Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Specifically for cycle touring subjects & questions
Jdsk
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Jdsk »

For self-supported walking and cycling trips I make Kindle books containing information on local flora and fauna, sites of interest, geography, geology, history etc.

It's quite easy once you get the hang of the workflow. Happy to share experiences.

Jonathan
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Cowsham
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Cowsham »

Jdsk wrote:For self-supported walking and cycling trips I make Kindle books containing information on local flora and fauna, sites of interest, geography, geology, history etc.

It's quite easy once you get the hang of the workflow. Happy to share experiences.

Jonathan


Yes a lot of books even older ones are now available as a PDF download to store on your phone -- I have John Murphy Technical Analysis big book for some light offline reading when needed. :lol:
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Jdsk
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Jdsk »

Yes, lots available.

But I was recommending making your own guide books etc... less mass and volume than the dead tree alternative.

Jonathan
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Cowsham
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Cowsham »

Jdsk wrote:Yes, lots available.

But I was recommending making your own guide books etc... less mass and volume than the dead tree alternative.

Jonathan


Absolutely -- PDF or Amazon kindle app on phone means even when there's no signal you have the info -- maps.me is great but remember to make sure the offline maps you needed are downloaded before you go.
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Jdsk
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Jdsk »

I don't think that we're describing quite the same thing. Homemade Kindle books can include content pages, chapters etc... not just PDFs or images.

Jonathan
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Cowsham
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Cowsham »

Jdsk wrote:I don't think that we're describing quite the same thing. Homemade Kindle books can include content pages, chapters etc... not just PDFs or images.

Jonathan


Must admit I'm not with you there. Don't know why you'd need to when you can have the whole book on your phone these days.
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Vorpal
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Vorpal »

Cowsham wrote:
Jdsk wrote:I don't think that we're describing quite the same thing. Homemade Kindle books can include content pages, chapters etc... not just PDFs or images.

Jonathan


Must admit I'm not with you there. Don't know why you'd need to when you can have the whole book on your phone these days.

Firstly, unless there is an existing guidebook for your route, you would need multiple sources.
Secondly, if you make it yourself, you can include only the content that is of interest to yourself.

For example, if I have designed a tour route for myself that includes stops at a couple of medieval churches, a national trust site, a nature reserve, and an historic town centre, I can make my own guide with the information about each site, including plants or animals of special interest at the nature reserve.

Secondly, even if there is a guideboook, most of the information is of general interest to a wide variety of people. They usually contain more information than most people use, without containing very much specialist information. So, if someone has a specialist interest in some points along a tour route, or they want to customise the information in other ways, it could be useful to create one's own guidebook, and have easy access to the appropriate information, without having to rememeber which book it was in.

It's not something I have done myself, but I can see the potential usefulness.
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Cowsham
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Cowsham »

Vorpal wrote:
Cowsham wrote:
Jdsk wrote:I don't think that we're describing quite the same thing. Homemade Kindle books can include content pages, chapters etc... not just PDFs or images.

Jonathan


Must admit I'm not with you there. Don't know why you'd need to when you can have the whole book on your phone these days.

Firstly, unless there is an existing guidebook for your route, you would need multiple sources.
Secondly, if you make it yourself, you can include only the content that is of interest to yourself.

For example, if I have designed a tour route for myself that includes stops at a couple of medieval churches, a national trust site, a nature reserve, and an historic town centre, I can make my own guide with the information about each site, including plants or animals of special interest at the nature reserve.

Secondly, even if there is a guideboook, most of the information is of general interest to a wide variety of people. They usually contain more information than most people use, without containing very much specialist information. So, if someone has a specialist interest in some points along a tour route, or they want to customise the information in other ways, it could be useful to create one's own guidebook, and have easy access to the appropriate information, without having to rememeber which book it was in.

It's not something I have done myself, but I can see the potential usefulness.


Yes I see where your coming from now -- a custom made journey planner / guide book or maybe even or add bits on the way creating your own unique book. The possibilities are amazing with the tools at our disposal now.
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Jdsk
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Jdsk »

Vorpal wrote:Firstly, unless there is an existing guidebook for your route, you would need multiple sources.
Secondly, if you make it yourself, you can include only the content that is of interest to yourself.

Cowsham wrote:Yes I see where your coming from now -- a custom made journey planner / guide book or maybe even or add bits on the way creating your own unique book. The possibilities are amazing with the tools at our disposal now.

Exactly.

(Except that on the road I'd struggle to replicate the workflow I use to create the books... )

Jonathan

PS: From earlier in the thread, but while we're talking about Kindles:

"All relevant documents such as insurance, tickets, itineraries, contacts on the 'phones AND the Kindles AND somewhere online."
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Cowsham
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Cowsham »

Jdsk wrote:
Vorpal wrote:Firstly, unless there is an existing guidebook for your route, you would need multiple sources.
Secondly, if you make it yourself, you can include only the content that is of interest to yourself.

Cowsham wrote:Yes I see where your coming from now -- a custom made journey planner / guide book or maybe even or add bits on the way creating your own unique book. The possibilities are amazing with the tools at our disposal now.


"All relevant documents such as insurance, tickets, itineraries, contacts on the 'phones AND the Kindles AND somewhere online."


I do this too -- very handy -- but also have a paper copy of the travel ( boat tickets etc ) and other important stuff just in case of a tech malfunction.
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PT1029
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by PT1029 »

I often put my travel/booking numbers etc in an e mail which I can look up on line if needed (but usually don't, as I so far have not lost my paper copy). I have a hunch my e mail might sometimes even have a photo of my ticket/passport attached.
Some friends arrived at a border crossing betwen 2 of the 'stans, in the middle of no where. They had e visas on their phones, but for some reason they could not access their visas on their phones (no signal/wifi?).
There must have been a signal of some sort, as to avoid a 3 day trip back to get another visa, a young Russian chap waiting at the boarder helped them out, and navigated their phones through numerous cyrillic script websites and some phone calls made in Russian got them sorted in the end.
Psamathe
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Psamathe »

PT1029 wrote:I often put my travel/booking numbers etc in an e mail which I can look up on line if needed (but usually don't, as I so far have not lost my paper copy). I have a hunch my e mail might sometimes even have a photo of my ticket/passport attached.
Some friends arrived at a border crossing betwen 2 of the 'stans, in the middle of no where. They had e visas on their phones, but for some reason they could not access their visas on their phones (no signal/wifi?).
There must have been a signal of some sort, as to avoid a 3 day trip back to get another visa, a young Russian chap waiting at the boarder helped them out, and navigated their phones through numerous cyrillic script websites and some phone calls made in Russian got them sorted in the end.

I keep my e-visas on my phone and tablet (except one where the country said "you will need a printed copy" but the hostel was cooperative and printed it for free) but I make sure I keep them on local device storage as well as in the cloud.

Ian
Jdsk
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Jdsk »

Yes, storing data in emails on 'phones runs the risk of it being removed as the OS or app strives to reduce memory usage.

On iOS I use Notes: free, nonvolatile, synchs across devices and with macOS, and behaves nicely with PDFs. Books or Kindle would also work but it's much harder to edit stuff.

Jonathan
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by st599_uk »

I also keep a copy of my WHO vaccine certificate which I got in Tanzania.

(Long story, NHS travel clinic said we didn't need yellow fever jab, border medical officer disagreed, as we'd already left Malawi, they wouldn't readmit us as we'd been in Tanzania. Only way to get out of the 100m gap between the 2 border posts was to roll up the sleeve.)
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Bmblbzzz
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Re: Essential stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Bmblbzzz »

So they just happen to have a vaccination point at the border crossing? Handy!
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