OTRSS/Adventure/Amalfi/Reports3

OTRSS: Home Amalfi: Reports: Back Next GO!

#3: Being a series of reports, observations, reflections, that supplement the journals kept on-the-spot during a 3-week sojourn on the Amalfi coast southeast of Naples, Italy.

TIPS FOR TRAVELWEAR

I just read a page of recommendations on dressing in Europe and while the writers' stylistic guides may or may not be to your taste, they glaringly omit discussion (except for a brief mention of GoreTex) of what may be the most important factor in how you dress: absorption.

Hikers, bikers (pedalers) and other active people have already discovered this, but the truth just hasn't been rammed down the throats of enough travelers: NATURAL FIBERS SUCK!! Literally. It rains a lot in Europe (and many other non-desert areas) and active travelers may find themselves perspiring a bit in almost any season, and natural fibers tend to hold moisture.

Cotton and linen get wet and stay wet, and the wearer gets cold and stays cold — no insulation. I don't recall feeling too warm in wet silk or rayon, either. Wool still insulates when wet, but it's heavy — excellent stuff if you need to exercise, eh?

Cotton, the most popular fiber for clothing, is fine if you're working near home or walking around in unstressful environments, and if you have ready access to laundry facilities including drier. Wear cotton or a cotton-polyester blend when you're away from civilization and some wet cold weather hits you, and you can DIE. Mr. Hypothermia is NOT our friend. Wear cotton in very hot muggy weather and Ms. Heatstroke may visit you. Bother.

HEMLOCK IS ORGANIC

You may find yourself where laundry facilities are scarce, with no laundromat around the corner in which to de-scunge your jeans, bikini bottoms and leisure shirts. And you may notice that natural-fiber clothes are heavy and bulky, giving you more exercise lugging your bags around.

Sure, you can just tell the concierge at your MICHELIN-rated hotel to have your laundry done; and porters always tote your luggage for you, right? You have plenty of extra cash handy for laundry bill and tips, of course. You only need be concerned with how groovy you look. And you were careful to buy ORGANIC cotton clothes, so they're even more perfect than usual.

What, you're travelling on a budget? You have to wash your underwear in lavatory sinks in hotels, cafes, airports, gas-stations, campgrounds? You're tired of wearing the same greasy pants and shirt for a week because you can't stuff enough changes of clothes AND guidebooks AND souvenirs into your bags? Or your last wool and cotton shirts were devoured by various rodents, insects and/or fungi?

What it boils down to is, you gotta be NUTS not to go all-synthetic when you travel. Good (and cheap) microfiber synthetics are lighter and thinner than natural fibers, they don't hold water, they're easy to wash and quick to dry when you're on the run, they insulate (some) even when wet, and they usually don't come pre-printed with dumb or embarrasing messages. And few lifeforms are interested in eating synthetics.

One caveat: synthetics are NOT good to wear near open flames like campfires, except for special stuff like a heat-resistant Cordura used in firefighters' outfits.

MY PREFERENCES:

Here's what I like: nylon (such as Supplex or Cordura) for outer clothes and swim- and rain-wear; polyester (such as CoolMax) and/or nylon-polyester sweat-wicking blends (maybe with Spandex) for inner clothes; polyester pile like Thinsulite or PolarGuard for insulation; and special materials like GoreTex for rainproofing. And the outerwear (shirts and trousers) is convertible — zip-off legs on the pants, roll-up sleeves with retainer straps on the shirts (which also have underarm vents). Throw in a roll-up Supplex sun hat, CoolMax bandanas and glove-liners, Cordura glove shells, a Cordura money-belt, and I'm ready for anything. Well, almost.

(A note on wicking wear: CoolMax, Capilene, and other polyester microfiber formulations and blends are made so that sweat on your skin is sucked up, wicked away, to the outer surface of the fabric, where it quickly evaporates, rather than being retained in the fabric. Soft wicking-wear fabrics are what you should have against your skin; everything else is inferior.)

Here's what I took to Italy in the spring:

3 each Supplex zip-leg cargo-pocket trousers and long-sleeve shirts, 1 of each in Navy, blue-grey, and light tan
4 each wicking-blend t-shirts, jockey shorts, and pairs of hiking socks
1 each microfibre swim-trunks and rainproof windbreaker-with-hood ('rainbreaker'); GoreTex trench coat with rainhood; and Thinsulite overshirt (in lieu of a sweater)
the afore-mentioned bandanas, gloves, belt and roll-up sun hat
1 pair each Teva river sandals and Eastland trail boots

And that's all. Well, a flashy Zuni bolo tie and a backup belt too; but those function as garottes, er tournequettes, so I'd classify them as tools rather than clothing. Oops, I almost forgot to mention my silk longjohns (unused this time).

