Hello everyone, new to the board.
I just bought a WPG MK VII, for the specific purpose of using it on a three week safari in Africa. My question, do you think it will hold up? Also, since it seems I can't get a TAG strap in time (July 22) will the leather strap that it comes with work in a pinch?
Thanks.
WPG in Africa
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Henry Jones Sr.
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Re: WPG in Africa
Welcome aboard, Watcher817! My thought is that the WPG should hold up just fine for your three-week safari. While it isn't true military surplus, it is constructed similarly, and provided you don't intend to hang by the bag strap from any tank guns, you should have a winner.Watcher817 wrote:Hello everyone, new to the board.
I just bought a WPG MK VII, for the specific purpose of using it on a three week safari in Africa. My question, do you think it will hold up? Also, since it seems I can't get a TAG strap in time (July 22) will the leather strap that it comes with work in a pinch?
Thanks.
Obvious wear and tear points will be the Chicago screws or rivets on the bag strap, the bag webbing loops around the metal O-rings, and the snaps on the flap. But if you're carrying it as a side satchel for your clobber, you'll be just fine. I'll leave a debate as to whether or not to Scotchguard the bag to others...
And just where in Africa is this little three-week safari? Do you have and are you taking/wearing any other pieces of gear? Bon voyage, and remember the motto of many of the Gearheads around here: Pictures Pictures Pictures! That's what our Scrapbook is for!
Again, welcome!
Sincere regards,
Henry Jones, Sr.
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Luisiana Jones
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Mojave Jack
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Welcome to COW, Watcher817! Safari, wow! Sounds exciting!
I think the WPG bag is pretty tough, though I've had to resew a part of mine where some of the stitching popped. Since you're going bush, I'd definately recommend packing a canvas repair kit for a number of reasons, not just to repair your MKVII. I've found the WPG strap to be usable, but not very comfortable. I plan to replace it with a TAG strap soon. The only problem I've had with the WPG strap, though, is that it is stiff as a board. So far no problems with the rivets or the webbing for the rings.
And yes, you must post pics! (Is there an echo in here?
)
I think the WPG bag is pretty tough, though I've had to resew a part of mine where some of the stitching popped. Since you're going bush, I'd definately recommend packing a canvas repair kit for a number of reasons, not just to repair your MKVII. I've found the WPG strap to be usable, but not very comfortable. I plan to replace it with a TAG strap soon. The only problem I've had with the WPG strap, though, is that it is stiff as a board. So far no problems with the rivets or the webbing for the rings.
And yes, you must post pics! (Is there an echo in here?
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Wrightknife
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DanielJones
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Greetings, Watcher817!
The WPG bag will get the job done easily. The strap that comes with it is sturdy enough, it just doesn't have nearly as nice a finish as the TAG strap most folks get to replace it. Curiously though, the TAG strap was made from a thinner leather than the WPG strap. Shouldn't make any difference in the strength, but I was still surprised to see it.
My only real concern with the OEM strap is what was used as a Chicago screw (or should that be "Karachi" screw?) on one of the ends. The heads weren't as wide as I'd like them to be in order to prevent the thing from slipping through the holes in the leather, and who knows what kind of metal was used to make it. It might simply be cosmetics, but it just didn't inspire confidence. I would have replaced that piece as soon as I could if I hadn't already planned on ordering the TAG strap.
Still though, an excellent shoulder bag for all those little essentials one needs on a daily basis. Mine just spent a week in SW Colorado crawling around ancient Indian cliff dwellings and had no problems whatsoever. Just be careful not to overload it, and be cautious about what you put in the little pocket at the top. If anything is going to fall out, it will be from that pocket. And just to be on the safe side, that repair kit mentioned in an earlier post makes good sense as well. After all, you will be in Africa!
And oh yes, in case no one else has said anything, don't forget to post pictures when you return. Especially of your bag in action.
Have a safe trip.
Cheers!
