With a long hike planned I need to make sure my kit is in good nick. There were two items that needed my attention: my tent and my waterproof jacket. The tent is quite old already, and it is still a lovely tent, but the main zip had started to play up a bit. I found out that the place to go for repairs of such nature is Scotland. So I contacted that service, and then sent my tent north. It came back with a beautifully inserted new zip. I am sure it is ready for the next few decades now! It would be very annoying if your zip would give up on a particularly rainy evening, which would be exactly when it would. But that problem is averted now!
The other issue was my jacket. I have a day-to-day jacket and a hiking jacket but the problem is, even though I did my best to buy a really good waterproof jacket and spent quite a lot of money on it, it isn't waterproof. Re-proofing it hadn't helped. I had got soaked on the last Swamp Hike, and I also got soaked when I visited the Gorseddau quarry with Kate. And that is just annoying! And I got a bit discouraged by all that. If you buy an expensive new jacket and you still don't end up with something that does the job, then how do you? And I decided to take the scattergun approach: just buy a fairly cheap second-hand jacket. If that doesn't do the job, you just try again. Sooner or later you should get yourself a waterproof jacket. Waterproof materials do exist! My waterproof trousers are impeccable. So I had bought a promising-looking North Face jacket in a questionable colour, but of course by the time it arrived the weather was dry. But one Friday it was just raining all day, and I decided that this was a good opportunity to give it a try. I went running in it! You don't know how good a jacket is until you have spent all day in the rain, but you have to start somewhere. This first test was successful! And I am sure there will be more opportunities. But so far things are looking good! I am getting ready!
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| the first test for the new jacket |
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