| A major part of all expeditions is getting your kit right. The right kit for where you are going can make the difference between a cold miserable night and a toasty warm one. It can also make the difference being able to cope with an emergency or first aid situation or not. In this section we hope to build some useful tips and hints of what kit works for us. We'd love to hear from you with your suggestions and reviews.
We work closely with Nomad Travel store in supplying much of the specialist kit for our trips. If you are looking to buy expedition equipment or get travel vaccines we now have a dedicated kit page on their site:
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Get free environment specific kit lists.
If you are shopping on a bigger scale and want to get expedition kit or just want some advice it is always worth getting in touch as we may be able to get you some bigger discounts from our suppliers.
Web Tex Machete
When Nomad sent me a new machete to test of course I was excited - after all getting a machete in the post is quite a novelty. But then I started thinking that in the context of a chunk of time in the office - it wasn't the easiest item to test out. Luckily a plan came to me which killed a number of birds with one stone. Firstly I have had an old chest of drawers with no longer functioning drawers taking up space in my bedroom for months. Secondly, it is getting cold - time to fire up the log burning stove. Thirdly I had received a machete to test...
So I spent a very happy hour demolishing the drawers into wood burning stove size pieces... my conclusions... well firstly that there is nothing more satisfying than chopping fire wood - I have long since known this but was quite concerned that I may not be able to stop and would move onto the dining table, front door... Secondly that the Web Tex Machete is a well made and designed machete. Its slightly shorter than average blade I think is ideally sized and there is enough weight in it to make it effective and manageable. The only downside of that is that in achieving that the blade is perhaps rather thick and would take considerably more work on the blade to get a good sharp edge then frankly I gave it before setting to the drawers. The sheath looks durable and solid which is so essential for safe use though personally I could do without the big clip and just have the belt loops.
The true test of course would be a month or two in the jungle with it to see how it really performs and that will have to wait a bit. I do wonder how the handle would hold out and how gripable it would be under damp and humid conditions but overall a really good, solid knife which I look forward to getting into the forest.
Want to get some machete practice? You might find our tropical forest safety course is up your street!
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