Turbo Barbie
A home-made wood-burning camping stove with a battery-powered fan, giving contollable, intense heat, with easy fire-starting. A 5V, 60mm fan is powered by 4x AA NiMh cells, which last for many days of intensive cooking & heating washing water. Switching in a resistor reduces fan-speed for simmer.
The picture shows a 12V fan powered from 2x AA cells via prototype electronics.
The inner fire-chamber is stainless steel to resist the heat, with holes angled to swirl the air from the fan. The outer is aluminium with pan-rests attached.
Turbo-barbie's use has been evolving for about 20 years:
Fire-starting: put small dry wood or charcoal (see below) in the chamber, near the fan, filling up with fairly dry wood. Meths, wax, etc make starting easier. Ignite with full fan. Use blowing tube if damp fuel won't catch. Once it's going, damper wood can be used. Can also use charcoal, coal, peat or dung. A folding pruning saw helps.
When finished, covering the embers with a light aluminium disc makes charcoal for fire-starting next time.
Using on a bag of fire-blanket material, containing sand or vegetation stops it scorching the ground. Or put it on a flat stone.
There's increasing concern about seriously poisonous dioxins produced when salty wood is burnt. DEFRA quotes studies showing releases "20 to 90 times higher than from normal wood" http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/chemicals/pdf/dioxinsdomestic-final0605.pdf I suggest minimising salty driftwood use and seriously avoiding breathing its smoke. I favour wood that's not been in the sea or from high up the beach, where it's likely to have been rinsed by rain, but I don't know how much this helps. At least stoves like turbo-barbie use much less wood than open fires.
Cooking
Most evening meals were pasta, rice, couscous or potatoes with a delicious "sauce" from real ingredients.
We'd bring the carbohydrate to the boil, carefully seal its pan in a plastic bag and thoroughly nest it in a sleeping bag. It's normally ready to eat when the cordon-bleu sauce is done. Rather than plates, we use stackable 2-pint mixing bowls with lids - much better at keeping food hot while you eat. Also for nesting hot food in a sleeping bag.
Basha
We've 3 sizes of these shelters, made from lightweight sil-nylon. For this trip we made one with split paddles for poles and anti-midge net-curtains, that can be furled when not needed. Sometimes we sleep under it, with lightweight bivi-bags made from pertex aqua-block, but retired to the tent to sleep in bad weather or extreme midges.
Why would one want a basha as well as a tent?
* A place to cook & hang-out, enjoying the view, protected from wind, rain & midges.
* You feel more connected with your surroundings.
* It's spacious compared to our tent. Good for cooking & fire-wood storage
* under 1kg, including pegs & guys.
The disadvantages are:
* vulnerable to a strong wind from the opposite direction when you pitched it. We pull out the poles & peg it flat at night: very quick to re-erect.
* Less shelter than a tent - but suprisingly good!
If you're persuaded, try NRS-99 Sil-nylon & MM34-09 Midge Mesh from www.profabrics.co.uk This basha used a 1.9m long fabric rectangle with 45° wings. Also see www.cleats.co.uk for cleats & dymeena string.
Stuff Bags
Invaluable for containing & organising. Pertex makes strong, breathable, soft bags. Sil-nylon good for "sealed" bags for dirty clothes. Same supplier. Instructions:
http://thru-hiker.com/projects/silnylon_stuffsacks.php
Dymeena String
exceedingly strong string: great for guys & washing lines. Same suppliers.
Wine Bag
Remove the cardboard from a wine box & put the bladder in a pertex bag. It always seems to squeeze in somewhere in a kayak!
Snow Pegs
Terra Nova's extra large alloy Snow Pegs are great for tethering kayaks, as tent pegs in sand or, importantly, for digging those holes for a poo with a view.
http://needlesports.com/acatalog/Mail_Order_Tent_Pegs__Poles___Anchors_73.html
Feathercraft K2
A sea-worthy kayak-in-a-bag. We usually swear at some time during assembly, but then it's a delight. Beautifully designed. Expensive, but what double kayak can you keep in your attic or take on a bus? http://www.feathercraft.com/kayaks/traditional/k2/index.php
