I had never heard of the podcasts until a chap left me a message on this blog.  I quickly got hooked with the coverage of The European Outdoor Trade Fair at Friedrichshafen – well all that talk of gadgets was bound to get my attention.  I now have a long wish list to drool over during the winter.

There was a great little series on the Cape Wrath Trail – which is now on my list of long distance walks to do, and a fabulous podcast on Cicerone Press
‘The Book Of The Bivvy’ – which was so good it even got me thinking about the possibilities bivvying could bring me and I went out and brought the book.

It being nearly midsummer in the UK I am looking out my waterproof jacket and trousers for a weekend of walking in Sussex – the forecast is lousy again.

I have an Alta II Jacket and Cascada Trousers.  They both make use of Nikwax Analogy Waterproof technology, with a liner that is said to mimic the action of animal fur – pushing liquid water outwards to protect you from rain.

The trousers are not just waterproof trousers, they are trousers that are waterproof – and unless it is particularly cold no additional layers are required. This is great, except when you turn up soaked to a B&B for the night and don’t want to trail wet clothes through the place…

The waterproofing does diminish with wearing, particularly with a thick application of mud, but they are easily washed in a washing machine, and rewaterproofed with special stuff.

My Páramos are the first things I pack. They are not the cheapest waterproofs in the world but have definitely been worth it – having been confronted with gale force winds, driving rain, and 15+miles to complete in a day during many a long distance walk I haven’t thought twice about it.

I came to them late (around episode #35) but after a few episodes I quickly fell for their easy presenting styles, sage advice, and interesting travels. It was not long before I downloaded their entire back catalogue and sat down with a large cup of tea to listen to them all.

I have never met Craig or Linda, but feel I know them quite well and we have conversed about SmartWool Socks and Kiva. I was over the moon to listen to an Indie Travel Podcast episode to hear that they thought the socks worked well during their Camino de Santiago de Compostela walk, and that they have dipped their toes into Kiva.org and have started to support low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world through Kiva.

There are many types of walking aids, from walking sticks to hiking and trekking poles – made from a wondrous variety of materials.

I prefer a simple wooden stick to aid me on my travels, and it has come in very handy when clearing away brambles, testing the depth of mud or water, and even in being a support when taking pictures.

In the Brecon Beacons it recently came in very useful in testing the depth of snowdrifts!

Well now my wondering is over, by taking a Super Trackstick with me I have a GPS log of where and when I have been (and where I have mistakenly gone off route got lost). It is not perfect but it allows me to review the route, work out how far I have gone (in what time), and where I stopped. Knowing the location of each stop is particularly useful to work out where photos were taken (though I am sure GPS in compact cameras will become standard one day).

The first time I used it was the 2 days spent wandering along the Sussex Ouse Valley Walk, and the screenshots below uses data from that walk.

I have yet to nail down the perfect settings for when I am out walking: the balance between logging intervals (it can be changed from an interval of every 5 seconds, or from 1 minute to every 15 minutes), how long a pause might be before it becomes a stop, and how much to group the points by – it works this out in 2 ways, it has a built in vibration detector and will also group points if they are within a few degrees of each other.

For each date and time stamped point it records: Latitude, Longitude, Altitude, Status (power on/off, miles per hour), Course (general heading eg N, S, SE etc) , GPS Fix and the Signal Strength. There is only 4MB of flash memory onboard, and a day’s walking could easily take up half the memory at the maximum logging rate.

The unit is powered by 2 ‘AAA’ sized batteries and has a single LED which flashes various colours but is impossible to see when outside, even on a rainy day. Talking of rain the case is supposedly weatherproof – it might be proofed against sunshine but exposed to driving rain it soon stops working, so I have taken to wrapping it in a small plastic bag.

It is a USB device, but the software is Windows only. It is lucky that it is only 4MB as it does take a little while to download the data via USB1.1 and store it in its proprietary format. Once saved though it can be exported in a number of other formats, including: gpx, csv, html and several flavours of KML.

I had hoped to just upload the KML file to this blog but the file is full of junk, and a lot of redundant points (probably because I have yet to get the logging frequency right). Depending on the number of files and the length of the walk I then use either GoogleEarth, GoogleMaps or Memory-Map to trace over the points to produce a clean route which I can export and use. Each of the various bits of software has its advantages and I have yet to settle on my preferred one.

As an eBay purchase, and with such a favourable exchange rate with the US Dollar, it has proved to be good value and very useful.

Go-Go-Gadget USB Super Trackstick GPS device thingy!

While not a traditional ‘cake’ this post could be equally at home in the A nice cup of tea and… series, though I feel further testing is required before I put a seal on the best Kendal Mint Cake and perhaps had a chance to visit the various establishments in Kendal (there are currently three companies that produce mint cake).

Kendal Mint Cake is the best combination of sugar, water and peppermint oil to be found, and can only be bettered when the chocolate coated variety is at hand mouth. Due to its high energy content it makes for a very good emergency ration.

It was first discovered in 1869 by Joseph Wiper, who began producing it in his small Kendal factory. It is thought that the production was a mistake, and that he was trying to make clear “glacier” mints.

Apart from mine, there have been various notable uses of Kendal Mint Cake through the ages:

• Edmund Hillary took Romney’s Kendal Mint Cake with him on the first successful ascent of Mount Everest in 1953.
• Mint cake was taken on the Endurance Expedition of 1914-1917, which was famously led by Ernest Shackleton.
• In the ‘Amber Spyglass’ Phillip Pullman created angels of immense spiritual purity – who happen to like Kendal Mint Cake.

In the past I have tried all sorts: thick socks, two pairs of socks, cushioned sock, but at some point I have always got bad blisters and very sore feet. In the summer they would be very sore and hot, in the winter very sore and cold.

SmartWool socks may look like an ordinary pair of socks from the outside, but it is the inside that counts. Made from the softest Merino sheep wool, the inside is deeply piled – like the most luxuriant deep pile carpet. The fibres wick away moisture, create thousands of little air pockets that regulate the temperature of your feet, and – best of all – resist bacteria! So far I have yet to get any serious blisters from any of the hundreds of miles I have walked while wearing them.

They are so soft and comfortable to wear that I have found a fresh pair are the best way to relax and relieve all foot tension after a long day of walking.

Thanks Joel for the idea – here starts a series on kit¹ and caboodle² that I have acquired and used for my travels.

¹ kit – gear consisting of a set of articles or tools for a specified purpose.
² caboodle – archaic term meaning group or collection.

Items that have been superseded will be depreciated.

I created my first Greasemonkey Script (Kiva Country Highlighter) to do just that – it looks at a list of countries I am interested in and will highlight them in the list of loans on the Kiva website. It has allowed me to bag a couple of rare countries so far, though there are still a few more I am keeping a lookout for…