drying towels

kaffenback

Hi,

I'm planning my first tour to Skye and the Outer Hebrides. Part of the reason for planning my route is to do some wild, outdoor swimming. So my question is do people take towels with them on tours? If you do how do you dry them? Do people use other things to get dried I have read in the adventure tourist handbook of one rider prefering to use a couple of dish cloths. Any other ideas or thoughts.

Thanks

Crapaud

In the past I've used a travel clothes line like this:



Other times I've just laid the towel over the top of the tent until it's dry, assuming that it's not too windy obviously.

You might also want to consider a travel towellike this. It claims that, "will absorb 9 times its own weight in water and dry 8 times quicker than a standard beach towel".

andymiller

I expect the guy using the dishclothes was using microfibre dishcloths - ie the same material as the travel towels. don't think cotton dishclothes would work too well!

psmiffy

i take an ordinary towel bungee it over the back luggage during the day when i am on the move- in plastic bag when it rains worked ok in sweden and norway recently in rather unsettled weather

lloyd_bower

The micro fibe type travel towels are excellent for touring, dry very quickly, weigh next to nothing and take up less room. Also don't go for a bath sized one, the smaller ones are perfectly adequate.

ColinJ

Use the Victor Meldrew method !

I was never a great fan of One Foot in the Grave but I watched one episode where Meldrew berated someone for having a bath or a shower and leaving a towel soaking wet afterwards. When the accused asked how he was supposed to dry himself, Meldrew replied that he should have used a flannel. It seemed to me that it was a good idea and I've been doing it myself ever since.

Wipe 95% of the water off your body with a flannel, wringing it out as necessary. Just use a towel for the last 5%. It's easy to wring out the flannel, and the towel hardly gets damp - brilliant!

ThatGuyOnABike

i used the soft fibre lifeventure towels recently i found that though they do feel slightly odd agaisnt the skin they are really worth it. my friend had an ordinary towel and luaghed at me spending £24.99 on a fancy one, but mine was dry in at most a 1/4 of the time his was plus it took very little space. do not listen to others and go for small one, go for as big as possible, the XXL one, so you can dry yourself quickly and if used well you don't need seperate face towel cos in one corner there is a tag thing and i use that to mark where i don't wipe my ar5e. also useful if you need to wear towel i.e drape it over self after dip in chilly water.
you need a flannel for your feet anyway, disgusting shower floors at some campings plus all day sweating in trainers means you wouldn't want to use same towel as feet for anywhere else.

i take some wash line, a few pegs to dry the towels, even if not sunny they should dry quickly (the trek towels) plus they never get too wet if you shake yourself a bit and stand dripping for a moment before using the towel. oh and try not to get your hair too wet or just have short hair (like me) cos that is a pain to dry and gets towel soaked.

andrew_s

Use an ultralight Packtowel

alfablue

The Soft Fibre Lifeventure towels are truly excellent, they will still dry you when damp, but do dry very quick, and they are small and light. Note that for proper coverage (i.e. that you can wrap around you) you need XL or Giant size. Note that they make Micro Fibre ones too, but the soft fibre are better IMHO. I have used them for travelling and touring for years, no damp, heavy or smelly towels in the panniers or backpack as a result! You can just fasten the pouch on the outside of your luggage and it will easily dry out during the day.

ride_whenever

I stash one in my draw at work, they practically dry if you just flick them!

psmiffy

OK so the fibre towels are really great for bathroom activities- but if you fancy a day on the beach or if the tent is a bit on the damp side after taking it down in a deluge in the morning what do you sit on?

alfablue

I will sit on my Thermarest Trekker Chair



The days of carrying dirty, damp, bulky, heavy, fungating, smelly conventional towels are well behind me - good riddance!

(The chair weighs about 250g and fits in the Thermarest bag, it's a great luxury to have on tour, well worth the carrying. You can sit on wet grass and won't get a wet @rse!).

psmiffy

do you not end up with a dirt smelly fumigating thermarest instead

andymiller

Another vote for using the thermarest works for lying on the beach. Just brush the sand off when you're done.

alfablue

psmiffy wrote:

do you not end up with a dirt smelly fumigating thermarest instead

no, because the thermarest is totally waterproof, doesn't get damp, doesn't smell or fungate! I have been using them for years, fab piece of kit.

nun

psmiffy wrote:

OK so the fibre towels are really great for bathroom activities- but if you fancy a day on the beach or if the tent is a bit on the damp side after taking it down in a deluge in the morning what do you sit on?

I use a microfiber towel, and if the tent's a bit wet I use it to wipe it off too. I then hang it over my saddle bag to dry while I ride.

I carry 50 feet of cord that has multiple uses, one of them is as a clothes line, although there's nearly always a fence or something to hang towels or clothes on to dry.

If I want to sit on something I'll sit on a rock, or my saddlebag, if the ground is wet I put
down a large poly bag that I carry or my Tyvek groundsheet

kaffenback

Thx Guys again for making the effort to reply with your ideas and experiances. Have been trying the victor meldew method all week and it has been a revolation. Use a dish cloth for 90 % dry then a small hand towel 67p from tescos for the rest, works really well.

Cheers

richardeallen

I discovered years ago that a cotton sarong works exceptionally well. They are huge, weigh nothing, fold up small and dry very quickly if the weather is half decent. Last loads longer than travel towels as well.

They're cheap and plentiful and you can where them for that extra special beckham look if you fancy it.

kaffenback

Any idea where you can get a cotton sarong, for that Beckam look?

nun

richardeallen wrote:

I discovered years ago that a cotton sarong works exceptionally well. They are huge, weigh nothing, fold up small and dry very quickly if the weather is half decent. Last loads longer than travel towels as well.

They're cheap and plentiful and you can where them for that extra special beckham look if you fancy it.

I don't use a sarong, but I do always carry 2 cotton bandanas. These have multiple uses from washing dishes to keeping me cool; I tie a wet one around my neck when its hot.