Paper? Sticks, stones or scoot your arse along the grass

Anyway, I'd like to see some dig a hole of any size with the suggested implements at the moment - a portable jack-hammer might be in order!

whitestone wrote:Anyway, I'd like to see some dig a hole of any size with the suggested implements at the moment - a portable jack-hammer might be in order!

I would have needed a mini JCB during my ride in France, day three. It was like the crocodile from Lake Placid...

Otherwise I need to learn to shake hands with my left

Actually, much cleaner than paper. I once went to Nepal for almost a month. Got used to it (though not how cold it was when the bucket of water was iced over!). Seemed oddly coarse to be using paper when I got back. It's probably a useful skill to have in your arsenal. (sorry, I just can't resist it.. )

The problem with paper is "burn or not burn?"

ScotRoutes wrote:The problem with paper is "burn or not burn?"

It's no wonder that the Leave No Trace message is hard to get across to people. I went down an access road that cuts through the Isle of Wight Festival site this morning. On the festival weekend I went for a bivi and left nothing but some flattened grass (which will have sprung back up by now) and the festival goers left this



Bear in mind that this picture was taken a week after they left, so the clean up crews have down the first couple of sweeps of this field, the tents have been removed (there would of been hundreds left in just this area) and most of the larger items of rubbish. The litter pickers will move in soon, they will look like one of those police search teams you see on the telly, they will be a line across the width of the field and pick up every little scrap of rubbish. This is just one corner of one field at the site. I would estimate that the entire site is 50 to 100 times this area.

For many 'young' people their first camping experience will be at a festival, no wonder they pick up such bad habits.

For many 'young' people their first camping experience will be at a festival, no wonder they pick up such bad habits.

Agreed, it's a very sad thing. I used to go to a lot of festivals, but I don't anymore because I don't enjoy them, perhaps because I'm old (you know, nearly 30), but mainly because they make me sad and/or angry. Particularly the ones with a liberal, environmentally-conscious image (e.g. Glastonbury), which actually turn out to be conventions to see how much litter and cheap camping gear you can spread over a small area of countryside while moaning about capitalism.

On the plus side, I have a lot of gear that I've "wombled" from festivals over the years...
My best was a six man high-end Outwell tent, which I packed down into it's bag, still with the labels on, at Leeds Festival circa 2009.
Several other tents still in use for car camping. I've never purchased a tent.
My mini tarp, and numerous other things I've made from a cannibalised festival tent.
A heavy-based saucepan, with lid, which I still use most days, possibly from the same Leeds festival as above.

Sorry, that was a bit of a thread diversion, I headed off down memory lane for a bit.

I'm old enough to remember when people packed up their tents after a festival and took them home, .

psling wrote:

Perhaps the ultimate dual-use titanium erm, jobbie?


https://www.ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk ... tool-p8397

Blimey that would bring a tear to your eye.... or am I getting the wrong idea on what these are to be used for?

sean_iow wrote:It's no wonder that the Leave No Trace message is hard to get across to people.

I don't think it is. I think the main problem is that, save a few grumpy sods, no one is really trying.

I'm currently doing seasonal work in Parks and Countryside in my local authority and that mainly means cutting grass in parks and council housing estates. Out of my working week, I'm spending about 7-8 hours picking litter on the sites I'm cutting. It's an utterly ridiculous waste of time. This country, and my city in particular, has a massive littering problem that there is very little political will to do anything about. The worst culprits are definitely children but, easy as it would be to scapegoat them as wayward and unteachable, I'm mostly placing the blame on parents, our education system, and a rotten convenience food and drink culture.

The thing is, we know it isn't hard to get this message across. Plenty of articles on the internet about how Japanese children clean up their school as part of their learning day and how fans from some countries have been stopping at stadiums to clean up after world cup matches. A few weeks ago a kid threw a plastic bottle on the ground near where I was litter picking and loudly proclaimed he was keeping me in a job. It's a pitiful society that can think of nothing better to do with it's resources than to clean up after an idle populace.