Craghopper NosiLife

Author: josh

Category: Gear reviews

Created on Thursday, 20 October 2011 07:27

Written by Josh

Kayak fishing & expedition clobber

It wasn't truly obvious to the other guys how much discomfort I'd suffered at the stingers of sandflies throughout our kayak fishing expedititon last year at Fraser Island until after we returned to the mainland and I showed them all of the bites on my arms, legs, back and even stomach. Revealing the scars drew echoes of 'ooh's and ah's'. My skin was an itchy-scratchy shell of its former self and it took weeks to recover from it afterward. I should have known better to because the previous year wasn't much different. I'm determined to not let that happen again this year. I'll be taking several measures to fend off attack this time around, including packing an extra bottle of tropical strength repellant (Rid) and soaking all of my clothes in permethrin (a trick Paulo used to some success last year). Technically, however, that might actually be overkill for me this year because the clothing I've decided to pack and wear at camp is already insect repellent!

UK based outdoor apparel manufacturor Craghopper have come out with a line of clobber - NosiLife - that is made from permethrin impregnated fibres, which according to them, retains it's insect repellant properties indefintiely. So even if I forgot or neglected to soak the stuff (using an Equip Permethrin Impregnation Pack) these rags should help to ward off attack regardless. For this very reason I was particularly interested in trying some of it out. Obviously I'm thinking primarily about Fraser Island and other kayak camping trips, but since getting my hands on a shirt and a couple of pairs of pants I've been wearing it at work to. Not to keep insects away but simply because it's comfortable, durable and really very well made. In many ways the range is somewhat comparable to Columbia clothing (which most readers would be familiar with), in terms of style and quality but I would add that if anything, perhaps Craghopper stuff is actually slightly better. 

For the purpose of the expedition specifically, I elected to go with the NosiLife long sleeve shirt and NosiLife lite trousers. Both of these are going to be pretty much perfect for wearing around at camp, and there's every chance I'll be wearing it on the kayak as well. If it's too hot for Gore-Tex overtrousers and cag, these will be a better option. It's also worth mentioning here that because this gear is very tough as well as highly breathable and quick-drying, these items would also make for excellent inland yak fishing clobber as well (especially the lite pants) and I'm going to give them plenty of use for that. Yep... I think it's safe to say that I'm a pretty big fan of Craghopper's NosiLife apparel. 

As a side note, I have also been experimenting with a new line of foul-weather clothing (from Simms) for kayaking in cool to cold climates and am incredibly impressed by that as well. It's starting to get a bit too warm to be wearing most of it now, though I'll have a full review ready to go on the Simms gear soon.