Camping tips

Follow these safety camping tips and make the best out of your camping:

Make camp before dark. Traveling after darkness has resulted in many accidents from falls, so travel during daylight whenever possible.

Check for potential hazards. Be sure to check thoroughly for glass, sharp objects, branches, large ant beds, poison ivy, bees and hazardous terrain.

Avoid areas of natural hazards. Check the contour of the land and for potential trouble due to rain.

Inspect the site. Look for a level site with enough room to spread your gear.

Build fires in a safe area. Your open fires and fuel burning appliances must be far enough away from the tent to prevent ignition from sparking flames and heat.

Make sure your fires are always attended. Be sure you have an area for a fire that cannot spread laterally or vertically – a grill or stone surface is ideal.

Beware when encountering wildlife. Use a flashlight at night – many animals feed at night and the use of a flashlight may warn them away. To ward off bears, keep your campsite clean and do not leave food, garbage, coolers, cooking equipment or utensils out in the open.

Watch out for bugs. Avoid attracting stinging insects by wearing light colored clothing and avoiding perfume and cologne.

Beware of poisonous plants. Familiarize yourself with any dangerous plants that are common to the area where you are camping.

Think before you drink. No matter how clean or pure stream water looks, it’s likely to contain water-borne parasites and microorganisms that can cause discomfort or serious illness.These camping tips, along with related safety information, can be found on the USDA Forest Service Web site www.fs.fed.us

Hotel stay tips

Hotels, especially of the four and five star category are normally extremely safe; providing you with a safe in the room and at the reception area, security guards hiding around the place, and cameras that can be as much your friend as your enemy . However still things do occasionally disappear, sometimes without the owner ever knowing that they have gone.
So here are a few tips to avoid your valued possessions from taking a walk:
If the hotel has an in room safe use it and keep all your valuables in there.
However, if the safe is electronic, wipe the touch keys down before operating it with a damp cloth, and then dry it before entering your secret code. Try to do this every time you use the safe.
Also after you have keyed in your code and closed the door firmly locked on the safe. Press all the other keys /numbers that do not make up your code, and press them firmly. Doing this may set off a small alarm from the safe but it stops quickly and no one will pay any attention (!!).
The reason to do this is because certain hotels have caught their own hotel staff placing, a light oil residue or powder on to the touch keys that shows them when using a certain light what numbers were pressed. They were managing to open the safe, and one very clever thief was taking only 1 or 2 US$ from each room. Would you have noticed ? It is not a lot but in a 400 or 500 room hotel the guy was doing quite well for himself.
Never leave valuables in soft/material bags with pockets even if they are padlocked like Alcatrass
This avoids any potential of somebody simply splitting a seam to a pocket with a knife and removing select contents. This has happened to one of our friends and he never even noticed until he went into the and bag and pocket a while later.
This should also apply to luggage that you check into the airplane.
Never get drunk and invite a stranger to your room. This seems funny, indeed, but better safe than sorry.