Tag Archives: backpacking

LifeStraw is Your Best Emergency Personal Water Filter Review

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LifeStraw is your best emergency personal water filter, that you can bring on any adventure. I would even carry this when I have my normal basic water filter, but carry it in my go-bag or on person. This is an easy product to use to in a pinch and could buy you time in purifying water in less-than-ideal situations.

Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF):

  • Filtering 99.999% of bacteria, parasites, viruses and other impurities from water without the need of chemicals or boiling
  • Amazing value for filtering 4,000L (1,000 gallons) of water
  • Small (22.9 cm in length) and light weight (56 grams)
  • Best for emergency usage in the back country, travelling in water boil advisory regions, low access to clean potable water
  • No moving or volatile components making it safe to take on flights!

Pros:

Gosh, what didn’t the BLUF sell?

  • It’s like drinking a personal tap water, from a straw
  • Ease of carry for emergencies in the back country and travelling
  • Easy to clean
  • Robust and tough – throw it around!
  • Does not require electricity (I can’t believe this is a thing…)

Cons:

  • Can be a bit difficult to get the high flow rate if you don’t prime it first
  • It cannot desalinate, but really, what are you expecting?
  • Petro-chemicals can still get through, as it mostly filters microbiological substances
LifeStraw is Your Best Emergency Personal Water Filter

Check the price for LifeStraw!

Quick specifications:

Filtration volume: 4000 Litres!

Weight: 0.1 pounds or 2 oz

Dimensions: 22.9L x 2.5W x 2.5H Centimetres

Removes 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria, 99.9% of waterborne protozoan parasites, and filters to 0.2 microns; surpasses EPA filter standards. BPA Free materials

LifeStraw is Your Best Emergency Personal Water Filter

We believe that everyone deserves access to safe water when they are adventuring and in situations you may not expect. That’s why we are reviewing LifeStraw; a product that provides clean drinking water anywhere in the worldwhich cannot come more highly recommended. This innovative design filters out 99.99% of bacteria and parasites, and it’s incredibly easy to use and doesn’t take up much room in your pack, at all. LifeStraw is your best emergency personal water filter.

The LifeStraw was born out of meeting a need in water security in the harshest conditions in the world, from refugee camps to natural disasters. LifeStraw is the best emergency water filter in these situations. Since I acquired the LifeStraw (2013), it seems they made their filtration even better in their new models! Their website boasts that LifeStraw filtration technology can filter out:

  • PFAS (PFAS are a large, complex group of manufactured chemicals that are ingredients in various everyday products. For example, they are used to keep food from sticking to packaging or cookware – source)
  • Microplastics
  • Chemicals and pesticides

On top of your normal bacteria and parasite filtration. Wow!

However, I will say, there are certain things that I feel can’t be filtered by the LifeStraw, as mentioned in the Cons, are petro-chemicals, ie oil spills, or more realistically, seepage such as engine oil into bodies of water where people would drink from. This would require very specialized equipment. Saying this, I actually don’t know if it can or not, not having access to their body of work. However, in on their website, it does say they test on the micro-biology level which leads me to believe some other petro chemical based products may not be filtered out.

If you convert 4,000 litres into 4 litres of consumption per day, it’d take 2.7 years to exhaust the filter! In my adventures, I carry my main water filter and that’s only 1,500 litres! I carry the LifeStraw on me in case something happened on a day trip away from base camp. LifeStraw is your best emergency personal water filter.

Basic Usage and Maintenance

  • User Manual explains a lot and it’s very easy.
    • Prime intake end of straw for 20 seconds
    • Drink
    • Blow back through the straw when finished
    • (Too easy!)
  • Long term storage includes storing it in saline solution
  • Membrane must be wet to have good water flow.

LifeStraw is your best emergency personal water filter. With products like LifeStraw, we can bring a safe and reliable source of drinking water no matter where you are and no matter what activity you’re doing.

The North Face Stormbreak 2 Review

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This is The North Face Stormbreak 2 review. Looking for your first tent or a new one to add to your collection that won’t break the bank? Cost of this tent is well worth the price and value!

Choosing your tent depends on your ultimate goal of what you’re looking for it to do and, to future proof your investment a bit, what you see yourself using it for (front country, back country, hiking, paddling… etc) in the medium term. My goal for this tent was 2 having a lighter smaller tent that will fit well in backcountry as my current one has suffered several challenges in finding good places to pitch.

Read on for more of the review and the video below!

