Now that we have taken a look at the mental side of preperation we shall now take a look at the smallest part of your equipment you should take on your mission, the survival kit.
Before we start to put together a survival kit we should look at some things to consider and above is a graphic which shows this. On the left we see size, your survival kit could be anything from an old film container to a rucksack you can make it as small or as large as you want but remember you have to carry it. Since this is a part of the evacuation bag we will make this small, so small in fact that you can put it in your pocket.
Over to the right are “Factors” these are things to consider when travelling, will it be on land or water, hot or cold. In the desert you might not need a fishing kit and decide to leave it out (however it might still be useful for other things) or will you make a genereal kit to cover all possibilities? Will your contents work in different climates?
Underneath we have contents, on the left is food (should you decide to put some in) Remember that if you put a bar of chocolate in then you might pour it out in a hot country! Believe or not M&Ms were developed by the U.S. army for this reason so troops could enjoy a chocy in the tropics!
Stuff like drink powder, tea, coffee, oxo cubes etc., are good moral boosters. As far as solid food goes it depends on your kit size but stuff like nuts energy/ corny bars (without chocolate) are good. Another thing to remember is like medications, purifying tablets or food is that they have a shelf life, write it somewhere on the container.
Below food we have signal because its not just a case of surviving we want to get rescued too! So a whistle or Heliograph for the sun is a simple solution. Fire is important and our first priority in protection. It can warm us, dry our clothes, keep animals at bay, signal and cook.
Next we have water our next priority after protection and probably the the minimum is to have some Puritabs or Micropur. We shall look later at other methods.
Fishing is obviously food so this is further down on our priorities in the picture above you see a safetypin has a hook, or with more bound on a stick you have a fishing spear, you can also have a fishing mini-kit, with hooks, lead weights, fishing line etc. with the fishing line you can make other things like a snare, primitive intruder detector , or for lashing things together as a shelter.
In Navigation there are several items we can use, a small button compass or you could take the sewing needles and magnatise them. Apart from our priorities there are numerous things we can put in to help us as tools this can be a pocket knife, multitool or aluminium foil for making a cooking pot or signalling.
Now we will look at the contents of one of my survival kits and in future we will look at some uses and methods before going to the Evacuation bag.
Here is a few containers I have used, film can, tobacco tin, purpose bought tin and recyclcled tin from military.
Here I have one kit with the contents layed out.
Here are some general Water purifying tablets, generally one tablet in one liter of water, leave for 30 minutes. More to these and other methods in future.
This was a hack-saw blade cut down and sharpened. on the grip is self-sticking grip tape. You can cut, turn over and saw, and you could put a lanyard on it so it won´t be lost
Here is a very small flashlite from the company “Nitecore” it is charged by USB and stores for a long time before recharging.
Just as useful a tea-light and small Bic lighter
This is a small Button compass from Suunto, a bit more expensive than other models but better.
Here are some sewing needles which you can use for repairs or even as a primitive compass. Here is also a “thread help” because in cold weather it will be very dificult and frustrating to thread a needle when shaking.
At the top some thin gardening wire which has various uses. Duct-tape has so manny uses it is unbelievable, talk another time on that and to the right is some Kevelar thread. This is really strong and lots of uses. As another alternative for your gear you could put in some tooth floss to use as sewing thread.
This is the Gerber Dime, and it is really a very small multi tool, I love for my tin.
This is a small saw, you can put the loops on your hands and saw, use a partner, or you could get a branch, make a bow and put the loops on the end to make a bow-saw.
There were some other things in the kit such as flint and steel fire lighter, storm matches, whistle etc. This was just a quick look at the tin and in future we shall look more into the gear and how they are used. See some other things like knives or flashlights, and what is good or not good and why.
Stay safe and come back again, Enjoy