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Sleeping Bag Scenario

Sun, 10 May 2009 14:47:32 -0800

So I had a couple of days camping the other day at Hafod Farm Campsite(in between Betws Y Coed and Llanberis). Had big plans, with a couple of nice walks in the days, and a night nav thrown in the middle..........they were the plans anyway.

I got caught up in the whole 'sitting on your arse' trend, and sat on my arse for a couple of days. Actually, really relaxing and enjoyable (you can tell I was sitting on my arse, as due to the weather in the day being glorious I was a bit burnt, except for my hiney).

Anyway, that's obviously not the reasoning for the blog, as my next news does coincide with my Offa's Dyke Path trip at the end of May and make it more expensive trip than desired.

I took two sleeping bags with me:

My ultralite sleeping bag - This is, well, ultralight, and it also packs down to a tiny size, perfect for a week long backpack; all this said, it's not the warmest bag on earth, hence why I use a liner too.

My big, warm, well over ten years old, never let me down bag - This has been used in some cold spots, and like I say, has never let me down, but........it's big and heavy.

My reason for taking two bags was to decide which sleeping bag I would use on the Offa's Dyke Path. If the ultralite kept me comfortable, then I would be taking this; but if it let me down, I would be jumping into my warm bag and be taking this instead.

NIGHT 1 2330 hours - I was wearing underpants and a t-shirt, climb into my liner, then into my ultralite bag. Dozed off, it all looked good, but then about 0230, i was f f f f freezing, I bailed and climbed into my warm sleeping bag. After ten minutes of warming up in that I was back asleep. It was cold, i'll hazard a guess at it being close to zero degrees (either way, I kid you not).

NIGHT 2 2230 hours - Try again, but different approach. I was wearing socks, underpants, t-shirt and buffalo shirt. I felt better than the previous night, then I was asleep. Next thing, yep you guessed it, I was awake and very cold again. Time to swap sleeping bags, and whilst doing so decide on not taking the ultralite on the 'ODP', when vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvpp, what was that?????????????????? Oh no, the zip has bust on my warm bag (I have no idea what time this was but I was up and about at 0630 after a while of laying there freezing). A very cold night indeed.

THE FOLLOWING MORNING - I popped my head out the tent and let the dogs go out and releive themselves and I spot a couple not far from us sleeping in the car, obviously to cold for them too (I wonder what sleeping bags they had?)

Anyway, moral of the story is - if you have a ultralite sleeping bag and are going to use it in the UK at spring time, it is ideal for one night if you know the temperature will be warm in the night (although, I did check this too and it lied), but if you need it for six nights and can't predict what the night temperature will be, then don't take it. My friends know all to well a sleepless night will not dent my moral but six nights of no sleep, then I wouldn't go anywhere near me for a good month. So my point of the blog is, I had to go out and buy a new sleeping bag.

Next...............................

Disaster, Distraught, Daisy!

Sat, 09 May 2009 19:17:15 -0800

So I got hold of a Jetboil Personal Cooking System (PCS) the other week, something i've had my eye on for some time.

I've been meaning to give it a test run before taking it out on the mountains; today was that day. Anyway, I was just in my kitchen when I was putting done of my dogs blankets back in her bed and found a few small black rubber bits (the amount of dog toys around my house, i thought nothing of it) in her bed, so I pick them up and place them in the recycling; then Daisy (the dog in question) walks past with something in her mouth.........................................guess what it was, yep the lid from the Jetboil.

Needless to say I am distraught, Daisy is banished to her bed for the night and iI have to now have to find a new lid. I have e-mailed Jetboil in hope they will send me the lid, but seeing as though I need it in 2 weeks and they are a US based company and I'm UK based, well, we'll see.

DECATHLON

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:00:34 -0800

Hi All,

I took a visit to Decathlon in Stockport, UK on Sunday. I bought a few items, one of them being a pair of cycling gloves, or at least that what I thought.

Once I arrived back home I seperated them and tried them on for size ( actually done this in the store for my left hand), only to find not only was they both different sized gloves but they was both for the left hand.

Anyway this blog isn't a moan about how awful Decathlon are for pairing up these; it's the opposite in fact. I mailed them back to Decathlon on the Monday (the store is over 1 hour drive from my place, hence me not just calling back in), and received a new matching pair today (Wednesday).

How's that for customer service. Kudos to Decathlon. Check them out at www.decathlon.co.uk.