Bottom Line Up Front

  • Good valued tent for under the price, but little heavy
  • Best for backpacking, runner up for car camping, not recommended for paddling.
  • Minimal gear storage in the multi-configuration and versatile vestibule, though no window
  • Large tent doors allowing for ease of access in and out of the tent
  • Footprint purchased separately
  • Waterproofness on average with other tents

Specifications (for nerds)

  • 31sq feet (2.8m2)
  • 5 lbs 5 oz (2.41kg)
  • 43 inches (109 cm) height
  • Fly: 75D Polyester, 1200mm waterproofness
  • Floor: 68D Polyester, 3000mm waterproofness

Pros

  • Tub-styled flooring with extra side walls to prevent splash back into the tent in foul weather
  • Large vestibule and tent doors to allow for great ease of access in and out of the tent
  • Extra guy line support that pulls from loops attached to guy line points
  • Fast setup with identifiable (red) tab on the footprint and tent to orientate the tent

Cons

  • Vestibule door can easily get caught on the rain flap
  • Water can collect on the pitched roof of the tent
  • Little heavier compared to other ultra-light options

Stormbreak 2 Review Comments

For the Stormbreak 2 Review, this is a good valued tent. I would put this tent on the heavier side of tents for being a 2 person tent. Comparatively, my 3 person light-weight tent, is much bigger and just slightly lighter.

Wait a minute, I heard a 3 person tent is best for 2 people, dog and gear. Why have a 2 person tent for 2 people? There are several kinds of tents out there with “built in cargo space”, allowing for extra gear sometimes. My 3 person tent is definitely a 3 person tent with cargo space, in that I could squeeze 4 people in a pinch, with gear in the vestibule to keep things dry.

So why a 2 person tent if my existing one works well? The square footage and area of the tent is too big and so sometimes I’m finding it hard to place the tent in backcountry places. These spots can sometimes barely fit a 2 person tent. Furthermore, the weight of the tent is a mild consideration, but I’m not gunning for any ultra-light options here.

A quick coffee in the vestibule of the North Face Stormbreak 2

Best Uses

I found this tent to have its home in backpacking with two people. If you have a furry friend that you don’t allow in the tent, this might be an option, depending how big your furry friend is. I say this mainly because the vestibules really can’t store that much gear. Again, I’m not concerned about weight with it being at 5lb 5 oz (2.41kg).

Generally, when you’re backpacking, you’re self sustained with two packs and the vestibule can store just that, with most your gear still packed in the pack. I took this tent out paddling and had found having life jackets, paddles, fishing rods, other packs, we fast ran out of storage space in the vestibule.

Car camping would work with this as well as most of the gear and food would be kept in the car over night.

Not paddling as I mentioned, you run out of vestibule space quick. However, if you’re one that usually sets up a tarp anyways for storage, then go nuts on this.

I may consider taking this into the low alpine, but would be wary, as it is rated for 3 seasons and I don’t believe the pole structure would be able to withstand the weight of snow and high winds. I may also consider winter camping in this tent, so long as I know I’ll be covered from winds in an appropriate camping spot.

Highlight Features

The vestibule and tent doors struck me the most. There are so many ways to configure it and even use it as an awning on days where you want to hang in your tent but still get some shade from the sun.

On the tent doors, they are some of the biggest and most accessible doors. With my 3 season tent, I constantly kneel on them when I open them, and they’re kind of in the way a lot.

Deep tent pockets right next to the door is amazing. And they store a lot. I mean, a lot. This will help keep your tent organized as much as possible.

I was pleasantly surprised (confused at first) with a glaringly single red tag on the footprint and the tent. This helps orientate the tent quickly, on set up, in case of a scramble to set up in foul weather.

That’s it for the Stormbreak 2 Review, but still check out the video below for all the details!

Stormbreak 2 Review Video

If you liked this article you’re looking for more gear talk, check out:

Paddling Gear Run Down

Paddling Gear Run Down

Rock Climbing Shoes

https://explorationsevo.com/2022/01/rock-climbing-shoes

Madurai to Kanyakumari: Late night entrances and ghetto mobiles

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Madurai to Kanyakumari: Feb 23 – 27
Beautiful intricate carvings of Southern Temples

In hindsight our journey to Madurai was one of our most comfortable and smoothest yet. It was still the beginning of our journey so we were still hesitant to tackle the estranged Indian public transport system. We opted for an AC bus with reclining seats as we did have a 9 hour journey ahead of us and it seemed like the best thing to do.We had a bit of a confusing transfer to another bus in the middle of the night, clinging onto our belonging heading toward a bus that was pointed out to us, praying that we have not just been scammed and that the bus would indeed accept us and take us to our next destination. We got in!