So there's a wardrobe that's good from below-freezing to incendiary, from swamp (with monsoon) to desert (with sandstorm), from poolside to mountain track, from disco to cathedral, and everything (except my size 18 footwear) fits into a medium day-pack and weighs 3 pounds, under 1.5 kilos. And all of it was washed in the shower, hung up in the bathroom or balcony, and mostly dried overnight if not faster. Except the socks, but they're heavy boogers — next time maybe I'll double-up with lighter socks. Thin silk dries fast too.

OK, so it wasn't all microfibre synthetics. The bolo strap and hiking boots are leather. The boots and sandals have rubber-tire soles. And the long undies are of silk... So sue me.

Why all the pants and shirts? Because we walked uphill endlessly, sweatily; and everything so worn needed washing daily. And having three colors each gave the greatest flexibility. And they're so light and thin, they were no bother to pack and carry.

What could I have done without? The swim trunks, and MAYBE the lighter pants. Maybe.

(A note on packing the above: I wore one complete outfit aboard the plane; another complete outfit went into my carry-on bag; the remainder went into the checked bag. When the airline loses your luggage packed with seasonal wear, it's good to have a complete change of clothes in your carry-on, eh? We learned that when Alaska Airlines sent us to Fairbanks and our bags to Fargo. In November. Brrr...)

That's a good basic wardrobe. For a bicycling tour, I toss in some bright CoolMax long-sleeve tees and Spandex shorts, and thick-soled sneakers. (Nobody makes bike shoes in size 18.) For autumn in Alaska, I substitute heavier wicking-blend or Thinsulite longjohns and overshirt and glove-liners. For a desert jaunt, I squeeze a couple thin silk Hawaiian shirts into the mix, although I may tend to run around a playa wearing only those sandals. If I'm going paddling or expecting little dry sunny weather, I replace some trousers with nylon river pants. If I expect muggy weather, I take a couple of CoolMax runner's tanktops. All light, all thin, all drip-dry.

MONEY IS NO OBJECT?

But Holy Credit-Card, Batman, isn't that stuff expensive? Well sure, it can be, if you go to the right places and pay full retail. Or not, if you look elsewhere, to discounters.

My favorite online/catalog discount clothier is Sierra Trading Post which is a wonderful source for synthetic under- and outer-wear, as well as a wide range of cheaper-than-retail adventure gear. Their wicking underwear (short and long) is great, and cheap. Their winterwear is... well, it's what you'd expect from a retailer whose stores are in Wyoming and Reno, Nevada. Their customer satisfaction policy is absolute. I love that place! Too bad I've already bought about everything I'll ever need from them...

Here in the US, synthetic zip-leg cargo pants used to be obtainable only from pricey adventure outfitters, but now they're entering the mass-market mainstream — they're in my local Target store for half the retail price of Levi's jeans. The Ross and Marshalls discount chains sometimes have such also, as well as being GREAT sources for other fine synthetic and microfibre (and silk) clothes. Yeah, you have to look at the material content labels on some of the stuff to be sure... Anyway, most of my clothes-shopping is done at Ross. What little shopping I have to do anymore, that is.

(A side-effect of totally avoiding 'natural' fibers: Since I intend to spend most of the rest of my life travelling, it's become much easier to bypass nifty-looking clothes that I don't really need, because these are usually cotton or cotton-blends or similar material unsuitable for low-weight low-bulk travel. That leaves more money to spend on other good stuff, like electronics and maps.)

CARING FOR THE STUFF

Except for heavy Cordura nylon, synthetics tend to be a little more tender than cheap cotton. If you launder them in machines, do the washing on COLD and the drying on DELICATE, and NO IRONING! Otherwise they may melt. And like I said, stay away from campfires.

When I got back into biking a few short years ago, I consciously decided to experiment with on-the-road-type washing techniques. I developed this method:

Bike like crazy, working up a good sweat
Jump into the shower fully clothed (well, after removing shoes) and get everything nice and wet
Work up a good lather of shampoo in my hair and soap on my skin
Pull off all clothes, put all the excess lather into the shirt(s), and toss all the wet stuff into the adjacent sink, then finish showering
Hand-wash all clothes in that sink, adding some handsoap to the mix if it seemed necessary
Rinse clothes well and suspend from hangers on a line outside the window

This seemed to work well, especially since I'd throw the bikewear into the general laundry every week or two. And a variant of that method (sometimes minus shower) has sufficed on various camping trips.

