A sleeping bag

Besides a tent and a hiking backpack, a sleeping bag is an essential part of equipment for any hiker or a mountaineer. It is crucial for everyone who is planning to spend the night in the open, whether the open space is a mountain or some other area in nature, or even a train station, aeroport... A sleeping bag preserves body heat, and provides a more comfortable and peaceful sleep for the camper. Considering that during the night temperatures in the higher planes substantially drop this equipment is very important, and leaving for an adventure without it isn't a smart thing to do.

The bags, as well as all other geer included, could be arranged in several ways and one of them is an air temperature range for which the bag is provided. There are bags you use in the summer, and they are more affordable; followed by the winter sleeping bag, made for pleasantly spending a night in low temperatures. Bags range acording to the material they are made of, from synthetic to feathered. Both these categories have their advantages and their flaws: the feathered bag is a throwaway after being soaked in water, because it looses it's function of isolation. When purchasing, think about the adventures you are most probably be engaging yourself in – if going mountaineering only during summer months, you will not need a robust and therefore expensive geer. There is an abundance of varying shapes, sizes, and prices - which are formed also by the signing brand. Finally, it is important to know that without this essential part of equipment no one should find themself spending a cold night in an open plane; on the other hand, a camper should always prepare and plan in advance what kind of activity will he be taking on, and the wheather conditions that he will most likely encounter.

Since I've already explained the importance and purpose of the sleeping bag, I will concentrate on as equally important part of comfortable camping – a substrate for the sleeping bag. It's the base of the bag, it isolates heat very well (made out of a PVC material), and placed underneath it protects you from the cold ground below. Today they are made with a pump system – those are inflatable floors and are a bit more pricy, but you can go with the very affordable ones, the PVC subtracts above mentioned, which are light and easy to carry, maintain etc.

Mounth Ozren marathon

Mount Ozren, located in Bosnia and Herzegovina, near the town Doboj to be more exact, hosts a mountaineering manifestation called „Ozren mountain marathon“ every spring, in the first week of June. Paths of this climbing marathon are divided by lenght: „Path of relish“ - 5 km, „Small marathon“ - 20km, „Medium marathon“ - 50km, and the „Big marathon“ - 100km. This manifestation takes place during the whole weekend. It starts on a Friday evening with a lovely competition in making the best fishpot, which of course involves having a good time and meeting new people in the camp late into the night. The actuall climb start on a Saturday morning, near a monastery called St. Nicolas and it's closed thenext day, ona Sunday evening.

There's a great posibility for our, Serbian, team participating for the first time since this marathon started it's tradition. The team would take on the Medium marathon – 50km. This route combines the next elevation points: Monastery of Ozren, Lake Orlovo, the Logging house, Krstac, Scouts' house in Kakmuz, Cacvinovac, Stone peek (816 meters of altitude), Big Ostravica, Hillocks and Queen.
Anyone who would find themeselves eager to participate, could contact us, here on the blog, or via facebook page, but only when and if we publish the dates od departure, previously deciding that our team will enter the marathon.

Organization of the Ozren mountain marathon: township Petrovo, the community sport center, Tourist organization of the municipality Petrovo and mountaineers Club Ozren-Queen 883 from Petrovo.

For more information about Mount Ozren and this manifestation, visit their web page: www.ozren.org

Be a human. Plant a tree

The forests are the lungs of our planet. They spread across three thirds of the Earth's surface. Without these green oasis, human existance would most certainly be questionable. Unfortunately, wooded areas decrease by the year, some by the fires, but also by degradation and illegal cutting. Although the rapidness of the degradation is somewhat slowed down compared with the data from the nineties: from 16 million it dropped to 13 million hectares a year; but still, the forests are losing their battle with human negligence and natural disasters.

Do you want to live in a world where the endless wooded spaces could only be seen in pictures? Do you wish to live where the number od lung deseased and people suffering from respiratory system failure, as well as the level of death cases caused by these problems have drastically increased? It is not an unrealistic scenario. Even more so, that scenario can be written by the same nature we're destructing and it could be envied by the best of Hollywood's apocaliptic film directors.

Of course, there's good news relating to this story and it is the fact that there is a solution to this problem. A solution lies in the people. In you, in me, in everyone individually. „It's easy for one person to type about this from his chair“, you'd say, „one person couldn't make a change“, but this poor attitude is untrue.

Every human being during his life should plant at least one tree. The more, the merrier. It's more than an individual right, it is a responsability given to us by birth, a responsability towards a planet we inhabit and which has given us life. Certainly you have some room for a tree in your backyard (if you live in a house). Besides doing a good deed for yourself, and making the yard look replenished, you will enrich the planet and help the people you love live a long and healthier life. It can also be very useful to engage an action of afforestation in your neighbourhood, but you could even be an iniciator. Inspire others (blog these interests on the internet, or talk about them publicly, use your imagination) to do the same – to reforest a bare lot, or at least plant a sprout in their own backyard.

Considering all this, there is a very noble, devoted and humane action in extinguishing and preventing fires of further devastating woods. The fires literally eat great forested spaces during the summer months, when the temperatures rise above average, but the cause are also human nonchalance and even malevolence. After those kinds of devastations, the forests need decades to regrow themselves and that's a human lifetime.

The forests need our care.They are our own guarantee of a long life, protection from deseases and a beautiful way to use the free time to regain lost energy, lowered by the ever increasing stress of our busy lives. They are the lungs and great decoration of this planet. We need them!

How many trees have you planted?