A sudden awakening at 3am by the bus driver mumbling “Madurai, Madurai” with the accompanying head wobble indicated that we had reached our destination. We get dropped off at the bus terminal, grab the closest tuk tuk and mosey into the late night dead streets of Madurai. The tuk tuk driver tells us that there aren’t many hotels open at that time of night and takes us to a hotel that he recommends to be “open and cheap”. With the first offer of 600 rupees (12usd) with stained sheets and water hose for shower head, dingy dirty hole in the wall hotel we kindly decline, thank him for his help and walk into the dimly lit streets. I must admit, we did both feel a bit sketched, especially after the tuk driver advised us not too. Very soon we spiked the interest of nearby lurking touts and eagerly they starting banging on various hotel’s tressil doors until one finally opened. (Seriously, they’re up at 4am looking for tourists!? That’s a bit sketch) We ended up settling for 750(14usd)room with fresh sheets, no hot water (its ok, it was 26 at night) and 3 beds at  “Hotel Surapi”, along one of the budget hotel streets of Town Hall rd.


Indians and tourists alike come to Madurai to see the Sri Meenakshi  Temple, the largest temple in south India and considered to be the pinnacle of South Indian temple architecture. The temple is incredible and is the home of the triple breasted, fish eyed-eyed goddess Meenakshi Aman and is more of a huge complex enclosed by 12 gopurams (towers). Some of these towers are larger than others (and so far the largest that we have seen in India) and all are littered with wondrous colourfully painted carvings of gods, goddesses, demons and heroes. Most of the temple is off limits to to non-Hindus, but visitors are allowed to wonder around the complex and through the corridors where you are bound to discover some sculptures of various deities.

On this journey we have been very lucky with stumbling upon elephants and within the complex we were once again pleasantly surprised to turn a corner and to find an elephant religiously blessing people for any donation that they have to spare. We had heard. We had read about the Teppam (float) Festival that supposedly happens on the full moon of the Tamil month in Jan/Feb where the deities of the Temple are taken for a walk around the outside of the complex, accompanied by the elephant in the customary adornments, for all onlookers to see. So, as it was a full moon when we were there and there was clearly a lot of excitement in the temple with hundreds of people walking through the security check into the temple grounds, masses of people entering the ‘Hindu-only’ areas where sounds of chants and the strong aroma of incense flowed from into the visitors area and hordes of people lining up for something. We couldn’t figure out what they were lining up for (and I’m sure some of them didn’t even know) but they stood, and the line was so long that it started at one of the tower gates and stretched all the way through the temple grounds. We didn’t stand in the line as it seemed that it could take the entire day and we didn’t know if we would be allowed to enter into where ever the line led anyways. But yeah, as there was so much going we were certain that we were going to witness the ‘gods going for a stroll.

We have come to realize that every city we’ve been to carries some unique trade. In Mamallapuram, it was stone carvings, in Pondicherry were drums, and in Madurai, textiles.

Inside Ganesh’s textile shop

First a cold shoulder to a man who offered to tailor our pants for 50 rupees (1 USD), custom fit. After figuring out a way out of the city, we went back to him as Ian needed long pants for the night against mosquitoes. He hustles quickly through the traffic of Madurai and we soon end up upstairs in a small little textile shop with colourful stacks of fabric reached up to the ceiling. He introduces himself as Ganesh. A few expert whips of the tape measurer later, we have our sizes ready to be tailored. We both go silk. Because we’re that cool. We ended up getting 2 things; a dress for Christa and silk pants for Ian at a total of 33 USD. We could’ve haggled better, but we had no idea what any market price was. And plus, the old tailor was such a sweet little man. In hindsight it is still a little expensive according to market price in India there. 4 hours later, we picked them up and paraded them through the streets.

Our short lived surrogate mother

Toward the end of the night, we heard a parade happening in celebration of the full moon in these auspicious days for the southern Indians. The streets are packed with celebration and the occasional fire crackers that no one ever seems startled by. An elderly beautiful wonderful Indian woman decided to make friend with us, starting with a bindhi for Christa. And every time we walked by, she gave us more and more gifts. Mission accomplished when she sat Christa down and put a reef of flowers in her hair and bought us chai tea. We went through her store and both came out with Ganesh bracelets, 10 rupees each. About 20 cents usd.

We came in by accident as all the trains were fully booked and the only available over night bus took us as far as Madurai. However, we made the most of it and made it a trip and time worth seeing. We were not disappointed.

Next step, taking an other late night bus into kanyakumari, the cape of India were 3 oceans meet. We sat down, stood up and paced back and forth waiting for our overnight bus to pick us up from our hotel. Here’s to trusting another bus company!

