Faudzil @ Ajak
Always think how to do things differently. - Faudzil Harun@Ajak
Showing posts with label ADVENTURE SAFETY AND SURVIVAL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ADVENTURE SAFETY AND SURVIVAL. Show all posts
23 May 2014
12 January 2014
18 December 2013
CAMPING - 10 Things a Camper Must Have – Camping Essentials
Whether it’s a family trip or a chilling out time with friends, you can always choose the luxurious rooms to stay while planning for adventures, but surely with camping you are never going to miss the fun. Since camping has a lot of dos and don’ts, before and after, a camper must also take care of the essentials while camping and not to miss any comfort. A camping should leave you with new and fun experiences each time you go.
It gives you a complete break from the hustle and bustle of daily life, the overcrowded roads, and sounds of blowing horns, nagging boss, and heap of file works, restless mind and uncountable worries. Those who are seeking an escape from their ordinary monotonous life can simply enjoy and do camping and find peace with the scenic wonders of the nature.
Camping rejuvenates you! How? Close your eyes and think of an open space, group of friends, sitting around a campfire, the dark blue sky with sparkling stars, lots of gossiping, bottle of drinks, and the sight of fireflies. It surely is an amazing feeling. You can’t only imagine but have to feel in real. So get ready for the fun and know how different it is from a usual drive to a vacation and staying in a hotel. But before you leave, check the following “must haves” to add an extra level of fun in camping.
10. Waterproof Den
You can always buy a shelter stamped with five stars, but why miss the opportunity of sleeping under the open sky and feeling the nature all around you? So the most important thing that you, as a camper, should not forget to take is your shelter-tent. A big enough, foldable, waterproof and light weight tent should be carried. It is one of the most basic requirements for a camper, without which it would become difficult to enjoy the camping trip, as it will protect you from the sun heat, the rain shower, the sneezing cold. Make sure it is easy enough to be carried and moved and occupies less space in your travel bag. Organizing a tent and having the proper equipments to make it, keeping in mind that you have enough space to fit-in your bed.
9. Bedding Accessories
Take along all necessary bedding items; to get a good night sleep otherwise you are going to end up with uncomfortable camping experience. New campers often make the wrong move when they, totally unprepared end up sleeping on cold-damp tent floor and covering themselves with a light blanket cover or sheet. Sleeping bag, extra pieces of bed sheets and blankets, air filling pillows, air mattress, or cot are few things which should not be missed. A good bed gives you a good sleep, and if you can’t have a comfortable sleep, you are going to miss out the camping fun. These simplest bedding choices will make you sleep in rest and give you energy for the next day’s activities and fun.
8. First-Aid Kit
While going for a camping, a camper should be physically fit to participate actively in camping and precaution is always better than cure. So a camper, should be prepared enough to carry all the necessary medicines to avoid falling sick. A camper must keep medicines for stomach upset, cold, fever, vomit, pain killers, band-aids, cotton balls, dettol, medical tapes, antiseptic creams and lotions, for skin rashes or itching, blisters, burning skin etc. This first aid kit will not only be helpful for the camper but also for others too. It can easily be packed at home before leaving for the camping, only if a camper knows exactly what should be included for a camping first aid box. Campers can stay safe with well-stocked personal medications in the first aid kit.
7. Vanity Box
Don’t lose your beauty while camping, keep your hygiene and stay clean enough. Your vanity box must include sunscreen lotion, a skin friendly moisturizer, wet tissues to wipe off sweat, deodorants and body sprays to keep you away from body odours, for men their shaving kit, talcum, and all other personal items like mouth wash, face wash, pain relief spray and ointments paper soaps in extra quantity and shampoo. Some other common personal items that a camper should have are toilet papers, tissues, a small handy soft towel. Additionally, a camper can also store flash light or lighter in the vanity box which can be of a great use during the camping. Whereas, you can always work out with what you don’t need for a luxurious campsite. So get dirty in the woods but be ready to keep clean with a sanitizer.
6. Easy Eatables
This depends exactly what kind of weather or climate it is while you are prepared for the camping trip. Don’t carry rich oily food or something too heavy to fill your belly till your food pipe gets over-loaded and the sound of burp echoes around. Wasting less time in cooking or taking no time for it, you can simply put nuts and dried fruits, wafers, chips, homemade dry items, fruits, sandwiches. Though it is fun heating up the sausages under the moonlight and in campfire, but it is always a better option to save time in cooking and make the camping valuable and a memorable one by giving more time to enjoyments. Tea bags and coffee pouches along with some hydrate food items should not be missed by a camper.
