Hi everyone, Ive been monitoring the chat around water in preperation for our hike of the fishrivier this june. That being said hearing that the water is limited, and that as some of the sport the water was to salty to drink. I have done a bit of digging and found the SEA To Summit Watercell.
This will allow me to carry 4-10l of water (and the weight penalty that entails) has anyone got experiense with thease bottles? Should I be looking at other options?
Hi Ruben
As far as I know there are two version of the Sea to Summit Watercell, namely the Watercell X and the ST. The ST if I remember correctly is the more streamlined and lighter model but not even sure if this model or version is available in SA. Last year a group of us went camping in Botswana and used the Watercell X (the 10L version), which worked really well!
I have had a look about it seems like the watercell ST is a bit more difficult to come by, however the X seems to only be a 50g penalty, and considering that it held up in the Botswana enviroment, I think having a bit of water storage that can easily travel along over the weekend sounds like it could have more functionality after the hike.
I would also opt for more durability and versatility and I am sure you cant go wrong with the Watercell X. I hiked the fish river 2 years ago and some of my friends did it last year. When I hiked it there was plenty of water but on my friends hike last year the water was scarce and they had to carry quite a lot of water. Not sure about the rains the past season, but if it is still dry the extra water carrying capacity that the Watercell offers would come in handy. Enjoy the Fish River Canyon!
The watercell has a good reputation as far as I have seen.
We tend to default to just using 1.5/2l plastic water bottles, indestructible, as light as it gets, easily lets you see how mucb water you have, several of them means you can distribute weight across your pack and the threads tend to fit most water filters.
Worked well for the Fish for me, also means water access doesn’t get trapped at one point and you can stand the bottles up around camp. Main issue is they don’t have a big opening so can be difficult to fill in non flowing water. Solution is just another bottle cut in half as a scoop.
Hi Ruben.
I have a 10l Watercell X and it works great! It has come handy on many hikes and I can highly recommend it. We recently used it on our Naukluft hike and the group couldn’t stop raving about the shower head attachment.
You can perhaps also look at MSR Dromedary Bags.
Hans
Tthankyou everyone for the help, I ended up taking the 10l on the fish river hike.here is some key notes on my experience:
1.There where no gear failures.
2.The 10l I took was perfect, but the 4l was plenty and packaged better in a bag, so if it will only be used for hiking, I’d reccomend the 4l if it is only being used in trail.
3.I used the shower head once, but it definietly would reccomend you bring some rope to hand it from a branch/walking stick.
4.Be aware that there is a 65c max water temp limit, so I first had to cool down at a warm water source befote filling the water cell.
5.The biggest down side on the trail was the inability for the watercell to stand upright, so filling and using the bag you had to keep an eye on it if you want to use water tablets.
TLDR: Happy with my choice, a 4l would have been plenty, if it failed I would reconsider cost effective options
I use a 5l “wine sack” together with a nylon bag I made from an old tent fly sheet. Works like a charm and when looked after will last for some time. So far I’ve only lost one and that was to a crow attack in a cave. I have now switched over to the smaller 2l ones (Old Brown Sherry ones) - can get about 3l or more into it.