Bushwalk Australia

I thought I would share this with you. A while ago, for a bit of fun, I thought I'd make a "survival kit" as an exercise in how many potentially useful things one could fit into the smallest space and with the lightest weight. I am not sure in practice how useful such kits might be but it was fun to do it nevertheless...

My brother was in scouts many years ago and they put together a survival kit for use in a real survival exercise in the Flinders.
His straws were plastic tubing - a bit longer as sometimes the water is down a fair crack [or in Tas - a yabby hole]
Amongst other things he had a small mirror [for signalling] and several fragments of rubber tire as fire starters.
I still generally carry this kit with me.

Nice effort. A great way to improve your cotton wool tinder is Vaseline. One cottonwool bud and a small amount of Vaseline makes two fire starters. What was the final weight?

Mirror?

I like them photon freedoms. So much light for such a small weight gain.
Great bit of kit you've put together David


Your fire starter is the most essential tool in a survival kit. The mini bic is my go-to starter for day to day use, but my wet hands last trip rendered it useless. Just took out the mini firesteel (4mmx 50mm) from my survival kit and it worked a charm.
For tinder , I carry one of these magnesium sticks which are very compact. http://firesteel.com/FireSteel-with-Magnesium/

Do your Fresnel lens have any other uses? the majority of times when I wanted a fire was when the sun is setting.

I thought there was a packet of condoms in there but they are water purification tablets!

Chris

There's no issue swallowing the fluid that comes from water purification tablets....

A

Thanks for the feedback. To answer some questions:

walkinTas wrote:What was the final weight?

297.7g including container (see bottom right of picture).

Moondog55 wrote:Mirror?

I had thought of that but then I read somewhere that signalling mirrors are quite difficult to use properly and not very effective at aiming directly at an aircraft or ground party to attract their attention. I stand to be corrected however. Also, I thought that I could use the mirror which is part of my Suunto MC-2 compass if I had to (but which is not in this kit).

ninjapuppet wrote:Your fire starter is the most essential tool in a survival kit.

I will think about including a lightweight one. I do have one but it is a bit heavy.

I use the mirror more for looking for ticks and leeches in bits of my body I can't see easily.
Main reason for using a metal container for the small bits and pieces of the emergency kit is that the metal body is itself a reflector. in that regard a section of retro-reflective tape on the outside of the plastic may work almost as well.
I always carry an emergency kit with me, but it is a lot bigger than can be placed in a plastic box as it includes a water bottle and cup plus a wine cask liner, also the map and compass, whistle, small torch as well as the toggle rope and other stuff. It all goes in a bumbag that goes on my waist when I leave my rucksack.
Also as the main need for me would be fire I used epoxy to glue a section of Ferrocerium rod to the outside of my "smalls box" to give me more than one way of lighting a fire.
Just my take on the scenario, as our needs and requirements are all different each of us will carry what we think we may need. I am more cautious than most as I do most of my walking and ski touring solo.