But the longer stay in Italy, with no other laundering facilities immediately apparent, showed the shortcomings — the wardrobe just didn't feel clean enough, and all that handwashing IS a lot of work. So I worked up what seems to be the perfect approach:

Be real active, work up a good sweat
Jump into tub/shower clothed, as before, but make sure all pockets are empty
Immediately undress and leave clothes blocking drain
Soap-up and shampoo, get clean and rinse lightly, letting all suds settle on clothes
Add a splash of WOOLITE or similar delicate-fabric detergent to the wet mess
Pretend I'm crushing grapes barefoot — use leg motions to agitate clothes
Unblock drain, rinse clothes well (and myself) directly under running water
Suspend from hangars and clips on lines in bathroom and on balcony

This is easier on the hands, quicker, less drippy, and the clothes smell better. It's also good practice for grape-crushing, an activity I intend to pursue here in wine country.

What He Said!

"I gave up being Mr. Natural years ago. I date it back to the long afternoon in France spent watching a tepid dryer swirl my cotton jeans, T-shirts, and underwear for a good two hours while I fed it very expensive coins. Synthetic travel clothes have it all over cotton and wool. First, they're half the weight and bulk of their natural counterparts. They stay wrinkle-free — not as in your father's starchy polyester, but by virtue of soft, airy fabrics (most are nylon; a few are polyester or blends) that are also amazingly durable and, yes, quick drying. If the prices make you wince a bit, just remember: You can travel for weeks with just two sets of tops and bottoms, supplemented by some judicious layering. You save a lot versus less-versatile wardrobes, and you won't be pouring francs into pathetic clothes dryers."
(from ESSENTIAL GEAR by Bob Howells in OUTSIDE magazine

MORE INFORMATION

Performance Fabrics from ALL TERRAIN BIKING by Jim Zarka
Index of High Performance Fabrics from FabricLink
Clothing and Laundry by John Gregory, ArtOfTravel.Net (good glossary)
(NOTE: where John suggests cotton and wool, I'd advise CoolMax/Supplex and pile)
(Dress Code For European Travel) by Ed and Julie
Travel Clothing by Clive Tully via TrailWalk
How to Choose Travel Clothing from R.E.I.
Packing for Active Travel by Ann McAlpin on HGTV (warning: popup ads)
Packing for Women’s Adventure from GoNOMAD WOMEN’S TRAVEL GUIDE
An Introduction to Packing from Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel
(more items to be added)

OTRSS: Home Amalfi: Reports: Back Next GO!

