild camping reached 976, I can't help but wonder when the 1000 mark will be reached. As I'm updating my counter manually, I notice it increasing by 10 signatures at least daily.

So, a 1000 by Friday. Maybe Thursday. I wonder if they'll get a prize?

Official site: http://www.legalisewildcamping.com/

Add your name: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/wildcamp/

Road Trip: Point

Off down to the wilds of Point. Lovely views of the Mainland hills. Sun obscured by clouds. Cold. I love my Alpkit down jacket. It's made for weather like this.

Above: Tiumpan Head lighthouse. website. maplink.

--

Looking south east from the lighthouse

Turning round slightly, the western side is protected by Broad Bay.

Heading down the coast, we go to Bayble - somewhere that ancient Greek traders apparently landed. maplink

Mike borrows the dSLR and gets some close-ups.

I go for faces in the sand.

And faces in the rocks.

Today the weather is mainly ...

Outdoors Station Podcast 24/03/08

Bob's released the Blogger special on The Outdoors Station. Woohoo, I'm first in the list. Interviewed by Andy Howell. Listen for the giggle from Andy as I mention "body language" - I pulled a face as I said it. You can't get that immediate response with text. Photolink

Then Mick and Gayle, prepping for their Land's End to John O'Groats Walk. What a pair. It's for charity, MacMillan Cancer Support. Blog. Photolink

Alan and Phil next. Discussing the TGOchallenge. And their cheese and wine parties. Blog. Photolink

Martin and Sue, blogging at "Postcard from Timperley", just back from New Zealand. Now planning their next trips.

George (again). Talking about new media. Enfusiasm of bloggers undertaking ordinary reviews. Last year was asked if blogging would survive, but most bloggers still about. Use of YouTube, and his Lego videos. Blog. YouTube

Stockport Walking Group, Colin and Helen, discuss the walks organised, and presentations given by members. They are organising a wild camping weekend. Site. Blog

The podcast will appear on The Outdoor Station sometime on Monday, and I'll post the player when I get the chance.

Photolinks from Darren, press packer. Ook.

Outdoors Show 08- Bloggers!

Download MP3 File

Road Trip: Tarbert

Stopped for tea at Ad's Takeaway in Tarbert. It carries the recommendation from The Rough Guide in the window.

--

After dining, we headed west along the Huisinis road, to the ends of the earth. Past the Bunabhainneadar Tennis Court (link)

Past Ben Fogle's old haunt of Taransay. Can you really be castaway if your within waving distance of a tennis court?

And at Huisinis, we walked around the beach, up the hill, and go to the sun setting into the Atlantic. maplink

Next stop, Labrador, Canada.

And finally, a word from Mike