TechRadar’s Wellness Week is all about utilizing tech intentionally as a substitute of mindlessly, empowering us to expertise life to the total as a substitute of getting sucked into our telephones and computer systems.
Coincidentally, a good friend’s latest bachelor occasion took the type of a multi-day canoe journey alongside a scenic river. From our begin level, we canoed 10 miles following a (paper) map to a neighborhood campsite, setting off once more to our finish level the next day.
This is strictly the sort of offline expertise I used to be craving, and an ideal instance of what Wellness Week is all about. Of course, regardless of canoeing being a distinctly analog exercise, we took somewhat little bit of expertise alongside to make the going simpler.
Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2)
Overkill? Almost certainly. Do I care? Absolutely not. The Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) is a beast of an adventure watch, a 4.5-star marvel, one of the best Garmin watches available and absolutely proved useful on our trip.
Admittedly, I didn’t need most of its extensive list of features, but the on-device GPX map of the area, combined with the compass feature, allowed me to cross-reference our location with the paper map, even when signal was hampered or I didn’t want to dive into our waterproof storage barrel for my phone. This helped ensure our boat didn’t miss our lunch stop, overshoot the campsite or miss our finishing point.
In addition, during the night, I was conscious not to overuse my phone after dark, as the flashlight sucks a lot of battery and I wasn’t getting back to the car until the following evening. The Epix Pro Gen 2 packs a powerful LED flashlight and up to 16 days of battery life, which I used to hunt around for the bathroom and clear up the debris from our barbecue dinner.
Power bank
If you rely on your phone for communication, you should never stray far without a power bank – especially in the wilderness. Our best power bank buying guide has a comprehensive list of top-of-the-range devices, but mine was a simple and likely cheap device with multiple cable attachments – similar to this one from UK store The Range – that I obtained in a goody bag from an business occasion.
With good use of my telephone – not counting on the torch at night time, turning it off whereas it was within the storage barrel, and topping it up on the second day – I saved a great deal of battery in case of any sort of emergency that (fortunately) by no means arrived, and lent my energy financial institution round to pals in want. It’s all the time good to be ready.
Speaker
During a number of factors within the canoe journey, once we hit the deepest, slowest elements of the river, we ran the boats ran alongside one another and linked them with ropes. The “mega raft”, as we known as it, drifted lazily downstream as we tossed snacks and cans between the boats, typically having a grand previous time. The piece de resistance? Some tunes, through a transportable Bluetooth speaker.
I are inclined to pack my previous Bose Soundlink Micro for these sorts of events, but if I had a do-over, I’d go for something a little bit more robust and powerful.
Pure Audio (which, coincidentally, is our sponsor for Wellness Week) does a nice line in Woodland outdoor speakers, including one that doubles as an LED lamp. That sort of two-in-one functionality would have been ideal for the camping too.
What I didn’t take…
A proper camera. The river and its banks were bursting with wildlife, from blink-and-you’ll-miss-it flybys from kingfishers, to buzzards in the sky and deer on the banks. We had our eyes peeled for otters, but never saw one. Round one memorable bend, a small herd of cows allowed to roam free by the farmer were grazing on the riverbank, and several were washing themselves in the river, forcing us to row nervously within a couple of feet of them.
With my phone in the waterproof storage bin, I wished I had my trusty Canon Powershot around my neck to capture all the fauna. So you don’t make the same mistake, our cameras editor Tim Coleman has recommended the perfect camera system he takes into the great outdoors when hiking.