By: Blonde Two
A picnic mat for one
I am not sure if the term, ‘sitter’ is a universal outdoors one but when you are out walking or hiking in the World-of-Blonde it can mean anything that you put down onto the floor that keeps your bottom (possibly also known as a picnic blanket), if not exactly warm, then dry when you sit down. A ‘sitter’ could be any number of things, depending on what you have in your rucksack at the time, we have listed 10 Blonde examples of things to sit on below:
- A foam mat made and bought for the purpose.
- A foam roll mat, officially carried for keeping a casualty insulated from the ground in an emergency.
- A survival bag, not that anyone has ever died (I don’t think) from a cold bottom.
- A laminated Ordnance Survey ‘Active Map’ (please don’t tell OS).
- A dry bag, but not the one that you have put your hiking snacks into.
- A rucksack, but this makes getting your sandwiches out difficult.
- Your waterproof trousers, unless you are wearing them because one layer of waterproof trousers isn’t enough for a Dartmoor sit-down.
- Your waterproof jacket, but you will probably need to wear that as you will cool off once you stop walking.
- Cling film, but wrapping cling film around your derriere may cause comment.
- Your walking buddy, but you might find she won’t share her chocolate covered Brazils with you if you sit on her.
Blondes One and Two defying Storm Brian with wet feet but PACMAT dry bottoms
Luckily we Blondes were recently sent something to try out that might save our survival bags (almost impossible to fold back up), our sandwiches (soggy without their cling film) and our friendship. The Rubbastuff PACMAT Patch is a sitter that was actually designed to be a sitter. It is a clever fusion of a soft picnic blanket top layer with a waterproof tarp under layer. Not only that, but the PACMAT Patch looks a lot more stylish outside than a bottom wrapped in cling film. We took our new PACMATs out for a real Dartmoor test just after (or we think maybe still during) October’s Storm Brian and tried them out in a few favourite locations (see if you can guess where we are). Small (folded – 13cm x 10cm x 4cm) and light (100g) enough to pack easily into a rucksack but big (60cm x 60cm) enough for the most capacious of bottoms, the PACMAT Patch, whilst far too pretty to put onto a soggy Dartmoor bog-carpet (we only do accidental sitting in bogs), works very well as a protection layer for seats made of granite, wood or summer grass and includes pegging down holes for windy days.
Blonde Two demonstrating how happy a river, a rock and a PACMAC can make her feel
Our PACMATs were part of a Rubbastuff range that, as well as a useful range of picnic blanket sizes, includes some gorgeous fabrics and some innovative ideas including rain ponchos and carryalls.
The outer layer is a technical microfibre polyester which sheds water and dries fast (I can confirm this) and the base layer is a light waterproof PU coated ripstop nylon. I can imagine all sorts of outdoor moments (including ones with dogs, babies and maybe small hedgehogs) for which a PACMAT might come in useful and think they would make a great Christmas present for the outdoorsy person in your life.
From time to time we Blondes are sent free outdoor products to field test and promote on social media. We will always be honest about our findings and any products we don’t keep for ourselves find their way into our expedition stores. Great for us, great for you and great for our youngsters!
Back in my Girl Guide days (60 + years ago? Surely not?) part of our standard kit was a navy blue rubberised canvas 18 inch square sheet. We folded it in half rolled it up and attached it by its corner loop to our lovely belts. We called it a sitter! Mine has long gone but I still have my belt.
I have my belt, too – don’t know what happened to all the family’s sitters, though. Perhaps there is a sitter Paradise? Sadly, I was thinner in those days and cannot wear my belt any more, but I think modern belt makers would do well to look at our lovely Guide belt fastenings. Modern belt fastenings are mostly utter rubbish!