The most boring blog entry ever?

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My challenge should I choose to accept it...

...find an interesting way to write about towels. Hmmmmmm - wish me luck!

It's actually more interesting than you might think. Well, it is for me (because I'm the one who's got to carry around everything that I need to live for 3 and a half months)!

So, those who've been avidly following this blog so far will know that I actually bought a super lightweight, super quick drying towel from Itchy Feet. I've not tried it but, by all accounts, it will do the job nicely.

However, before I went there, I'd actually already ordered some of these lightload Towels. Allegedly the only towel that doubles as a survival tool. Well, they arrived yesterday (I got two packs of 3, together with couple of the bigger brother beach towels).

I have to say that I was AMAZED at how small these things are. Basically, you just add water and they expand to their full size. I've put up "before" and "after" photos showing the dehydrated "capsule" and the finished product (the second photo was taken about 10 seconds after the first!)
So, having "wasted" one of them, I figured that I should try it out to see whether it actually works - I mean it's quite a small towel, to be honest (I guess that the beach towel is MUCH bigger!).
Well, those who know me well know that I take a shower once a year whether I need it or not, but I decided to make an exception and jumped in the shower and...ok, I won't go into detail on this bit!

Did the towel work? Yep, you betcha. It's so absorbent it virtually sucks the water from you. It's true that I had to wring it out a couple of times - but that's a small price to pay. And the best thing? It dries in about 10 minutes on a warm radiator! No, the best thing is that they can be machine washed...nah, the REALLY best thing is that they cost about £1.30 each - and are entirely disposable.

According to the manufacturers these towels can be used as fire lighters, slings, strainers, you name it...
So, although I thought that I would leave these at home, I'm actually going to take them with me. They're so tiny and so potentially useful that it would be a shame not to.

So, there you go, if you're in need of an easy to pack, lightweight (15g), super absorbent, quick drying towel, I can recommend the lightloads.

Just a little prick
Not too much to say on the planning front, really.
I finally got (most of) my jabs for travel. I'd previously had Diptheria, Tetanus and Polio which were still effective so I just needed a boost for Hepatitis A and Typhoid. Apparently, Hep A is normally effective for 12 months but if you top it up 6-12 months after first getting the jab, it's effective for 10 years. Which I'd known that before!
Finally, I got a prescription for 82 Malarone (anti malaria) tablets. They need to be taken 2 days before entering an infected area and 7 days after leaving an infected area. The malarial areas are typically up in the north of South America so once I get down to Argentina / Chile / Southern Peru etc, I should be fine to stop taking them.
Oh yeah. My doctor's don't administer the Yellow Fever vaccine so I need to get that sorted out at a private clinic. Will cost more money, no doubt!

And that's today's news.

Thanks to everybody for your comments / messages of support, by the way. I really appreciate it.

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Photos

liteload Towel - Dehydrated
It's all shrivelled up and tiny and wot not, as you can see.

liteload Towel - Hydrated
Hmmm, not sure that the fashion police will let me into the country with this!

Comments

[John]

Amazing
Hey Chris where do you get these? Last time I added water to my PDA it broke but a shrinking PDA that's also machine washable - WOW! Seriously, I was amazed when I got a card that expanded about 3 fold when you added water but these fellas are really super shrunk. I guess you need to make sure they are in water tight bags cause if they all get wet you won't be able to open the ruck-sack :-)

[monket]

RE: Amazing
Hahaha...yeah, the incredible shrinking iPhone! Of course, the iPhone was only there to give you a size comparison (I know that you're aware of that John, but I guess that I should make it clear to all my dear readers that you can't just order 3 lightload towels and get a free iPhone!) The towels actually (supposedly) come in water tight packaging - although I haven't actually tested the water-tighteness. I'm hoping that there won't be too much ballooning going on on my trip :) Thanks for your comments!