WORN TO BE WILD

Face it, you’ve had three months of doing largely nothing. You’ve exhausted your streaming back catalogue, played Call of Duty: Warzone to the point that Russian gulags don’t seem so bad any more, and cooked for yourself more than in any other chapter of your life. Time to emerge from your pit and kit up for a socially-distanced outdoor adventure - even if it’s only camping on the common…

Words Kieran Alger

Great escaper

Tents, headlamps, portable purifiers, map apps and more for camp escapades in the countryside when it’s time put several miles between yourself and the nearest urban pigeon.

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Rusty rebooter

Workout wearables, apparel and accessories for blasting your body under blue skies… just remember nobody wants to see you topless, so put it away.

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Multisport master

Connected swimming kit, amphibious shoes and other endurance essentials to help you ‘tri’ harder and recover quicker when the competition gets fierce.

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Happy hiker

Trek tech, gadgets for gradients, gas-powered grillers and a selection of stylish backpacks to store all of your wild walkabout essentials. Who needs civilisation?

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Sharper shooter

Flights, camera, action with the best drones, snappers and gimbals for capturing your foray into the middle of nowhere with a fancy 4K timelapse video.

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Stat sifter

Pinpoint-accurate body bands for elite athletes tracking multiple metrics; also useful for those repressed types who like to flick their mates with elastic in changing rooms.

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Watch watcher

All-day watches and wearables for 24-hour activity tracking… with the added bonus of allowing you to call your mum and buy a Snickers with contactless when you’re hangry.

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Endless runner

Pavement punishers and marathon must-haves for ripping up city streets and canal towpaths like you’re the next Mo Farah or Paula Radcliffe. Heck, maybe you are!

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GREAT ESCAPER

Forget clean underpants - make some space in the boot and load up the ultimate kit for a post-lockdown micro-adventure

TENTSILE UNIVERSE 3-ELEMENT TENT

If pitching up on terra firma is too tame for you, Tentsile’s unique multi-purpose tent will take your outdoor overnighters to a whole new level.

This crashpad for all seasons can be set up to sleep five on the ground like a regular tent, or hitched up in the trees away from the damp, the creepies and the crawlies - the ones on the floor at least. But the real killer feature is an inflatable paddleboard-style rigid floor that lets you launch it onto water.

For fairly obvious reasons you can’t sleep in it in float mode, but a tent that doubles as a lake-swim launchpad is pretty neat.

It comes with its own trolley for transport, but with a 50kg pack weight you won’t be moving too far - or too fast - on dry land lugging this around. At least the included car-powered air pump makes for speedier setup on arrival.

Protection from the elements comes courtesy of a removable rain sheet, and bugs are kept at bay with a tear-resistant safari insect mesh. It also comes with a giant three-person hammock for extra kick-back options.

£1999/ tentsile.com

NOW ADD THIS

BioLite Headlamp 330

At 69g with a slimline 9mm bounce-busting strap, this is the most comfortable headlamp you can attach to your dome. It kicks out 3.5 hours of 330-lumen light, so it’s not the brightest beam, but it’s chargeable via USB and has multiple modes, including red light and flash.

£55 / bioliteenergy.com

OUTDOOR ACCESSORIES

Grayl Geopress

Nothing scuppers an adventurous endeavour faster than running out of safe drinking water. This portable purifier transforms 710ml of the murkiest flows into purified aqua in just 8 seconds. It protects from waterborne pathogens (viruses, bacteria, protozoan cysts - urgh!), pesticides and even microplastics. It’ll even work in Dagenham.

£80/ grayl.co.uk

SeaToSummit Spark Spl 5°C

Sleeping bags are usually the enemy of compact packing, but this one squishes down smaller than a 750ml drinks bottle. At just 340g, it also weighs about the same as a can of your favourite fireside craft ale. It’s stuffed with premium goose down, and that ‘mummy’ design will help you sleep sounder than King Tut.

£260 / seatosummit.co.uk

Coros Vertix

Whether you’re camping in Cornwall or cresting Kilimanjaro, when grid access is scarce you want a multisport watch that’ll outlast your adventure… so the Vertix has 60hrs of stamina with full GPS, extendable to 150hrs in low-power mode. It’s waterproof to 150m, packs a mega-tough sapphire glass screen and even tracks your daily altitude acclimatisation.

£495/ coros.com

Vollebak Planet Earth Hoodie Granite Edition

If you’re looking to save space and weight, this merino hoodie offers maximum versatility and minimum fuss. It can be worn in a variety of ways, including as a Covid-combatting face mask, as a regular hoodie, and in the ‘ninja’ configuration pictured. It’s odour-resistant, fast-drying and light enough to use as a base layer.

£230/ vollebak.com

NOW APP THESE

Komoot

Komoot is ideal for discovering new routes and Insta-worthy vistas, on and off the beaten track. You can sync to smartwatches and sportwatches for turn-by-turn nav on the wrist.

£free/ komoot.com

OS Maps

Access 607 maps and thousands of readymade downloadable routes. The OS app includes 3D aerial route fly-throughs and an AR viewer that brings the landscape to life.

£2.99/month/ ordnancesurvey.co.uk

AllTrails

Explore more than 100,000 trail routes, hand-curated by a community of hikers, bikers and runners. It comes with offline mapping and alerts if you wander off-route. from £free/ alltrails.com

BOOK AN ADVENTURE

Micro Adventures

£13.59

Alastair Humphreys’ original bible explains the magic behind escaping your own backyard and provides the tools you need to unlock adventures on your doorstep.

Go!

£16.99

If a bit of competition is your key to motivation, seasoned escape artist Tobias Mews tells you how to turn your local landscape into a series of challenging but inspiring games.