5. Clothes for Fun
Have clothes appropriate for the camping; do not pack your camping bag for a party. If it is cold, carrying woolen clothes is a must for a camper, along with socks and boots. Your tent might fail keeping you warm, so special consideration is basically needed when a camper is going for it in cold climatic weather. T-shirts, shorts, jeans, trousers, lowers, Capri, shoes, is what should be kept along with other easy wearable clothes for the night. Besides these, a camper should be prepared for uninvited rain season, and keep rain jacket. Weather is always fickle, you never know how it is going to change, so plan for the worst and keep clothes for all conditions and situations. Don’t ruin your camping holiday with less amount of clothes.
4. Bug Repellent
There you are, having the best time in your camp, relaxing, and deep in your fun but there is something buzzing around your ears. You shoo it away and it again comes back, you ignore it this time and enjoy your salami. Then the bug gets a place on your shoulder, sits and sucks your sweet blood, and you feel itchy there. You move your fingers to grab it but you fail, you keep scratching your skin, it turns red and you feel the rashes, you don’t stop scratching the place and your skin comes out. All your camping day gets spoiled when you find insects hovering around you and your bed. Still imagining? Is it more like a nightmare? Don’t worry; just keep all your bug repellent creams, insect killer bats, and mosquito coils, spray so that the bugs and creepy insects don’t spoil your camping fun.
3. Chuck Box
You want to eat and feel like you are home, and you take out your packed foods because you are hungry. But what is it making you starve and making you regret for forgetting the things you needed to have your meal peacefully? You missed out so many things related to the camping kitchen. Don’t make it look like a large box but a small and easy to be carried and moved, just include the necessary items like spoons, forks, knives, pots, pans, paper plates, glasses (preferably paper glasses and plates and plastic made spoons as they can be used and thrown away). Match boxes, candles, and extra batteries for torch should not be forgotten by a camper while organising the chuck box for camping. Napkins, can openers, bottle openers, tissues, are few other essentials a camper might need.
2. Camping Guides
To make camping more enjoyable, it is a bit important to carry your camping guides with your luggage. Not only will it be helpful throughout the camping trip but also will be an important source of learning about it. Such guides explain about precautions and hurdles that a camper may face. It also clears out doubts of routes and directions to a good camping place. This guides or books are helpful as in they give a proper and exact knowledge about camping; especially it has an importance to the first time campers. So while a camper is all prepared for the camping trip, there is nothing the person is unknown about.
1. In-tent Entertainments
Entertainment is another basic necessity of life (other than food, clothing and shelter), and is quite important for living. At camping, a camper should not feel bored, entertainment needs will add up spice to the fun of camping. Carry indoor games like pack of cards, racket and shuttle cock, board games, poker set, as these will not weigh heavier or consume much space. For a camper, these are the small and good fun items for a camping trip, free from dangers of getting lost or broken. Another source of entertainment, for youngsters nowadays is the guitar, they often enjoy playing it and singing with smoke in hands and enjoying gathered around the campfire.
12 December 2013
BAD EXPERIENCE - Adventure companies face new safety rules after young girl died white water rafting on perilous river
Adventure companies face new safety rules after young girl died white water rafting on perilous river
- - Parents of Cerys Potter are calling for stricter controls on operators
- - Terence Potter said companies make rafting more dangerous to sell DVDs
- - Coroner at inquest of nine-year-old said he will ask questions of government
By AARON SHARP
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Adventure companies could be forced to adhere to stricter safety rules after a schoolgirl was tragically killed in a rafting accident in Turkey, an inquest has heard.
Nine-year-old Cerys Potter died on a family holiday white-water rafting on a river where nine other tourists have previously drowned in rapids.
Today, a coroner told the inquest into her death he may call on the government to consider the introduction of more stringent safety guidelines to ensure greater protection.
Cerys Potter, who died in a Turkish rafting accident, with her mother Julie and brother James September 2008
Cerys’ parents are campaigning for new controls on white water rafting on the Dalaman river, where the schoolgirl was killed.
Her father Terry Potter told the hearing: 'There are wider public issues highlighted by Cerys’ death.
'We feel very strongly there are public interest questions which need to be asked.
'We’ve put together a lot of evidence about the circumstances of the rafting industry in Turkey.'
Cerys died when her raft capsized in rapids on a perilous stretch of the river near the Aegean Sea.
She was travelling with 11 other passengers in a boat which should only have carried eight people.
Rafting company Marmaris Tours continued to offer rafting excursions after the tragedy in July 2010.
After discovering the excursions were still being sold, Mr Potter travelled to the scene of his daughter’s death to film the treacherous conditions.
He claimed boats were being deliberately flipped on rocks so dramatic footage could be sold to passengers on £40 DVDs.
