Going camping in africa for 6 weeks next month and need a water purifier while there, preferably bottle size for easy transport. Anyone got any experience with these? what types to get (tablets, UV ones etc) and where to find them for a reasonable price?

it's called a "CAN"...

you put it on "FIRE" tm and keep it there until it's boiling for a minute or more

:P

you can have mine if you want - it's seen a few miles (and BBQs).


it's yours for multi-denero

last edited by koopz at 15:59:57 13/Jul/08

boiling the water is not going to be feasible every time we want water, hence why I asked for a purifier so we can do it quickly while on the move. But thanks for trying

is there a risk the filter could fail? couldn't you just take enough water to drink?

like 50L per person of water or whatever?

50L on a backpack for 6 weeks?

basically it seems like I'll have to get a filter to clean particles out of the water and then probably tablets or a UV purifier to kill all the nasties.

What about one of those Brita water filter drink bottles combined with purification tablets? The drink bottle will set you back about $10.

Besides it's 20L per person per day. Thats a s*** load of water.

If you have Vehicles, Boil as much water as you can when you can, if you do find a suitable purification kit, use only when really needed.

With water there is a few things.
Organism, micro through to large visible parasites (plus plant matter/algae)
Particulates (no one likes drinking brown s***)
Chemicals (eg. poisons, heavy metals, pesticides, mining run off like cyanide)

Boiling is moderately inefficient I think to reliably kill "everything" its like 30mins and only kills crap (unless you are using a still ie. Distilled water)).
UV only kills organisms, and is reliant on you having reliable power.
Tablets are choramine or similar again only really kill living things.

Carbon takes out some chemicals.
DI units take out alot more chemicals (ie. De-ionised water).

A filter sock will take out the particulate, the tighter the weave the slowwer but "better" it works. Cermaics are essentially a better sock. Taking it to the extreme, Reverse osmosis {RO} basically only lets water through its membrane. There are hand operated RO units (Catadyn or katadin or something) but they are neither cheap nor fast however they are s*** hot and basically will let you purify even salt water.

Being realistic you will want to do 2 steps. A filter sock and a UV/chemical purifier. I Have done trips in OZ where I drank water that was filtered then purified with a choramine tablet, they taste like ass.

Don't they have funky worms and s*** in the water in parts of Africa ? And in other places its naturally poisonous ?
I'd be getting real advice (ie. not QGL)

you will need 2 stages....filter the particulates and then purify the water
filtering is easy....there's lots of bag style filters....purifying as mentioned will give it an awful taste....but safe.
are you really going to be that far away from either bottled, or at least "clear" water at any given time?
boiling has also been mentioned and would work for standard tap water when OS in a 3rd world country but bottled water is best...

go try an army disposal or camping store for nice portable filter bags and tablets.

Just harden up and drink the water.

Besides it's 20L per person per day. Thats a s*** load of water.

no it isn't, they recommend 6 glasses a day. which is what a litre and half or 2 litres tops. you can survive perfectly fine on less.

even so, i wouldn't want to rely on available water. but if you are backpacking, then fair enough.

make sure you carry some ORT sachets if you want to drink dodgy water though.

Don't they have funky worms and s*** in the water in parts of Africa ? And in other places its naturally poisonous ?

yeah there's quite a few parasites and such in africa to worry about (we've been to the travel doctor already and had some shots)

There are hand operated RO units (Catadyn or katadin or something) but they are neither cheap nor fast however they are s*** hot and basically will let you purify even salt water.

yeah obes we are looking is the katadyn vario, about $200 though and we'll still need to get some tablets to drop into it afterwards as it's not going to kill everything. Katadyn makes some good tablets that don't taste of iodine as well so we'll probably get theirs.

Even if we could carry 50L of water, there's no where safe in africa to get it from in the first place, we're still going to need to treat tap water over there.

drink coke.

try this for some info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_water_purification

no it isn't, they recommend 6 glasses a day. which is what a litre and half or 2 litres tops. you can survive perfectly fine on less.

I'm guessing 20L would be what you'd need for not just drinking but for cooking and cleaning (cooking gear and self)?

And while you can survive easily on less than 6 glasses a day I think this is if you live in a moderate climate city where the hardest part of your day is walking down the stairs to your car. I have no idea what the temperature is wherever he's going but if it's hot and you're going to be carrying a big backpack I personally would take 4L/day minimum.

P.S I'm hell jealous! How much is this holiday setting you back? Which countries and are you cruising around in cars or hiking? Does everything get done for you (cooking/tent erection [funny word] cleaning etc...)? Or are you just organising yourself (i.e not a guided tour)? That is all my questions for now.

go somewhere with nice water in teh first place?

go somewhere with nice water in teh first place?

yawn

i took a filter jug with me to india ... where ya fill one container & then screw it to 2nd container with a filter in between & it slowly filters through overnight. it was a total waste of time ;p it took like 40hours to do about 2litres & i still got sick when i drank it!@#

add to that i rarely stayed in the same hotel for more than 40hours. for the first few weeks i just drank fruit juice & soft drinks n all was well... i'd read that bottled water in india is dodgy coz the plastics they use in the bottles isn't food grade plastic n leeches bad chemicals into the water. the rest of my time there i drank lassis, fruit juice, soft drinks & lots of soda water (glass bottles) & didn't have a problem. (although i did get a bit of dehli-belly from some foods :p)

go somewhere with nice water in teh first place?
yawn

even better, stay in brisbane where the water is safe and nice!

even better, go somewhere without water but drive.

carry all the water (beer) you need, don't get eaten by wildlife and upset some nissan patrol owners all at teh same time.

haha
yeh why walk when you can drive

P.S I'm hell jealous! How much is this holiday setting you back? Which countries and are you cruising around in cars or hiking? Does everything get done for you (cooking/tent erection [funny word] cleaning etc...)? Or are you just organising yourself (i.e not a guided tour)? That is all my questions for now.

too much, I've got no idea what everything is adding up to now, gonna have to refinance the house when we get back :(

- 4 days in the UK (south\west of london)
- 10 days in Germany
- 4 days in the London itself
- 7 weeks in Africa traveling through...
- Kenya
- Tanzania
- Malawi
- Zambia
- Botswana
- Namibia
- South Africa (Cape Town
- and finally 2 Nights in Dubai on the way home.

It's an overland tour through Africa, I think there's about 10-20ish people booked on our tour atm, the Europe stuff is all hire cars by ourselves. In Africa we'll have to ERECT our own tents and contribute to food preparation etc


last edited by WetWired at 20:52:04 14/Jul/08

i planned an exact trip for this year (minus the european stuff) but ended up pussying out of with the the political situation in nearly all of those places. i think i can wait a couple of years till it quiets down

oh, once you get to dubai you can pretty much throw out all your suitcases and clothes as everythings so cheap to buy

sounds awesome wetwired

yeh sounds like a cool trip wetwired... go snorkelling in lake malawi... that's be awwwwwesome :D

sounds awesome!!

I'm going to Europe for a month in November which should be pretty sweet but every week I have a new holiday idea that I want to do more :(