If you read our Wild Camping on a budget article, where we camped out in Snowdonia with £80 to spend on gear, the Yellowstone Matterhorn 1 tent was the obvious choice. It was definately light and cheap but would it cut it during a night in the shadow of Tryfan? To start with, the weight …
A few years ago, we set out on a wild camp with only £100 to spend on the actual camping kit. This being the age of austerity, we decided to implement swingeing cuts (was swingeing even a real word five years ago?) and try to do the same for £80. We chose our kit here …
You may remember when we set ourself a challenge a few years ago to kit someone out with wild camping kit for under £100, so we decided to see not just what that same budget would buy you four? years on but seeing as  according to the UK’s ‘elite’ it seems that we’re all in it …
If you’re out for a wild camp in your usual UK conditions, over a few days then do you really need to be spending top dollar for specialist camping food? We take a look at the alternatives to the expensive specialist camping food that you can pick up in your local supermarket and don’t involve …
What counts as a decent brand of compass? We’ve used Silva, Suunto and Recta which tend to be quality compasses. I’ve a Suunto that’s now over 25 years old, it’s getting a bit dodgy, with something growing in the fluid, but still serves as an emergency compass. We’ll compare a standard Silva Explorer compass, which …
Navigational Skills Cheap vs Expensive Compasses Read More »
If you read our review on the Nathan Lock Laces, you’ll have realised that we weren’t overly impressed by the price for what was essentially a bit of cord and a toggle. So we decided to see how easy it would be to create out own pair from spare bits we had around the Mud …
Beast’s Tip of the Week – Bargain Elasticated Laces Read More »
We love our little Garmin 110 GPS watch. So much in fact that it’s recently clocked 4000km of use, but not before the strap gave in. Unfortunately, the strap is non-replaceable, with the only option being a £60 refurb from Garmin, which was a figure we were not willing to pay out of principle for …
The Beast’s Tip of the Week – Repairing a Garmin 110 Watch Strap Read More »
A quick Google on this will find figures that range from about 500 km upwards to 1000 km, and others that replace them when they fall apart or start developing holes. You quickly suspect the lower end of the range is heavily influenced by the shoe manufacturers and the upper end by die-hard skinflints who …
Whilst looking for something completely unrelated, as you do,  I came across what has to be the cheapest gas stove I’ve yet seen at round a fiver including postage from China. The Buyincoins Picnic Stove just had to be tried out especially as the reviews on Amazon were so promising (almost 500 reviews on Amazon.com, and …
Thanks to Tryf – Tryf’s Blog – for this idea. Finding himself needing to carry a spanking new pair of crampons on a walk, he realised that he had no way of carrying them without them damaging his kit inside the pack. He improvised by using a stud bag as a crampon bag, and does …
The Beast’s Tip of the Week – Improvised Crampon Bag Read More »
If you want what’s definitely the cheapest and possibly the lightest camping stoves going, then you’re going to have to go for a ‘Pepsi’ can stove. Often called a pop can stove, usually Pepsi and never a Coca-Cola can stove despite the prevalence of the red can on most of the links later on. The adventurous can even …
Can I get kitted out and tackle Snowdon for under a £100 from the skin up? We take on the challenge – the only rules being that any thing I can’t buy can be made up from everyday clothing most people will have (e.g. pants) and that I’d be going as part of a group …
What can you get for £15 these days? In my local, you can just about get a round of beer for four with enough change for a bag of crisps. As far as outdoor kit is in the question, £15 doesn’t get you much. The best quality bit of kit you can get is either …
While we had a bit of a winter this week up in Snowdonia, it’s likely to be mostly gone after this weekend. It did however give us a chance to test out one of the bargains of the year so far, a collapsable snow shovel from B&Q for just a shade over ten quid. The …
Cheap and cheerful running windproof. While it may have an RRP of £45, it’s available for a very reasonable £14 from the Sport Direct website. For that price, you can’t go far wrong. For the full price, you could easily get a better windproof from the likes of Montane. It’s durable, being used for a …
If you want a bargain running sock, then look no further. These are a fiver for two pairs (though the RRP is double) and are nothing more than a decent, well priced running sock. We won’t just recommend you go out and buy them, we recommend you stock up and buy a few and banish …
Cheap and cheerful running shorts that might suffice if you’re not used to more salubrious inner pants (to put it lightly). Probably ok if you’re starting out, but go for a size up! Again, we see the overpricing of the Karrimor items in order for them to be highly discounted – so we’ve reviewed them …
Anyone who is older than the age of consent will probably have heard of the Karrimor brand. Erstwhile stalwart of the walking community, it went to the wall and was bought up by a larger company a few years back. Since then, it’s become a bit like the French Rugby Union Team, in that if …
This is a decent budget synthetic bag from Gelert that makes an ideal entry level bag for summer wild camps or DofE. Filled with synthetic Pro Fibre™, it packs down into a pleasingly compact package, something you’d certainly not expect from a bag that’s both synthetic and cheap. Advertised at 1kg, we found it was considerably more at 1.25kg, …
When we reviewed the Vango Ultralight Gas Stove we thought that it was a pleasant change to find any item that advertises itself, nay includes it in the name, as lightweight and falls at the lower end of the price scale. This offering from Vango, with flashes of their trademark orange  impress on the scale …
To start with, you don’t get much for your outdoor pound when buying tents or anything else for that matter. So to find a tent that can get you out and about wild camping for about thirty quid can’t be bad. A quick google search will reveal that there’s a loyal fanbase for the Gelert …
The challenge accepted, camping out in the Snowdonian mountains with just £100 worth of camping gear was the next step. What was certain is that the trip would have to give the gear a proper testing. You could take a pop up tent onto the summit of the Ben in fine summer weather; it doesn’t mean …
Wild Camping on a Budgie (under £100) Part 2 – Out there! Read More »
Who said wild camping had to be expensive? To prove the point, it was decided that i was to pilfer £100 from petty cash and use this to fund a proper wild camp in the mountains. The only get out clause is that I can take anything I’d normally take for a day walk and …
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