Reviews > Personal Hygiene > Towels > Britanne Aquis Adventure Towel > Roger Caffin > Long Term Report

Long Term Report - Brittane Aquis Adventure Towel
Roger Caffin

Product Information

Recap of Initial Impression

The initial impressions this towel gave are recorded in the Initial Report: they were good. The size was larger than expected and the surface felt pretty good.

The experiences I had with this towel during the Field Test period are recorded in the Field Test Report: they too were good. The towel worked well, except for a curious tendency to 'drag' when my skin was clean and wet at home. In the bush this did not seem to happen: maybe I was not quite so clean there? Certainly, this towel works a lot better than the one I had before.

Further impressions from the Long Term

Basically, the last four months have given little new information: the towel has continued to work well. It always dried the two of us (my wife and I) with capacity to spare. But this lack of bad news conceals some good news: the edges did not fray; the colour did not fade (much); the shape did not change much, the performance did not change. In effect, I can report here that the towel looks like lasting a long time, and we are happy with it.

I did comment that I would consider cutting the towel in half lengthwise after the test period was over in order to reduce the weight of the towel for lightweight walking. This could be done because even half the towel would be adequate to dry us, given the capacity I found it has to absorb moisture. However, it looks like staying the full size for a while because my wife has decided she likes it just as it is. This is high praise in fact. The alternative would be to buy a smaller size, but we like the long length of this size.

Addendum 2004

My wife and I took this towel to Europe in 2004 on an eight-week walk along the Pyrenees. We went along the GR11 in Spain from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and then back along the GR10 in France from the Mediterranean to Merens on the Ariege river. We washed it several times in creeks and even a couple of times in hot showers in camping grounds, and regularly (every couple of days) hung it out to dry off on the back of a pack in the blazing Spanish sun while we walked. The large size meant it was a little heavier than the bare ultra-lightweight minimum, but it had to serve the two of us. It survived very well, and we were well pleased with it.

Summary

Would I buy it?
Yes, I probably would. And I would consider getting the Large size so I could cut it down lengthwise to make two long but lighter towels. But this one looks like lasting for a long time.

Reviewer Details

Reviewer:	Roger Caffin
Age:	58
Gender:	M
Email address:	r dot caffin at acm dot org
City, State, Country:	Sydney, NSW, Australia

Backpacking Background

I started bushwalking (the Australian term) when I was about 14 yrs old, took up rock climbing and remote exploration walking at University, later on took up ski touring and canyoning. These days I do all my trips with just my wife. Our preferred walking trips in Australia are long ones: about a week in the general Blue Mts (east coast of Australia) and Snowy Mts (alpine region), and up to two months long in Europe and the UK. Ski touring trips would also typically last up to a week. We favour fairly hard trips of some length and prefer to travel fast and light. Many of our trips are exploratory in wild country which sees few other walkers. In between these long trips we do some day walks, often exploring the start of longer trips. On average, we would spend at least two days per week walking or ski touring. Over the last year or two I have become converted to the concept of ultra-lightweight walking, and have been cutting my total pack weight down from 18 - 20 kg (40 - 45 lb) to about 12 kg (26 lb) for week-long trips. I have been designing and making our own ultralightweight gear for our own use and maybe for sale as well. We had been using a PackTowl for the two of us for some years, but had not been happy with it.

Reviews > Personal Hygiene > Towels > Britanne Aquis Adventure Towel > Roger Caffin > Long Term Report