New atlatl darts

Sunday afternoon I went out for a spot of archery and atlatlery. I took 3 new darts, courtesy of Nottingham atlatl - 2 titans and a 'scorpion' - a short, very lightweight dart.

You can see the scorpion against the normal darts here:

It was a beautiful day to be out, and I learned some handy lessons:

• The scorpion is really light. This means that it travels far and fast, but technique is crucial - even more so than a conventional dart. If you give it too much welly it just goes off to one side. It looks like regular practice with this will really improve my technique.
• One of the titans is plastic wrapped like my other darts (Nottingham Atlatl offers some kind of waterproof shrink wrap on darts to protect and strengthen them), and the other isn't. The plastic wrapped darts are much stronger and hard wearing, but heavier, and don't fly so well. The dart without wrapping flexes much more in the air, and just feels nicer to throw. But
  it's more susceptible to damage.
• The tips of my old darts were a bit battered and gnarled. Before this week my target had been a bike tyre attached to two heavy duty metal poles tied together at the top, and the metal had battered the ends of the darts. On sunday I realised that pushing two garden canes into the ground 2 feet apart and placing the bike tyre on top so the poles rest inside the tyre works much better.

2 more lessons from the long run

I was talking to a GP friend who's taken up running lately, and described the agonising stomach cramps that brought my long 2 day run to a halt. Apparently that was probably dehydration. Never been that dehydrated before - that was quite unpleasant. One to watch out for I think.

The second lesson is one about shelter. For years when lightweight camping I've favoured just a bivi bag, which is perfectly adequate even in moderate rain, as long as you're warm enough. It's the evening that's a problem - midges are always around unless you're up high. A bivi and bug net combination would solve that problem, but there are other problems.

1. Many mosquito nets are not small enough mesh to keep midges out, and 
2. Almost all are designed to be draped over a bed or similar, so they have an open bottom. Since midges rise up out of the ground like tiny flying zombies, this probably won't keep them out.

http://www.brettschneider.co.uk/floor%20mosquito%20nets.html

The small wedge net would be nice, except that a) it doesn't give you much space to move around, and b) the mesh won't keep midges out. The pyramid net looks promising, but would need something to prop it up. The pyramid net weighs 700g though, so combined with a 400g or more bivi, it's more than a kilo with no poles. Might as well carry a tent. It would be a nice big bug free space though.

http://www.borahgear.com/bugbivy.html - this would need a more substantial bivi in heavier weather, but is very light indeed.

http://www.terra-nova.co.uk/tarps-bivis-bothies/all-tarps/bivi-tarp/ - a bit more expensive, but being terra nova it's very light. Plus it has a pole.

Current favourite is the Snugpak ionosphere. It's a one man tent, but a bit bigger than my Vango Ultralite 2 man tent. It weighs about the same, but it's 2 layer, and the inner can be carried on it's own. That makes a free standing bug net weighing around a kilo. In worse weather the flysheet can go in too. It's Snugpak, so probably bombproof, and I live near the factory, so returns are easy in case of problems, plus it's money into my local economy.

Also looking at the Terra Nova Zephyr. 100g lighter, and probably a little more spacious, but without the option of only taking the mesh.

http://www.terra-nova.co.uk/tents-and-spares/all-tents/zephyros-1-tent/