hiking

Haven't tried this but looks like it would work. Check out the video for a cheap, easy, disposable popcorn maker out of a coke can.

We ended up at Coledale Camping Reserve just south of Sydney on the weekend. Great little spot and one of the rare places you can set your tent up with an actual view of the waves. On Saturday we had a terrific lightning storm out to sea and good rain. We were able to sit under our awning and watch the light show.

Pros - on patrolled beach, close to Sydney, plenty of grass, good amenities

Cons - can be crowded (go in bad weather - that thins them out), not that many sites, street lighting, only the northern sites have beach views, it's not really away from it all

Well worth a look if you just want to get away for an overnighter. Probably less crowded during the week.

Designers should know better...

But they continue to produce equipment that have stupid switches, the sort that come on when you shove your head lamp in your gear bag. You pull it out to use and thanks to an idiot in the design department, something has pressed against the raised switch, turned it on and now the batteries are dead.

To fix this on a recent head lamp I bought (I should've known better than to buy it in the first place - I partnered in the designer's idiocy) I used some Shoegoo to build the area up around the switch so that instead of the switch being a raised knob, it is now level with the Shoegoo. A silastic of some variety would do a similar job.

So now I can shove it in my gear bag and it won't get knocked on and flatten my batteries before the first night of my next camping trip.

Standing in line at a popular camping store on sale day for approx half and hour, I got to know the people beside me and could tell they were newbies to the outdoor life. What to do? Give advice? Let them learn by doing? Or hand them a business card?

Their eyes were wandering as they waited, their purchases were growing, when the lady spied a headlight, $24 reduced to $5. "No! heavy, 3 AA batteries, plastic housing that pops open and gummy switch". I think to myself. A shop assistant waved another model past their noses. $25 reduced to $10, 5 LEDs simple, sounded better (hands free to use the ad claimed!).

They were puzzled, so what else could I do, I leaned forward clutching my purchase of three $5 3LEDs using only 1AAA battery, lightweight, hardy headlights and said "these were the last three on the shelf but I can see another under the counter, I can recommend it, you should buy it." And they did.

This brings to me to an incident in NZ last month where a young lady was accidentally shot dead when mistaken for a deer while out camping. I am thinking we need to do some reviews on headlights, we have tried enough of them but I am also wishing I had advised the couple to get a headlight with anti deer markings.