MY FAVOURITE CAMP GADGETS

Giles gives us his favourite and his least

I'll start with my least favourite gadget, not just for camp but ever! I do like to know how many steps I've taken in a day so rather than do it on a 'phone which would wear down my battery too much I invested in a Rapid pedometer. It's very simple to operate, you just clip it onto your trouser waist band and it springs into life. It has two functions and they are as a pedometer and as a counter. If you were wanting to count the number of people going into a building or something like that you can click on a little white button and it will register on the LCD screen. That seems to be accurate - unlike the pedometer. The first time I used it I went on a three mile walk. I know how far it is because I had previously paced it. It's about 5,630 paces. I popped on the pedometer and set off. When I returned home I looked at the screen and found that I had done 6,217 paces which is over ten percent more! The following day I counted my paces with the pedometer on my waistband. The results were almost the same! I've no idea why it is so wrong apart from the fact that it counts a pace at the slightest movement. I can only imagine that it counts ten percent of my paces each as two paces. It may be of use to someone who wants to believe that they've done 10,000 paces a day although they've only done just over 9,000 but apart from that it's pretty useless for doing what it's supposed to.

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My favourite camp gadget, although it's less of a gadget and more an essential piece of kit, is my UCO Titan Stormproof Match Kit. I often make my own waterproof matches but what I like about these is not only are they extremely wind and water resistant but also they are over 100 cms long. Each one will burn for more than twenty seconds. They will even relight when dunked in water! They come with several strikers in a waterproof tub that floats. They do shorter ones and larger boxes of the longer ones but the Match Kit is the best!

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Giles Jones

Let us know your (least) favourite gadget!

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