#3: Being a series of reports, observations, reflections, that supplement the journals kept on-the-spot during a 3-week sojourn on the Amalfi coast southeast of Naples, Italy.
TIPS FOR TRAVELWEAR I just read a page of recommendations on dressing in Europe and while the writers' stylistic guides may or may not be to your taste, they glaringly omit discussion (except for a brief mention of GoreTex) of what may be the most important factor in how you dress: absorption. Hikers, bikers (pedalers) and other active people have already discovered this, but the truth just hasn't been rammed down the throats of enough travelers: NATURAL FIBERS SUCK!! Literally. It rains a lot in Europe (and many other non-desert areas) and active travelers may find themselves perspiring a bit in almost any season, and natural fibers tend to hold moisture. Cotton and linen get wet and stay wet, and the wearer gets cold and stays cold — no insulation. I don't recall feeling too warm in wet silk or rayon, either. Wool still insulates when wet, but it's heavy — excellent stuff if you need to exercise, eh? Cotton, the most popular fiber for clothing, is fine if you're working near home or walking around in unstressful environments, and if you have ready access to laundry facilities including drier. Wear cotton or a cotton-polyester blend when you're away from civilization and some wet cold weather hits you, and you can DIE. Mr. Hypothermia is NOT our friend. Wear cotton in very hot muggy weather and Ms. Heatstroke may visit you. Bother.
HEMLOCK IS ORGANIC You may find yourself where laundry facilities are scarce, with no laundromat around the corner in which to de-scunge your jeans, bikini bottoms and leisure shirts. And you may notice that natural-fiber clothes are heavy and bulky, giving you more exercise lugging your bags around. Sure, you can just tell the concierge at your MICHELIN-rated hotel to have your laundry done; and porters always tote your luggage for you, right? You have plenty of extra cash handy for laundry bill and tips, of course. You only need be concerned with how groovy you look. And you were careful to buy ORGANIC cotton clothes, so they're even more perfect than usual. What, you're travelling on a budget? You have to wash your underwear in lavatory sinks in hotels, cafes, airports, gas-stations, campgrounds? You're tired of wearing the same greasy pants and shirt for a week because you can't stuff enough changes of clothes AND guidebooks AND souvenirs into your bags? Or your last wool and cotton shirts were devoured by various rodents, insects and/or fungi? What it boils down to is, you gotta be NUTS not to go all-synthetic when you travel. Good (and cheap) microfiber synthetics are lighter and thinner than natural fibers, they don't hold water, they're easy to wash and quick to dry when you're on the run, they insulate (some) even when wet, and they usually don't come pre-printed with dumb or embarrasing messages. And few lifeforms are interested in eating synthetics. One caveat: synthetics are NOT good to wear near open flames like campfires, except for special stuff like a heat-resistant Cordura used in firefighters' outfits.
MY PREFERENCES: Here's what I like: nylon (such as Supplex or Cordura) for outer clothes and swim- and rain-wear; polyester (such as CoolMax) and/or nylon-polyester sweat-wicking blends (maybe with Spandex) for inner clothes; polyester pile like Thinsulite or PolarGuard for insulation; and special materials like GoreTex for rainproofing. And the outerwear (shirts and trousers) is convertible — zip-off legs on the pants, roll-up sleeves with retainer straps on the shirts (which also have underarm vents). Throw in a roll-up Supplex sun hat, CoolMax bandanas and glove-liners, Cordura glove shells, a Cordura money-belt, and I'm ready for anything. Well, almost. (A note on wicking wear: CoolMax, Capilene, and other polyester microfiber formulations and blends are made so that sweat on your skin is sucked up, wicked away, to the outer surface of the fabric, where it quickly evaporates, rather than being retained in the fabric. Soft wicking-wear fabrics are what you should have against your skin; everything else is inferior.)
Here's what I took to Italy in the spring: 3 each Supplex zip-leg cargo-pocket trousers and long-sleeve shirts, 1 of each in Navy, blue-grey, and light tan 4 each wicking-blend t-shirts, jockey shorts, and pairs of hiking socks 1 each microfibre swim-trunks and rainproof windbreaker-with-hood ('rainbreaker'); GoreTex trench coat with rainhood; and Thinsulite overshirt (in lieu of a sweater) the afore-mentioned bandanas, gloves, belt and roll-up sun hat 1 pair each Teva river sandals and Eastland trail boots And that's all. Well, a flashy Zuni bolo tie and a backup belt too; but those function as garottes, er tournequettes, so I'd classify them as tools rather than clothing. Oops, I almost forgot to mention my silk longjohns (unused this time). So there's a wardrobe that's good from below-freezing to incendiary, from swamp (with monsoon) to desert (with sandstorm), from poolside to mountain track, from disco to cathedral, and everything (except my size 18 footwear) fits into a medium day-pack and weighs 3 pounds, under 1.5 kilos. And all of it was washed in the shower, hung up in the bathroom or balcony, and mostly dried overnight if not faster. Except the socks, but they're heavy boogers — next time maybe I'll double-up with lighter socks. Thin silk dries fast too. OK, so it wasn't all microfibre synthetics. The bolo strap and hiking boots are leather. The boots and sandals have rubber-tire soles. And the long undies are of silk... So sue me. Why all the pants and shirts? Because we walked uphill endlessly, sweatily; and everything so worn needed washing daily. And having three colors each gave the greatest flexibility. And they're so light and thin, they were no bother to pack and carry. What could I have done without? The swim trunks, and MAYBE the lighter pants. Maybe. (A note on packing the above: I wore one complete outfit aboard the plane; another complete outfit went into my carry-on bag; the remainder went into the checked bag. When the airline loses your luggage packed with seasonal wear, it's good to have a complete change of clothes in your carry-on, eh? We learned that when Alaska Airlines sent us to Fairbanks and our bags to Fargo. In November. Brrr...) That's a good basic wardrobe. For a bicycling tour, I toss in some bright CoolMax long-sleeve tees and Spandex shorts, and thick-soled sneakers. (Nobody makes bike shoes in size 18.) For autumn in Alaska, I substitute heavier wicking-blend or Thinsulite longjohns and overshirt and glove-liners. For a desert jaunt, I squeeze a couple thin silk Hawaiian shirts into the mix, although I may tend to run around a playa wearing only those sandals. If I'm going paddling or expecting little dry sunny weather, I replace some trousers with nylon river pants. If I expect muggy weather, I take a couple of CoolMax runner's tanktops. All light, all thin, all drip-dry.