The WPG bag will get the job done easily. The strap that comes with it is sturdy enough, it just doesn't have nearly as nice a finish as the TAG strap most folks get to replace it. Curiously though, the TAG strap was made from a thinner leather than the WPG strap. Shouldn't make any difference in the strength, but I was still surprised to see it.
My only real concern with the OEM strap is what was used as a Chicago screw (or should that be "Karachi" screw?) on one of the ends. The heads weren't as wide as I'd like them to be in order to prevent the thing from slipping through the holes in the leather, and who knows what kind of metal was used to make it. It might simply be cosmetics, but it just didn't inspire confidence. I would have replaced that piece as soon as I could if I hadn't already planned on ordering the TAG strap.
Still though, an excellent shoulder bag for all those little essentials one needs on a daily basis. Mine just spent a week in SW Colorado crawling around ancient Indian cliff dwellings and had no problems whatsoever. Just be careful not to overload it, and be cautious about what you put in the little pocket at the top. If anything is going to fall out, it will be from that pocket. And just to be on the safe side, that repair kit mentioned in an earlier post makes good sense as well. After all, you will be in Africa!
And oh yes, in case no one else has said anything, don't forget to post pictures when you return. Especially of your bag in action.
Have a safe trip.
Cheers!
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Watcher817
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Avoid foreboding temples, Check.
Thank you everyone for the warm welcome and quick replies. It turns out I should be able to get a TAG strap in time, so I would assume that's the wise thing to do. I'd rather not worry about a screw popping off if I don't have to. Also, I've received phenomonal customer service from Richard at TAG, just for the record. A few more questions I came up with:
Where can I find a canvas repair kit? I don't know that I'll have time to get it online, so what kind of store would sell one? Also, what is in it and how much would it cost?
Does any have experience with the waterproof capacity of the bag, if there is one? I'm going to Victoria Falls, (one of the seven wonders of the world!) and well, chances are it'll be wet. Anyone ever been caught in the rain with it?
For anyone who was curious, my three week adventure into the wilderness is a graduation present from my grandparents- awesome right? I'm flying to Kenya, Tanzania, Victoria Falls, and Botswana. There is even an elephant riding safari at one point- how much more Indiana Jones can you get??
Oddly, I'm also very excited about flying into and out of London, England, even though it's only a hub and I don't get to leave the airport.
My only other gear at the moment is a pretty sharp looking hat- not the Indy fedora, but a more than appropriate African safari hat- that I could actually afford.
I plan to pack my binoculars, my Aviators (there are no rules about style in the jungle), and my IPOD, which god willing will not get stolen, broken, or wet while on my person.
AND---I AM taking a digital camera- and I promise to bring back pictures of my Indy-like walkabout.
Thank you all again!
Where can I find a canvas repair kit? I don't know that I'll have time to get it online, so what kind of store would sell one? Also, what is in it and how much would it cost?
Does any have experience with the waterproof capacity of the bag, if there is one? I'm going to Victoria Falls, (one of the seven wonders of the world!) and well, chances are it'll be wet. Anyone ever been caught in the rain with it?
For anyone who was curious, my three week adventure into the wilderness is a graduation present from my grandparents- awesome right? I'm flying to Kenya, Tanzania, Victoria Falls, and Botswana. There is even an elephant riding safari at one point- how much more Indiana Jones can you get??
Oddly, I'm also very excited about flying into and out of London, England, even though it's only a hub and I don't get to leave the airport.
My only other gear at the moment is a pretty sharp looking hat- not the Indy fedora, but a more than appropriate African safari hat- that I could actually afford.
I plan to pack my binoculars, my Aviators (there are no rules about style in the jungle), and my IPOD, which god willing will not get stolen, broken, or wet while on my person.
AND---I AM taking a digital camera- and I promise to bring back pictures of my Indy-like walkabout.
Thank you all again!
