WARNING : READER BE ADVISED, CONTENT MAY SEEM THAT THE AUTHOR IS WACKO AND STINGY AT THE SAME TIME
I am a self confessed outdoor freak. Due to the hectic work schedules I currently don’t have time for an outing but when there is a chance, I am out on the road. When you talk about outdoor gear things that come to my mind is gear for a long bike trip or something like a camping in the woods / hills or trekking if you are my type and the list goes on. Anyway what I am essentially looking at as gear will be bags, pouches, tents, utilities etc..... The best part is the kit that I have is custom built and has costed me a little over 5000 for the whole thing which includes a sturdy bag, two pouches, a jacket, hiking boots, tent, water canteen, etc
Lets Start With The Bag :
The best and I mean the cheapest and the best buy is the army bag. What I have done, is walked into an army goods store in Hyderabad (located outside the Secundrabad Cantonment, Sainikpuri) and did some digging. Initially they where only willing to sell it to an armed forces guy, but a little bit of talking and the idea that they can make a hundred or two extra and they gave in.. So here I was with this large Army Backpack (remember those yellow haversack bags) and this is really sturdy with riveted pockets, external compartments and a big internal compartment that can house quite some stuff. Cost : Rs. 750
The Waist Pouches : Again the Army equipment store was handy, I picked up two different waist pouches, one was designed to hold ammunition for a rifle and had 4 inch by 6 inch pockets that where atleast 5 inches wide each and was handy for holding my camera and a foldable binoculars, plus some handy assortments such as string, matches, pen knife, torch etc and the second was actually a slr ammunition waist pouch which is roughly 3 inches wide and about 8 inches long and this came in handy for me to hold the foldable tripod for my camera without a hitch or the fear of bending it, plus this is a pouch that has two such holders one on each side, falling at the thighs and this way, the second one holds a small hunting knife that I use for cutting small branches when I need a camp fire and also for doing the cabling work when I set up a tent. (you have no idea how you can use the bark of some trees as a rope)Cost : Rs. 200 for both
Jacket : No need to ask, courtesy the Army store I found this ordinance manufactured army shirt and this stuff is very thick. All I did was took it over to the local tailor and removed the sleeves and restitched it. Voila, I had my own camouflage utility jacket and more over the lower pockets had internal divisions which came useful for segregating my stuff. Cost : Rs. 150
A Lighter : Match boxes are delicate things and can get crushed, crumpled, soggy and what not, so I was looking for a lighter that I could use. Zippos where the first that came to my mind, but I was on an economising binge, so a trip to a cigarette store in Abids (Hyderabad) solved the problem, where I found an imitation zippo for Rs. 200 and apart from that I also picked up a can of the Zippo fluid (Cost Rs. 110), an extra wick and three extra stricker stones for the same (Cost. Rs. 80). The Zippo fluid was obviously needed for the lighter, but at the same time it also came in handing when starting a camp fire. One important thing that I did, was to wrap the lighter fluid tin with cotton tape (the white color adhesive tape you find in medical stores). This is important, because it will absorb small amounts of spillage and also this fuel is highly volatile and can catch fire very easily and this tape coating prevents the metallic can from heating up. Cost : Rs. 400
The Tent :
My tent is a very weird thing that I built, It is not exactly a tent but a self designed variety. What I have done is purchased one of those Blue color polythene sheets that is available in any plastics and polythene store or a marriage shamyana supplies place and built it. Here is how I did it.
Materials : 20 foot by 20 foot blue plastic sheet (thick variety)
20 foot by 20 foot white color cloth (the type used for packing material)
Nylon thread and 4 inch wide circular hooks (made by bending thick metal wire over a tube)
Construction : Spread the Blue Polythene Sheet on the floor and then fold it diagonal wise to form a triangle. On the longest side of this triangle starting from the exact centre mark to spots exactly 7 feet 1 inches away from the centre on both sides. Now repeat the same process, but this time fold the full sheet on the other diagonal. this way what you have done is marked out four spots on the sheet, that form a square when joined together and this square is roughly 10 feet by 10 feet. Once you draw out this square, starting from each corner of this internal square trace out the diagonal of the full sheet and cut along the diagonal. The end result will have the full sheet cut along the diagonals about 7 feet in, on each diagonal and an internal square that is 10feet by 10feet. Now all you need to do is repeat the same process with the white cloth and then spread the white cloth over the plastic sheet. And to finish the job, you just have to stitch the edges. What you now have is a cubical tent about 10feet by 10feet and roughly 5 1/2 feet high. Useful enough for two people and has enough space. Ofcourse everything can be varied with a little 10 standard trigonometry. When I set it up, I just cut branches of the right size with my hunting knife and put them up as a square and then spread this cover over it and use stones and rope to secure it. Looks ugly but is easy to carry and deploy. Cost : Rs. 1400
Water Canteen : Purified water is very important on a hiking / field trip because local sources have chances of mosquito larvae contamination. (Trust me on this one), so essentially you need something that can hold atleast 4 litres of water per head and that will be a limited pure source for a two day one night trip. What I have is actually a leather water canteen meant for cyclists, that I bought from a local camping goods store and the one of the two genuine camping items in the kit. Cost : Rs. 480
Continued In The Comments Section Due To Space Constraints.......