I use a MSR Miniworks EX to fill up my water bladder/nalgene bottle.
If I'm doubtful of the source, I'll drop a puritab in too.
If I'm doubtful of the source, I'll drop a puritab in too.
Do you drink water out in the wild?
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normally just boil then cool...although the missus (she's in the biomedical proffession) said that even filtering and boiling isnt really good enough. You might kill the bacteria from boiling etc, but you cant kill off the toxins left behind by the bacteria...still, aint killed me yet...
Thanks for the responses guys, I notice (as suspected!) no one in my neck of the woods seems to partake! We have plenty of arable in Wiltshire so glyphosate is a concern. I'd probably try the HAP chalk streams in the south of the county as they are pretty reliably clean but the Avon up in the west isn't something I'd try my luck with! Have recently moved to South Gloucestershire so not familiar with the area yet and what would be safe! Very interested to hear that most of you are on the whole confident to give it a try.
I use a premac, and have had no troubles, having said that I do tend to carry in nowadays. Not for safety's sake, simply for ease really cos I'm never far from the car.
forestwalker
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Here in Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Finland) I'd drink almost any water out in the woods, never had any problem. Close to habitation I use a water filter, but that is seldom indeed, and mostly even then for the sake of the children. When I lived in US I used tab, nasty foul-tasting things.
EdS
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I suppose it helps that I've work with sewage for 15 years so have a higher level of resistance than "normal"
Use judgement.
In UK at lower levels I Millbank & Boil, high levels I just boil.
In Scandinavia I often just drank the water.
I was up in Westmoreland when all that stuff was coming over, away from the news and just carried on the same.
It didn't affect me at all...
In UK at lower levels I Millbank & Boil, high levels I just boil.
In Scandinavia I often just drank the water.
I was up in Westmoreland when all that stuff was coming over, away from the news and just carried on the same.
It didn't affect me at all...
I was lying in my tent listening to the radio beside loch katrine
when i heard , i never thought that it would be a problem in the uk.
It was about a week later when i got home that i realised how far
the radiation had travelled:yikes:
in those days in the hills i would drink straight from streams .
Craig..........
when i heard , i never thought that it would be a problem in the uk.
It was about a week later when i got home that i realised how far
the radiation had travelled:yikes:
in those days in the hills i would drink straight from streams .
Craig..........
It seems to me that the general consensus is to filter and then boil, but does anyone make their own filters from the materials at hand? Just wondering as I would like to make a filter from natural materials and not be reliant on modern tech.
Cheers
Mark
Cheers
Mark
A cotton hankerchief will take most of the bigger impurities out.
Boiling sorts the live stuff and we all eat a peck of dirt before we're done.
Boiling sorts the live stuff and we all eat a peck of dirt before we're done.
I wouldn't drink water in the UK. You may be able to filter particles and boil it for germs, but none of that gets rid of the chemicals that run off farmland.
Maybe in the more remote parts of Scotland and Wales it's OK. But generally, not.
Maybe in the more remote parts of Scotland and Wales it's OK. But generally, not.
When i was younger i was in holiday in boscastle, the locals filled water bottles up from a local stream, they said it was better stuff than tap water. Due to inexperience i drank out of water in the lakes a few years ago later finding a sheeps skeleton a little further up stream, it had no ill effects on me.
I drink water untreated all the time. The only time I boil it is when it is needed to make coffee/tea or for cooking food.
I have never been ill from drinking untreated water.
I don`t drink water downhill from populated areas though.
The pic of the dead sheep in the stream made me think of when my work buddy and I stayed at a school when out on a job some 15 years ago.
After a week the lady who ran the school came to us and told us she had forgotten to tell us there was a boil notice on all tap water in the area as there had been (or was?) a dead sheep in the water source.
We thanked her for the info, and told her that none of us had noticed any ill effects from the water.
Maybe we were immune
.
After all both of us had grown up before treatment of the water was an issue.
Tor
I have never been ill from drinking untreated water.
I don`t drink water downhill from populated areas though.
The pic of the dead sheep in the stream made me think of when my work buddy and I stayed at a school when out on a job some 15 years ago.
After a week the lady who ran the school came to us and told us she had forgotten to tell us there was a boil notice on all tap water in the area as there had been (or was?) a dead sheep in the water source.
We thanked her for the info, and told her that none of us had noticed any ill effects from the water.
Maybe we were immune
.After all both of us had grown up before treatment of the water was an issue.
Tor
Drank straight from a burn on Arran - sweetest thing ever. Springs up in Derbyshire have been puri-tabbed.
what farm chemicals do we need to worry about, and if so what effect will it have on an intake of say 1 weekend a month???????
thanks for your thoughts....
chris..
thanks for your thoughts....
chris..
Ha, I didn't even think of that. With that in mind, are farm chemicals the only reason for buying fancy pump filters?
I just remembered that my girlfriend's family used the stream from the mountain they lived on in Ireland as their water supply for many years with no adverse side effetcs. There's a lot of sheep on that mountain but I would doubt there was much by way of pesticides and the likes.
Cheers
Hi Chris
I think organophosphates (sp?!) are the main one really, known as a potent nerve agent and one of the most common forms of poisoning worldwide, causes a suicide impulse which some correlate to the higher rate of suicides amongst people in the agricultural sector. But anything could bio-accumulate over your lifetime to contribute to something nasty at a later date. There are a cocktail of different chemicals used in modern farming from systemic pest control in livestock to widely broadcast pesticides in arable farming. My old boss used to spray with her knapsack sprayer wearing flip flops, when I questioned her about it she said 'you can drink this stuff and it won't do you any harm'!!! Think I'll stick to a well aged single malt any day!
I'm not sure you could guarantee 'a little, one weekend a month', but I think i'd be most concerned about the one off pollution episode that gives you a wopping dose.
Leo
thanks Leo, im going to have to look up my pump on the net and see what it says about chemicals........
the once a month thing was just a guide, ive only ever done it the one time, that was at Brockwell woods seemed ok though, but who call tell with out a test kit......
thanks.....
chris............
the once a month thing was just a guide, ive only ever done it the one time, that was at Brockwell woods seemed ok though, but who call tell with out a test kit......
thanks.....
chris............