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IndianaRedmon
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Mojave Jack
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Re: Avoid foreboding temples, Check.
The kind I have is simple and inexpensive. It's called a Speedy Stitcher, and it cost about $12. I use it to do all kind of canvas work, including stitching up the dog's toys when she guts them! You can usually find them in most outdoor stores. They can be really handy if you bust a stitch in your boot, get a hole in your sleeping bag or tent, etc.Watcher817 wrote:Where can I find a canvas repair kit? I don't know that I'll have time to get it online, so what kind of store would sell one? Also, what is in it and how much would it cost?
That sounds like an awesome trip! Talk to Farnham54, too. He will have some great travel trips. For that matter, Indiana Ken and crew could probably make some great suggestions on what to take to Africa, having just crossed the Sahara.Watcher817 wrote:For anyone who was curious, my three week adventure into the wilderness is a graduation present from my grandparents- awesome right? I'm flying to Kenya, Tanzania, Victoria Falls, and Botswana. There is even an elephant riding safari at one point- how much more Indiana Jones can you get??
You could always plan a trip to Wested on your way homeWatcher817 wrote:Oddly, I'm also very excited about flying into and out of London, England, even though it's only a hub and I don't get to leave the airport.
Very appropriate! I personally love the look of a good safari style hat. I know I'm not alone, either. Check out Fedora's new lid.Watcher817 wrote:My only other gear at the moment is a pretty sharp looking hat- not the Indy fedora, but a more than appropriate African safari hat- that I could actually afford.
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IndyTaz
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Bon Voyage!
Welcome Watcher...Oh, and enjoy the trip 
Re: Avoid foreboding temples, Check.
Would like to see a pic of that hat, too. I'm a big fan of good old Allan Quatermain (the original one by Haggard, not the Richard Chamberlain-Quatermain).Watcher817 wrote:My only other gear at the moment is a pretty sharp looking hat- not the Indy fedora, but a more than appropriate African safari hat- that I could actually afford.
Safari
OK, some advice from a guy who lived in a village in Kenya for a couple years (US Peace Corps).
Your safari may or may not be quite so adventurous. Most of the "safaris" I saw were a bunch of people staying in quite luxurious hotels in the game parks, stuffing themselves on overflowing buffets, and riding around in giant vehicles during the day. There are some camping safaris where you sleep out in the bush, and that's a bit more fun I guess. There are also hot air balloon safaris.
During my three months of training in Naivasha (in the Rift Valley), I went on some much cheaper and more primitive safaris. We would usually just hire one of the guys hosting one of the volunteers to give us a ride out to a game park in his matatu (collective taxi bus, usually a small pickup with a steel camper-like contraption replacing the bed and a couple of benches on each side). We went on one trip like that and all got out to take photos of a male lion lying in the grass a several dozen meters away. All of a sudden a lioness stood up about halfway between us and the male. Man, you should have seen us scramble into the back of the matatu and shut the door! One guy stupidly climbed on top where the luggage is usually stowed, and we reached out and dragged him inside.
When I eventually moved to my permanent site, I lived an hour or two walk away from south end of Aberdare N.P. I went in once alone and there were elephant trails the size of jeep roads. The forest was full of brightly colored Turaco birds, Guinon and Colobus monkeys. Man, now that was a fun and scary way to go on safari... alone and on foot in the African forest.
One time I travelled with some other volunteers from Isiolo to Mandera, Kenya through the desert via Wajir. Mandera is in the far northeast corner of Kenya near the Somali border. We started out by hitching a ride with some Kenyan soldiers in their giant Mercedes truck complete with turret hole on top. I was behind the seats with rifles poking me in the back. Later in Wajir, we watched craftsmen make camel bells out of wood, and bought a few when finished. We also visited the camel auction. We tried the bus the next day, but most of the guys abandoned the hot overcrowded bus, and let the rest, including all the women, have that fun, torturous experience. Instead I hitched a ride on a gigantic lorry carrying stuff in giant bags and some very pretty young Somali women. (Somali and Ethiopian girls are often amazingly pretty.) Nearing Mandera, the guys told us they were taking a "shortcut" and took us right along the Somali border. They tried to scare us by telling us the camp fires we saw over the border were Somali raiders/poachers. In Mandera, we bought Myrhh, Frankincense, nice Somali fabrics, primitively packaged indigo powder, and other stuff as souvenirs in the suq market. We got a tour from a doctor of the TB colony (no close contact)....
