Our Life Walkabout

I’m hoping to post some regular updates about the travel gear we’re researching and purchasing for our trip. I chose the Steripen and the Pacsafe Daysafe 100 backpack to review first because they are unique items that Erinn and I think will really make travel easier and items that a lot of people don’t know about. Thanks to my wife Erinn’s initial research and suggestion to purchase, we can now all know about these cool gadgets.

The Steripen Journey

The first item is the Steripen Journey handheld water purifier and prefilter. Obviously getting sick on our trip is likely but the more we can protect against it the better and one of the biggest causes of sickness is bad water. We’ve heard that even someplaces where the water is “bottled” it is actually tapwater put into a recycled bottle filled with all kinds of nasty little creatures. The Steripen is kind of like those ultraviolet mosquito zappers that used to fascinate me… you remember them, the hanging purple lights inside the black cage that would zap the incoming bugs when you sat outside ; 0  Same idea here where an ultraviolet light zaps all the nasty creatures in water that make life miserable. It runs on batteries and has an LCD screen that tells you how long to hold it in the water as well as battery life. It weighs less that 5 ounces and destroys 99.9% of viruses, bacteria and protozoa. It’s fast, easy, light, and effective for travels, backpack trips, and even that backwoods picnic. Much easier than that crazy pumping pumping pumping and with the added accessory of the prefilter you even can get rid of the dirt pine needles and other particles. Batteries supposedly last 100 times and the lamp light lasts 10,000 times or enough to safely cleanse 2,500 gallons of water. We’re even helping the environment by not having to buy bottled water ; ) Here’s a closer look:

Steripen and prefilter (upper right that attaches to Nalgene)

Pacsafe Daysafe 100 backpack

The Pacsafe Daysafe 100 backpack is going to be important for all those valuable electronics we’re taking including netbook, cameras, ipod, media backup etc. This pack is from a company called Pacsafe which I highly recommend for anyone wanting to safeguard their “stuff”. As you can see from the picture this pack has a slashproof material that has almost a chicken-wire like inner skeleton.

Daysafe 100

One really cool feature is the inner detachable “safe” that you can leave padlocked to a non-movable structure (pipe, bolted down table, tree etc) and still use the backpack for daytrips. As you can see from the lower pics the “safe” completely draws shut and the wire/padlock system really is pretty ingenious. The “safe” compartment velcros into the pack when not in use and has a built-in laptop compartment. The top zippered section contains the top part of the “safe” material and wire locking system.

Here’s a closer look at the locking system (small padlock included to lock through holes):

Hopefully these two items will protect us from everything from little microbes to wannabe thieves. (Thanks Mom and Dad TN!!!)