Terry and Julie Potter. Mr Potter is now calling for stricter rules to apply to adventure companies
Mr Potter, of Llancarfan, near Cardiff, says he has showed his footage to rafting experts who said the water was too dangerous for children under the age of 12.
His videos have now been passed onto a coroner who will consider issuing new guidance for tourism and travel companies.
Assistant coroner for Cardiff, Christopher Woolley, said: 'If there are circumstances which I feel might lead to death in the future it might be appropriate to make a report.
'If I think there are actions in the UK, such as advising tourism companies on white water rafting, it is in my power to do so.'
Marmaris Tours were stripped of their operating licence after Terry lobbied the Turkish authorities.
Four men appeared in a Turkish court earlier this year where they were found guilty of causing death by recklessness.
Terry Potter (centre white t-shirt) whose daughter Cerys died in a Turkish rafting accident, goes back to Turkey to experience white water rafting on the same stretch of river where his daughter died
Directors Ali Koru and Osman Tugcu and guides, Imdat Akboyun and Ali Doganay were given five-and-a-half-years in jail.
A full hearing into Cerys’ death will be held next year after a pre-inquest review looked at the evidence which would be heard.
The coroner said he will consider making a 'Rule 43 report' to be sent around the tourism industry. The inquest was adjourned until February for a full hearing.
3 November 2013
SURVIVAL - Hiker forced to eat beloved pet dog that saved his life
Hiker forced to eat beloved pet dog that saved his life: Alsatian chased away bear that ransacked camp leaving man stranded without food in Canadian wilderness
- - Marco Lavoie, 44, was close to death when a rescue crew found him
- - His vital supplies were destroyed at start of planned three-month trip in July
- - German Shepherd chased away bear, which destroyed food and canoe
- - But three days later Lavoie killed his doting companion with a rock
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A hiker who was stranded in the Canadian wilderness for nearly three months after a bear destroyed his supplies was forced to eat his beloved dog.
Marco Lavoie escaped with his life when his German Shepherd chased away the wild animal that attacked their camp - destroying their canoe and food supplies - just days into a planned three-month climbing trip.
But three days later, in a real-life display of survival-of-the-fittest, the 44-year-old killed his heroic Alsatian with a rock and ate it in a desperate bid to survive.
With no way to call for help, the stranded explorer then spent a further three months alone and starving before a search party came to the rescue.
Survivor: Marco Lavoie was just days from death when a rescue crew found him in the Canadian wilderness
Incredibly, survival experts have praised Mr Lavoie's actions as a good use of 'reason', which may have saved his life.
By the time Mr Lavoie was airlifted out of the Nottaway River wilderness, about 800km from Montreal, he had lost half his body weight, was suffering from hypothermia and was unable to speak.
However, Andre Francois Bourbeau, claims it is unlikely he would have been alive at all without sacrificing his dearest companion.
'He survived because he made ‹good decisions. Eating his dog was one of them,' Mr Bourbeau said. 'You have to be desperate, but there's no shame in [eating the dog]. He had to use reason.'
Another expert, Caleb Musgrave, a survival instructor, said the act was a natural instinct of the human body provoked by extreme hunger: 'When you start to go hungry, you get mood swings, your mind breaks, and you cramp up all over your body. Eventually, your body will start cannibalizing itself.'
Desperate measures: Experienced hiker Lavoie is said to have eaten his pet dog to survive
Found: Matagami lake, where Marco Lavoie was discovered after his solo trip turned into a disaster
He added: 'Up there, in the Canadian shield, there's little plant life to live off, so he would have been slowly, painfully dying when they found him.
'It's an amazing feat that he was able to keep himself alive this long with almost no equipment.'
Mr Lavoie's family only reported him missing in the past few weeks after he failed to return
from the planned solo trip to Lake Matagame.
Eight days into the search, Mr Lavoie was spotted by a helicopter crew, but they were unable
to land close by so rescue workers had to carry the malnourished hiker about a mile to the aircraft.
Raided: A black bear in a national forest destroyed food supplies and a canoe before the dog chased it away
Several survival experts agreed that conditions in the Nottaway River wilderness were tough and, with temperatures dropping below freezing, the ordeal would have been enough to mentally break even the most experienced hiker.
Andre Diamond, a Waswanipi Cree who lives on an island at the mouth of the river, told the Toronto Sun he had warned Mr Lavoie to stay away.
'He said it didn't scare him, but it's not a river to travel alone,' Mr Diamond said. 'Other adventurers have gone there over 20, 30 years and never came back.'
Mr Lavoie is currently in serious condition in hospital.