Well, I guess the point is, that getting off the standard tourist route can lead to some real adventures. I have many more stories of trips like this in Kenya and Egypt. If you get the opportunity, take a day to visit ordinary Africans out in the countryside away from the game parks. You'll probably be treated like royalty and invited in for dinner and a place to stay.
Parsa
Your safari may or may not be quite so adventurous. Most of the "safaris" I saw were a bunch of people staying in quite luxurious hotels in the game parks, stuffing themselves on overflowing buffets, and riding around in giant vehicles during the day. There are some camping safaris where you sleep out in the bush, and that's a bit more fun I guess. There are also hot air balloon safaris.
During my three months of training in Naivasha (in the Rift Valley), I went on some much cheaper and more primitive safaris. We would usually just hire one of the guys hosting one of the volunteers to give us a ride out to a game park in his matatu (collective taxi bus, usually a small pickup with a steel camper-like contraption replacing the bed and a couple of benches on each side). We went on one trip like that and all got out to take photos of a male lion lying in the grass a several dozen meters away. All of a sudden a lioness stood up about halfway between us and the male. Man, you should have seen us scramble into the back of the matatu and shut the door! One guy stupidly climbed on top where the luggage is usually stowed, and we reached out and dragged him inside.
When I eventually moved to my permanent site, I lived an hour or two walk away from south end of Aberdare N.P. I went in once alone and there were elephant trails the size of jeep roads. The forest was full of brightly colored Turaco birds, Guinon and Colobus monkeys. Man, now that was a fun and scary way to go on safari... alone and on foot in the African forest.
One time I travelled with some other volunteers from Isiolo to Mandera, Kenya through the desert via Wajir. Mandera is in the far northeast corner of Kenya near the Somali border. We started out by hitching a ride with some Kenyan soldiers in their giant Mercedes truck complete with turret hole on top. I was behind the seats with rifles poking me in the back. Later in Wajir, we watched craftsmen make camel bells out of wood, and bought a few when finished. We also visited the camel auction. We tried the bus the next day, but most of the guys abandoned the hot overcrowded bus, and let the rest, including all the women, have that fun, torturous experience. Instead I hitched a ride on a gigantic lorry carrying stuff in giant bags and some very pretty young Somali women. (Somali and Ethiopian girls are often amazingly pretty.) Nearing Mandera, the guys told us they were taking a "shortcut" and took us right along the Somali border. They tried to scare us by telling us the camp fires we saw over the border were Somali raiders/poachers. In Mandera, we bought Myrhh, Frankincense, nice Somali fabrics, primitively packaged indigo powder, and other stuff as souvenirs in the suq market. We got a tour from a doctor of the TB colony (no close contact)....
Well, I guess the point is, that getting off the standard tourist route can lead to some real adventures. I have many more stories of trips like this in Kenya and Egypt. If you get the opportunity, take a day to visit ordinary Africans out in the countryside away from the game parks. You'll probably be treated like royalty and invited in for dinner and a place to stay.
Parsa
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Wrightknife
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Sounds as if you'll have a great time in Africa, and I look forward to seeing the pictures. -
J_Weaver
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Re: Safari
Now that sounds like fun. I always liked the places where the tourist aren't. Feraud said be careful though. But I've found that in many ways if its not dangerous its not much fun. Of course I'm also the guys that ends up hanging off of a rock saying I didn't think that piece would hold.parsa wrote: Well, I guess the point is, that getting off the standard tourist route can lead to some real adventures. I have many more stories of trips like this in Kenya and Egypt. If you get the opportunity, take a day to visit ordinary Africans out in the countryside away from the game parks. You'll probably be treated like royalty and invited in for dinner and a place to stay.