Our rope tying skills

One hour late and less than expected “luxury” bus. This has all the luxuries of open air windows, self-strap-in luggage (with own rope), right behind a noisy gear box (given up by a nice gentleman who went to the back and took up the
whole row, which in hindsight we should’ve done), and chairs that recline a whole awesome 1 degree back.

This trip is only 220km but expected to take 6 hours. Already an hour behind schedule, we’re looking to arrive at 6 am. Luckily this bus is fully equipped with rackety suspension and noisy everything for a good nights sleep!

Plan as of now: survive this death trap of a ride (already a near miss with a head on collision with a larger truck and swerves, dodges and weaving through some hairy potholes. Which if not missed sends all of us flying up into the air with our luggage obediently behind us) and get off the bus with the beach and sunrise waiting for us. We’ll grab a nice view of the sunrise, find some food, chill at the info centre and then check into a hotel for one night. That’ll do. Yes.

To be quite honest, I’m not sure how I’m even capable of typing this up on this damn bumpy ride, bustling through the night time country side of south India. The air is quite refreshing with all the windows open; if you ignore the perpetual waft of god-knows-what from the outside.

So we trudge on…

Puducherry – Old French colonies and hippie communes

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Pondicherry, 21st – 23rd February.

Remenants of old French colonies

First things first. Cheaper than Mamallapuram, “backpackistan.” We stayed in a heritage house based off French Colonial era with high ceilings, wooden pillars, antique furniture, wooden staircase and roof patio (where we enjoyed our breakfasts in style). And we paid just as much for our room here as we did in Malla. Real luxury! We had free wifi, a large comfy bed in a stained class window room and got a full breakfast of toast, eggs, coffee/tea/ fruit juice and what have you, for less than 3 usd.

Food in Pondi is at half the cost than in Malla. And there are loads of little gems of restaurants to be found where we got an extra-ordinary amount of food for what otherwise would’ve been a meagre meal in Mamallapuram. Food so far in south India has been incredibly savoury. No dish has disappointed and everything has been so incredibly yummy!


An old canal – or open sewer – divides the city into east and west. The more French part being on the east side (closer to the sea, obviously!)where the lesser spotted street signs still say ‘Rue’ instead of street, and the more Indian side being on the west.

Blessing elephant

The collection of cobble stoned roads lined with colourful town hosues in varying conditions, walking through Bharathi Park, where Indian and colonial influences is evident in the design with sculptures of Shiva and other gods guarding the entrances, while old canons line up neatly buried in the central flower bed really make it a delightful experience. Inevitably, everyone stumbles onto the  beach promenade where people gather to admire the Gandhi statue and have masala tea from one of the many vendors on the side of the path, while watching the sunset (Also where we incidentally came across our friendly friend Max from Malla, a very pleasant surprise indeed). And if you walk far enough in any direction you spill out on the busy streets of typical India where scooters are plenty, the aroma of delicious curries fill the air, and where, if you stumble into the right road, there is a real live elephant ready to bless you for a few coins.

Being an old French colony, it’s not surprising we stumbled upon a plethora of churches. One of which was “Notre dames des anges” Ian, being the art historian manage to guide Christa through the church describing architectural details and the layout amongst other things.

Even the streets were laid out in a typical grid like fashion which was very planned out, evidence of modern urban planning. The main reason was to get rid of the mosquito’s as the grid like streets create a wind tunnel effect to blow them away. If you notice how at home the grid like streets are windier than usual (in Toronto, blasting cold air plow the wind tunnel like streets downtown in winter)

Notre Dames des Anges in Pondicherry

Pondicherry provided us with our first attempt at keeping pace with the Indian traffic with our measly one gear scooter.We rented a scooter and dived into the traffic, navigating our way through a larger part of the city whilst desperately trying to avoid an accident in the chaotic streets. The main reason for getting the scooter was to head out 14km from the city to see the infamous “hippie” commune called Auroville, built in commemoration of Aurobindo, the “mother” (a term given to to female spiritual leaders) of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. This Ashram is located in Pondicherry and seeks to synthesise yoga and modern science.

Matrimandir /Auroville center ball of “concentration”

Auroville is a ‘new age’ concept of an international community in the process of creating a ‘universal township for a population of about 50, 000 from around the world. “Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity.”
The community researches and experiments with subsistence ways of living and everyone in the community has their  part to play.

