Stefan Durkacz

Two days until I start walking. I've had a sense of ground rush this week. A million jobs to do and suddenly so little time to do them. Add in trying to spend as much time as possible with my girls, and finishing a work assignment (although I'm officially on sabbatical now), and the week has flown away from me. At least now the kit list is finalised and my bag is packed. I haven't weighed it - I probably should but don't have the means to do it and frankly it's not a priority. I think I've honed it down to what I really need without compromising safety and a modicum of comfort. It's heavy but bearable, and would have been a lot heavier if I hadn't changed my thoughts on a few things - that is, got real about weight. The two big purchases have been a PHD Minim 300 down bag in their recent spring sale, and a Gossamer Gear Mariposa pack from Backpacking Light UK. The overall weight saving, compared with the old synthetic bag and Berghaus Vulcan pack I was ...

Recently I wrote about making the move away from gas canister stoves towards other, less environmentally unfriendly fuels, at least for use outside winter. I bought a Trail Designs Sidewinder ti-tri stove , which can be used to burn wood, meths, or solid fuel cubes. I did a back garden test in wood-burning mode, which I was very pleased with. Today I wanted to try out the meths burner, but also the final piece of the jigsaw: a pot cosy. I made the cosy from a kit from backpackinglight.co.uk . The purpose of the pot cosy is to keep the contents of the pot at a simmering temperature. The food therefore continues to cook when off the stove, saving fuel. The flame on simple meths burners can't be adjusted like a gas stove, so can't be used to simmer anyway, making a pot cosy essential if you plan on doing anything other than boiling water to add to dehydrated meals. I want to limit my use of expensive dehydrated backpacking foods on the Tay watershed walk so needed to get to grips...

What are you supposed to do with spent gas canisters? Throw them in the bin probably, but that doesn't seem right. As I assumed that canister gas would be my fuel of choice for the Tay catchment walk I did a few internet searches on how to recycle them, and ended up more confused than before. The bottom line, if there is one, seems to be that putting empty canisters in with other metal for recycling, isn't advised. The canisters are highly pressurised and need to be safely punctured in some way and any remaining fuel removed before they can be recycled. I even read on a US forum someone advocating puncturing the canister with a knife, then smashing it flat with a rock. I won't be getting up to any of that malarkey this summer. My gas stove is a Primus Eta Paclite. It's fast, fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly as gas stoves go, and essential for cold winter conditions. For the Tay catchment walk, though, I decided it was time to branch out and try something diff...

My Trailstar tarp arrived just over a week ago, and had its inaugural pitching this morning. It requires a bit of work to get it ready for use. The parcel contained the tarp itself in a yellow stuffsac, a bag of stakes and pegs (five of each, which I'd added to my order as they're not included when you order the Trailstar), a tube of Silnet seam sealer (included), and a very long length of yellow cord for the pegging points (also included). There are no instructions provided. This is about as far removed as you can get from buying a pop-up tent from Decathlon: the customer is assumed to have some practical nous and not to need their hand held. Once you apply the seam sealer, the tarp is non-returnable, so taking care and having a reasonable idea of what you're doing at this stage is particularly important. This is a tarp designed to withstand stormy weather, and the stakes provided are therefore very substantial. The pegs are also bigger than I expected, much bigger than th...

This week I made a big decision that I've been orbiting in ever-decreasing circles for months. I always knew it would end this way. I've just ordered a Trailstar tarp from US company Mountain Laurel Designs : MLD Trailstar (image from www.mountainlaureldesigns.com) Also in the post is a custom-made 'bathtub' groundsheet from Oookworks based near Castle Douglas in south west Scotland. So now I'm committed to living under a single-skin shelter for a month. The Trailstar is a shaped tarp meaning it looks like a tent when pitched, giving all-round protection from the elements. If all the rave reviews I've read are to be believed, it's very stable in windy conditions and not as noisy as a tent. Using a couple of trekking poles, it can be pitched in a variety of ways to suit the conditions: high with a big entrance for good weather, low to the ground so it sheds the wind in stormy weather. If I had to summarise why I've opted for a tarp rather than a traditio...