In Kenya you do have to watch out for theft, but Kenyan businessmen and women are usually honest with you as far as prices are concerned. Most theft occurs in tourist areas and in Nairobi. I don't recommend bringing expensive gadgets like the iPod. If you use it where anyone can see it, you may become a mark. I tend to forget about the bad things because of all the very many good things that happened to me. When I start to tally the thefts, cons, and near-thefts, it was a few to be sure. Fortunately, we were warned and had role played con-game events, and how to protect our valuables. I had the money-drop con tried on me three times, and a variation on the Ugandan medical student con tried on me twice (all in Nairobi). However, my closest easy-to-get-to town was Nairobi, while most volunteers went to more rural towns for hard to find groceries and goods, so I saw this stuff more often. I also had a check book picked from my back pocket near the Hilton by someone who thought it was a wallet. Probably the worst thing was while staying on the remote tourist destination of Lamu Island, where the house boys made my friend and I a dinner seemingly laced with a sleeping potion. We awoke quite late to find all our money gone. All these things happened in tourist areas, not my village, and I was there for over two years, not just a few days. At least I have colorful stories to tell.
In Egypt, things were just the opposite. Nobody ever thought about robbing me. The penalty was probably a severed hand or something. However, if you were stupid enough to accept inflated prices, the businessmen would rob you in their own way.
To illustrate one out of many incidents, once while in Luxor, I was buying sugar cane juice from one of the ubiquitous juice shops, and all I had was a one pound coin. The guy gave me no change. I said "no way, I need some change here." He looked at me and shook his head. I argued some more and he gave me back a few piastres. Man, I was starting to get mad. Sure, one pound was only 50 cents American, but it was the principle of not getting cheated blind. Finally after arguing with the guy for a while, I turned him around and pointed to the board on the wall with all the juices and their prices written in arabic. I said "Asir 'asab, kirsh khamastasher (Sugar cane juice, 15 piastres)." You should have seen his jaw drop. I got all my change.
However, if I had not been on my own, and had joined one of the giant tour groups, I would not have crawled around inside the hidden tunnels in the walls of Edfu temple, been personally escorted around the necropolis of Khmun (Hermopolis) by the curator of antiquities, visited a spectacular, untouristed temple of Anubis in a remote area of the Faiyum Oasis, or wandered into the desert to find a small stone statuette head of the god Bes.
Parsa
In Egypt, things were just the opposite. Nobody ever thought about robbing me. The penalty was probably a severed hand or something. However, if you were stupid enough to accept inflated prices, the businessmen would rob you in their own way.
To illustrate one out of many incidents, once while in Luxor, I was buying sugar cane juice from one of the ubiquitous juice shops, and all I had was a one pound coin. The guy gave me no change. I said "no way, I need some change here." He looked at me and shook his head. I argued some more and he gave me back a few piastres. Man, I was starting to get mad. Sure, one pound was only 50 cents American, but it was the principle of not getting cheated blind. Finally after arguing with the guy for a while, I turned him around and pointed to the board on the wall with all the juices and their prices written in arabic. I said "Asir 'asab, kirsh khamastasher (Sugar cane juice, 15 piastres)." You should have seen his jaw drop. I got all my change.
However, if I had not been on my own, and had joined one of the giant tour groups, I would not have crawled around inside the hidden tunnels in the walls of Edfu temple, been personally escorted around the necropolis of Khmun (Hermopolis) by the curator of antiquities, visited a spectacular, untouristed temple of Anubis in a remote area of the Faiyum Oasis, or wandered into the desert to find a small stone statuette head of the god Bes.
Parsa