Posts by Chris H
Ravens spend a lot of time aloft, and fly steadily and sometimes quite high (also solo or in loose pairs most of the time). They call infrequently "cronk" or "cronk cronk" while airborne. They seem...
Mobile mapping is optimised for colour, which isn't available on any of the e-ink devices I can find, despite talk of colour e-paper since about 2013. Having played with black and white prints of ...
A massive advantage of paper maps over electronic is the combination of area and resolution. You can take a bearing to a mast on top of a hill several km away, when zooming out that far on a GPS sc...
If you've got the strap to the perfect length and want to maintain that length, you can sew a small fold in the strap, similar to what's used at the end to stop the whole strap running through. Sli...
This is rather speculative, but draws on a few birding/wildlife books I've read and it's too much for a comment. It also has a little UK bias, but I've visited 4 continents on wildlife trips, and m...
I use a small cotton towel, such as a tea towel, folded a few times in to a long strip. If the pan is small and light you can wrap the towel round and hold the ends tightly together to form a handl...
Flares appear to weigh up to around 200g each, and to be fairly bulky. As each one can only be used once, that's a lot to carry per fire - a similar amount of liquid fuel and tinder could be expect...
Herbivore faeces doesn't smell as much as human faeces (or dog/cat/other carnivore). The vast majority of mammals, by number or mass, are herbivores. Population densities of large herbivores (overa...
I'd use food storage boxes - yes, plural, for flexibility in arranging the fridge. The good quality ones with an o-ring in the lid should seal tight (in practice they're not always airtight for lon...
I've hiked in the UK, and a little in the US and western Europe. I'll concentrate on the UK. My perception is that British hikers keep their gear for longer than Americans, leading to two things:...
There are some light polycotton travel/hiking trousers. Rohan Bags are the originals (as far as I know) but I've had something similar from Craghoppers as well. They don't feel nearly as synthetic ...
A motorway is very strictly defined and will always be named Mn or An(M). There are A roads sometimes called expressways that look a lot like motorways but they don't have hard shoulders and their ...
Do you have 2 split rings (keyrings) with you? If so, here's how to make a buckle like that (or rather its D-ring predecessor): Attach both split rings to the upper strap, where the old buckle is/...
The biggest difference between letterboxing (at least on Dartmoor, its original home) are: letterboxes are usually intended to be left out indefinitely. they're put out for anyone to find. It's...
It's highly unlikely that using poles will make anything worse. You still have to place your feet as carefully and in the same sort of position (training for technique/precision). Your legs still d...
There are fuel cells with 12V output designed for this application, at least considering it as a battery charging task (random internet example at 100W). Methanol cells are more expensive but the ...
A dedicated GPS is likely to have better signal as well as better battery life. The key is that you don't have to run it all the time - if it's had a fix within the last few hours it will pick up...
It's unlikely to have much fuel in it, so you've got a chance. But you're going to have to be careful. The first step is to try to push the liquid out using the butane you would normally fill it w...
Kayaks can easily be strapped down to cross bars. Sometimes J bars or uprights are used to put the boats on their sides allowing more to fit without stacking them. Bike racks for roof bars are quit...
You might just get away with highlighting white water itself and rocks. Clear water wouldn't reflect the light in the right direction. But you'd need a very bright, possibly illegal and/or dangerou...
No, gulls (of some species at least) steal food from other birds by moving them until they drop it. They must then be adept at snatching the falling food in mid air. There's material of interest ...
If you carry the right layers and adjust them well, you can often get away with cotton with no discomfort let alone danger in benign conditions. But we shouldn't plan for only benign conditions a...
Hydrogen gas doesn't spontaneously ignite, but does burn in air over a wide range of concentrations. It's also ready to ignite with a spark. So although you may be able to start a fire with one, th...
You can definitely go for one pair. I've actually been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the optics at almost the bottom end of the market, if you go for something common like 8x20. We've g...
Salt dissolves in water so will pass though a normal filter or cloth. You can try that with a coffee filter at home. So there's definitely an error in the article. A still (i.e. distillation appar...
