Liz went back to the UK over Christmas while I carried on cycling in China. At this point we had been travelling for 15 months. We knew we needed to replace some of our equipment that was either worn out or broken and we also wanted some extra bits to keep up happy and comfortable whilst we cycled through the Gobi desert. Money was an issue, despite Liz getting a good job in the UK, we needed a lot of this money to fund the rest of the trip, so we wanted to find some good quality outdoor equipment that was not going to cost a fortune.

There had been a lot of talk on the internet about Alpkit, we had never heard of this company before but it seemed that a lot of cyclists, travellers, explorers and outdoor enthusiasts were buying this kit and really liking it. From the reviews we read, Alpkit seemed to be well made and priced reasonably, so we contacted them to see if they could help us out. To our delight they were excited about the trip and were willing to offer us a good discount on their equipment. So we trawled the website and started to look through what they had. This is a list of what we settled on how we have found it having used Alpkit for the last 5 months

Alpkit Gamma Led Headtorch £12.50

Fixing the laptop in the Gobi Desert

We decided to replace our broken headtorches with the Gamma. The Gamma has one main white beam and three smaller beams in white, red and green. The smaller beams use less power and the main one and the main beam has different brightness setting. The battery pack is at the back of the torch and also has a small red LED that can flash or be constant. This is great for night time cycling, as it adds an extra light to the back and we tend to use both our bike lights, and our headtorches when we cycle at night. The main beam is great and is good enough to spot pot holes on the road or camel poo if you are in the desert. The one down side is the torch only take alkaline batteries not rechargeable, however we did get over a month of every day evening usage out of one set of batteries. Overall though the Gamma is a great piece of kit and we really like them.

Fredd £4.50 and Clippers £2.50

No not another cyclist, but some utility cord or ‘string’ as Liz calls it. Tumble dryers are hard to find on the road, not to mention unnecessary. We use this cord for a washing line and always find a way to hang it up in a hostel or hotel room to get our clothes dry. It is also good to have a bit extra, to replace broken guy lines and create interesting dens with our tarp.

The clippers are just small karabiners, we love these as they have all sorts of uses from helping to rig up washing lines to clipping our solar panel on the back of the bike.

Airlok Drybags £3.50

We use these lightweight dry bags to separate our clothes, electrical items, journals wash kits and so on. They provide an extra layer of protection from all the elements. Panniers can leak and when you want to grab something in a rain storm is nice to know that the rest of the contents of your bag are going to stay dry too. These come in a variety of different colours and have been a brilliant in the Gobi at keeping the sand out. They are probably not waterproof enough to withstand prolonged exposure in the rain or on water in a kayak, for this the heavier duty Alpkit dry bags would be would be better. But as a cheap lightweight packing solution to keep light rain, dust and sand out of our ipods and toothbrushes they are the bees knees.

Snapwires £6.50 

We tried several different types of camping cutlery, and ended up using heavy metal KFS as it was the only thing that did not break in a few weeks. We had some plastic sporks but they melted when we stirred our pasta sauce and broke when we tried to mash potato or eat ice cream with them. Folding Titanium seemed to be a good alternative. Lightweight and strong and very difficult to melt. Our first test with the snapwires was in a Beijing hotel with a tub of vanilla ice cream and some fresh strawberries. We managed to eat the whole tub and all the strawberries with our Alpkit Sporks, they did not bend or snap as we devoured the lot. Five months on the Sporks and Knives are still going strong they are easy to clean and will remain in our camping kit for years to come.

Pizza in the Gobi Desert

Hunka Bivi Bag £30

Gobi Desert Bivi

I didn’t think that something this cheap would actually work, but it does. I love having a bivi bag for camping under the stars or nipping off the side of the road and finding the smallest of clearings to make a home for the night. We also have them for in the tent as an extra layer over the sleeping bags when it’s really cold. Our first night in the Hunka Bivi Bags I was excited to try them out. We sent our original Rab bivi bags home over a year ago as we had not used them much, mainly because they were too small.  I wriggle a lot in my sleep and I also like to have my sleeping mat inside my bivi bag. So the Hunka XL was the obvious choice. I had a good nights sleep, no condensation and plenty of room to wriggle. Liz got the normal Hunka as she is smaller. Without her sleeping mat it’s perfect, but if she puts it inside, then it’s a tight fit. All in all though I was very impressed with the Hunka. For the price there is no excuse not to get one. Try some lightweight cycle touring or the 24 hour bivi challenge.

So a big thanks to Alpkit we are really glad that we have some of their stuff to keep us happy on the road. Check out the Alpkit site and see their down jackets, sleeping bags and other cool stuff. Oh and if you are thinking of asking for sponsorship read this first.

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