MONEY IS NO OBJECT? But Holy Credit-Card, Batman, isn't that stuff expensive? Well sure, it can be, if you go to the right places and pay full retail. Or not, if you look elsewhere, to discounters. My favorite online/catalog discount clothier is Sierra Trading Post which is a wonderful source for synthetic under- and outer-wear, as well as a wide range of cheaper-than-retail adventure gear. Their wicking underwear (short and long) is great, and cheap. Their winterwear is... well, it's what you'd expect from a retailer whose stores are in Wyoming and Reno, Nevada. Their customer satisfaction policy is absolute. I love that place! Too bad I've already bought about everything I'll ever need from them... Here in the US, synthetic zip-leg cargo pants used to be obtainable only from pricey adventure outfitters, but now they're entering the mass-market mainstream — they're in my local Target store for half the retail price of Levi's jeans. The Ross and Marshalls discount chains sometimes have such also, as well as being GREAT sources for other fine synthetic and microfibre (and silk) clothes. Yeah, you have to look at the material content labels on some of the stuff to be sure... Anyway, most of my clothes-shopping is done at Ross. What little shopping I have to do anymore, that is. (A side-effect of totally avoiding 'natural' fibers: Since I intend to spend most of the rest of my life travelling, it's become much easier to bypass nifty-looking clothes that I don't really need, because these are usually cotton or cotton-blends or similar material unsuitable for low-weight low-bulk travel. That leaves more money to spend on other good stuff, like electronics and maps.)
CARING FOR THE STUFF Except for heavy Cordura nylon, synthetics tend to be a little more tender than cheap cotton. If you launder them in machines, do the washing on COLD and the drying on DELICATE, and NO IRONING! Otherwise they may melt. And like I said, stay away from campfires. When I got back into biking a few short years ago, I consciously decided to experiment with on-the-road-type washing techniques. I developed this method: Bike like crazy, working up a good sweat Jump into the shower fully clothed (well, after removing shoes) and get everything nice and wet Work up a good lather of shampoo in my hair and soap on my skin Pull off all clothes, put all the excess lather into the shirt(s), and toss all the wet stuff into the adjacent sink, then finish showering Hand-wash all clothes in that sink, adding some handsoap to the mix if it seemed necessary Rinse clothes well and suspend from hangers on a line outside the window This seemed to work well, especially since I'd throw the bikewear into the general laundry every week or two. And a variant of that method (sometimes minus shower) has sufficed on various camping trips. But the longer stay in Italy, with no other laundering facilities immediately apparent, showed the shortcomings — the wardrobe just didn't feel clean enough, and all that handwashing IS a lot of work. So I worked up what seems to be the perfect approach: Be real active, work up a good sweat Jump into tub/shower clothed, as before, but make sure all pockets are empty Immediately undress and leave clothes blocking drain Soap-up and shampoo, get clean and rinse lightly, letting all suds settle on clothes Add a splash of WOOLITE or similar delicate-fabric detergent to the wet mess Pretend I'm crushing grapes barefoot — use leg motions to agitate clothes Unblock drain, rinse clothes well (and myself) directly under running water Suspend from hangars and clips on lines in bathroom and on balcony This is easier on the hands, quicker, less drippy, and the clothes smell better. It's also good practice for grape-crushing, an activity I intend to pursue here in wine country.
What He Said! "I gave up being Mr. Natural years ago. I date it back to the long afternoon in France spent watching a tepid dryer swirl my cotton jeans, T-shirts, and underwear for a good two hours while I fed it very expensive coins. Synthetic travel clothes have it all over cotton and wool. First, they're half the weight and bulk of their natural counterparts. They stay wrinkle-free — not as in your father's starchy polyester, but by virtue of soft, airy fabrics (most are nylon; a few are polyester or blends) that are also amazingly durable and, yes, quick drying. If the prices make you wince a bit, just remember: You can travel for weeks with just two sets of tops and bottoms, supplemented by some judicious layering. You save a lot versus less-versatile wardrobes, and you won't be pouring francs into pathetic clothes dryers." (from ESSENTIAL GEAR by Bob Howells in OUTSIDE magazine
MORE INFORMATION Performance Fabrics from ALL TERRAIN BIKING by Jim Zarka Index of High Performance Fabrics from FabricLink Clothing and Laundry by John Gregory, ArtOfTravel.Net (good glossary) (NOTE: where John suggests cotton and wool, I'd advise CoolMax/Supplex and pile) (Dress Code For European Travel) by Ed and Julie Travel Clothing by Clive Tully via TrailWalk How to Choose Travel Clothing from R.E.I. Packing for Active Travel by Ann McAlpin on HGTV (warning: popup ads) Packing for Women’s Adventure from GoNOMAD WOMEN’S TRAVEL GUIDE An Introduction to Packing from Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel (more items to be added)