Water Question

[dwardo]

Hey all,

I am after a lttle advice on water please

My friend and i are off to Loch Awe for 4 days early next month (cant wait by way !!!! ) and i was wondering what to do for water whilst out. We are in a 3 man canadian so we can take quite a bit with us but was wondering about the evidently massive local supply of water . I dont mind doing a little work for it rather than carrying it all is what im kinda getting at.

Can i just get away with a millbank filter minus chemicals then boil or ??

I am also not asking anyone to be legally reponsible here lol just your experiences thanks...

[Northern Giant UK]

I would look at the locale and providing there wasn't any heavy chemical industry, animal corpses etc. If they all check out ok then I (personally) would just use Millbank and boil well.

Others may warn about the possibility of heavy metals being present in the water but there is no (field expedient) way to remove them to my knowledge.

Personally (and I'm no expert) I'd use the Milly and boil well.

Kev

[Lodian]

Agreed with Northern giant just mili and boil you should be ok if not well youl have the number for the hospital

[gregorach]

No heavy industry up that part of the world, not that I know of anyway! Should be fine.

[Toddy]

I learned to canoe on the River Awe and, trust me, I drank lots of it Millbank and boil will be fine.
Tell you what, try SoTP there's a fair few folks on there that use Loch Awe pretty frequently and ought to be able to give you a clear heads up. iirc there's a campsite with a stand pipe not far below the dam that you could surely fill up with potable water from.

cheers,
Toddy

[Scots_Charles_River]

Apart from farm/forrestry run off and the HUGE power station, not much industry, just boil well. Ticks will be more of the health hazard.

Nick

[dwardo]

Thanks for your replys guys

The general sensus seems to be boil well and should be ok.

I think ill take a bit with us but for most of the cooking/boiling/washing etc ill use a milly and boil. Any other experiences/tips welcome thanks....

[RobertRogers]

As long as the water is not chemically polluted (and this can be difficult to ascertain) then boiling water is your best bet. Other methods including filtering and chemical additives can help but they are no way as reliable.

[lofthouse31]

i read a long while ago about an ear wax method of testing water for chemicals, somthing along the lines that if there are chemicals in the water the wax will break down and there will be a slight rainbow effect when shown in the light.
if there isnt it will just sink to the bottom.
i dont know fool proof that is though.
i do not have the text i read it from.
i thinks its best you take good provision with you as a back up incase the water is unsafe.
can anyone confirm the earwax method cos i may have remembered wrong.

[dwardo]

Just to let you know we carrried a fair bit of fresh with us and used fresh/boild for food and washing. In the end we just boiled then one cooled and filled our water bottles.

The water we took from the loch by putting your thumb over the mouth of the bottle then once an arms length down or so release fill then thumb back on. We also always did this from the canoe in deeper water. The water produced was crystal clear. Then once back at camp we rough filter through a cloth by pouring it through material. Once well boiled we either used or left to cool off of the fire with the lid on then water bottles filled.

not sick yet but that aint a sue me if it aint statement lol.