With the “new age hype” and one of the most organized hippie communes, it’s a bit anticlimactic to experience as a ‘visitor’. Visitors may merely roam around the information area, eat at the overly priced but delicious cafeteria (or restaurants along the road) and shop at street stalls of your choosing. There is very little chance to see the actual community or interact with the “Aurovillians” (expats seeking a self indulgent rustic escape).Visitors do, however, have the honor of having a glimpse at the outside of the Matrimandir (the holy grail or ‘spiritual heart’ of Auroville). The Matrimander matches the shape of a giant gold golf ball stuck in dirt, consisting of a chamber lined with white marble and in the centre flaunts a solid crystal 70cm in diameter (the largest in the world) for all of Auroville (pop. 50,000) to see. The Matrimandir can only be accessed by Aurovillians which they use as a place for deep ‘concentration’ (as apposed to meditation).

Banyan tree with roots stretching from
the branches

Personally the most impressive part of Auroville (accessible to visitors) is the Banyan tree (where the inauguration ceremony of Auroville was held in 1968). The Banyan tree is both a sacred tree and the national tree of India. It is believed that the leaves of the Banyan tree is the resting place of Krishna. The Banyan is a fig plant that starts it’s live on a host tree. The seeds of the plant germinate and send down roots straight to the ground, sometimes down the trunk of the host tree or shooting straight down from the branches, giving the appearance of giant wooden columns coming down from an outstretched green canopy.

To us Auroville seemed a bit pretentious and had an air of exclusivity. But we spoke to an acquaintance who had previously volunteered in Auroville for 3 months and he said that if you get involved in the community and stay there for a while that it really is a magical place of peace and harmony with wondrous experiences to be had.

Back in Pondicherry, after a nice little tour of the old French Colony, that included a succulent “steak au poivre” and “coq du vin”, we headed out on a night bus to Madurai.

http://www.hotelcoramandal.hostel.com/ – great place to stay. Beautiful, clean, good location and the people who work there are super friendly and helpful. Rooms of various price ranges, our room was 900 rupees a night. Highly recommend this place.

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Feb 19 India – Chennai to Kanyakumari

Backpack-istan

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So, we started by flying into Chennai and heading straight for Mallahapuram, or otherwise known as backpakistan. Malla is a small, slow paced port town that seems to run on tourism. The little town consists of a few streets notorious for budget hotels and restaurants serving delicious local and foreign cuisines, specializing in freshly caught seafood. When dining at any of the street or sea view restaurants, watching other travelers wondering by while you wait for your meal, it becomes inevitably clear why this town is known as “backpakistan.” The city itself used to be huge port that enabled trade with many parts of the world, including china, Persia, Rome, and other nations, but the main attraction in Mallahapuram is the Archaeological site that surrounds the outskirts of the little town. It consists of amazing monolithic carvings of temples and sculptures carved out of a single piece of rock (apparently the second biggest of its kind in the world with the first being in Cambodia). Here you also find Krishnas butter ball (a big circular boulder seemingly balancing on a slanted slab.) It is said that the British thought the positioning of the boulder was dangerous and tried to move it with 10 elephants, but still it didn’t budge.There is also a magnificent temple at the shore(aptly named the shore temple) that really is a spectacular site to behold at either sunrise or sunset.
In summary, Malla is a quaint, dusty little town crawling with contemplative foreigners. The beach is strewn with fishing boats and bundles of fishing nets, but there seems to be a little corner of it where travelers congregate for a late afternoon swim and sunbath (we did however find a bigger cleaner beach on the otherwise of the shore temple where horseback riding on the beach at sunset is also an option). 
Seafood is completely to die for with prices that range to about 250 rupees (5 USD). Clothing and stone carving shops are abundant. Electricity availability is unpredictable and beggars (women and children alike) are very persistent. Mala is a great place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the bigger cities. At it’s slow pace and relaxed mood it is the perfect location to either start a trip and acclimatize and familiarize to the weather and new country. Or a great place to consolidate thoughts and do some shopping before leaving India. We stayed at Siva Guest house, a clean quite place situated very near the main road leading to the beach. The rooms are of varying prices, with or without A/C and the guy who works their is honest and helpful. At Siva’s Guest House, we also met a couchsurfer named Max. He’s a fun German guy with lots of enthusiasm! He has become our pseudo travel partner; only even if we bump into him by accident along the way…

Siva Guest house,  #2 Ottavadai Cross Street, Mamallapuram, Tamilnadu, South India 603 104,Phone 0091-4427443534, check in – 12:00 – check out . 900 INR a night without A/C.

Shiva’s Guesthouse – where we began our India trip


Some additional photos or view all photos here:

Our new friends in local restaurants


Welcome to backpackistan (Mahabs)

Seashore temple