Growers Cup specialty coffee pouches have now arrived.

These packs allow travellers to enjoy freshly ground coffee almost anywhere. The pouches are a self contained serving of ground coffee with a filter system.  Simply open the bag up and pour in about 0.5lt of water.  The coffee will filter and be ready pouring in a matter of minutes. 

Ideal for travellers and backpackers who are not carrying percolators and espresso machines around.  Simple to carry in and out for a day on the hills.  Used in conjunction with the Easy Serve they would allow a pleasant cup of coffee in hotel room instead of the dreadful tray of sachets next to the kettle! 

You can see the range here.

Two New Dutch Oven ranges for 2013:

Petromax: Cast Iron.

We have added a new line of Petromax Dutch ovens for 2013.  They are available in 4 sizes, 3lt, 6lt, 9lt and 12lt. As and when the stock arrives there will be carry cases and a trivet / lid holder available.  Happily all the ovens have a pre-seasoned finish which gets you cooking very quickly.

There are a couple of ‘firsts’ for these Petromax Dutch Ovens, other than the first time on Touring Gear that is…

I believe these are some of the first Dutch Ovens commissioned by Europeans since the original Dutch settlers took ovens out to the new world.  Most (90%) of the Cast Iron product currently in the UK is made in China, even though it boasts an American outdoors pedigree such as the Stansport items we have previously sold.

They have undergone a subtle design change as well.  The lids are now essentially flat on the inside and can now be sued as skillet. This may not appear wholly radical but actually makes the oven a lot more usable. On a traditional Dutch oven the inside of the lid is concave and whilst it could be used as a skillet with a bit of juggling it was never perfect. 

This redesign also makes for a better seal around the lid eliminating some of the problems that other brands have where the casting is not quite right and the lid does not seal.  (Yes I also had to spend time with the angle grinder!)

The lids for all 4 sizes of oven now have a set of 3 support legs to support them when used as a skillet and they are positioned such that the ovens can still be used in a stack.

GSI Outdoors: Aluminium Hard Anodised.

We have had this product before (several years ago) in the plain aluminium finish but like nearly all aluminium camping cookware product it has resurfaced with a hard anodised finish.  This coating makes the product a lot more user friendly taking away the taste (and risk?)of cooking and eating on aluminium. 

GSI Outdoors (Europe) has decided to import just the two sizes but they are the best sellers! The smaller 10” / 25cm model has a flat base and will work equally well on a camping stove, campfire grill or in a normal oven. The larger of the two (12” / 30cm) has legs on the base which will enable stacking up if required.

The initial purchase price of these ovens is higher than the traditional cast iron however they have a couple of big benefits. They are considerably lighter than the cast iron models and being aluminium will not suffer the rust problems associated with using cast iron outdoors.

At the time of writing not all stock has arrived, still waiting for the suppliers, hopefully all in place by end of April 2013.  Please contact us if you have any queries. enq@touring-gear.com 

An intersting e-mail reached me today. It's not mine, I cannot claim the knowledge but well done to the author!

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then
throws the milk away

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy
grows.
You sell them and retire on the income

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND (VENTURE) CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by
your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption
for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States , leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to
produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why
the cow has dropped dead.

A GREEK CORPORATION
You have two cows. You borrow lots of euros to build barns, milking sheds, hay stores, feed sheds,
dairies, cold stores, abattoir, cheese unit and packing sheds.
You still only have two cows.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three
cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce
twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called a Cowkimona and
market it worldwide.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows,
but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the ** out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least you are now a Democracy.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive...

Touring Gear Blog.

Our blog went up in Nov 2012 and we have now added a few articles offering advice and opinion for Overlanding and gear and equipment selection. Feel free to turn on and tune in.

Our parcels ship through Royal Mail First Class Recorded delivery or for heavier items (Over 1.5kg) via Courier.  To ensure parcels are recieved before Christmas our last 'assured in time for Santa' shipping date is 19th December 2012 

This assumes that the couriers and Royal Mail are on target.  Others factors may contribute to a delay such as bad weather, oddly they cannot deliver parcels when there are several inches of snow or 2 feet of flood water. These problems are beyond our control - sorry....

Parcels shipped upto and on 21st December may sneak through but no guarantee is offered.  Parcels after 21st December will not arrive until after Christmas. 

Venue Update:  Seems the show will now be held at Statford Racecourse, Straford upon Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 9SE.

The traditional Billing Land Rover Show has now become Billing Land Rover Fest and is confirmed for 26th - 28th July 2013.  Barring another great flood, see you there!

The Land Rover Spring Adventure show is being revamped (About Time) and moving from the woefully inadequate site at Driffield (Site is not bad but facilities are appalling) to the Great Yorkshire showground at Harrogate.  

Show takes place on the 18th and 19th May 2013

Our own in-house production team (me) has now started to upload some product video. Our latest is here with a quick overview of Ghillie kettle accessories. 

have now laeft for the Adventure and Over;land Show at Whilton Mill.  Back in the office on 9th October 2012