By: Blonde One
The latest DofE trip to Exmoor taught me many things. I learned new things about the team, about myself, about wildlife (mostly flies) and about sun cream.
I thought I knew quite a bit about sun cream already. I knew that the higher the factor, the longer you can stay out in the sun without burning. I knew that they all smell good. I knew that they lose an average of a factor of 5 for every year that they sit in the cupboard.
What I didn’t know however, was that sun cream is a very effective substance to clean the permanent pen off your laminated map. This discovery was made by accident by the Gold DofE team and they couldn’t wait to share their it with us. In the past I have used nail varnish remover (no good if you are actually wearing nail varnish) or meths (a bit dangerous if you’re anywhere near a naked flame), but using sun cream is most definitely going to be my preferred method from now on. My map will now be pen free, smell beautiful and not get sun burnt!
Dare one enquire what brand of sun cream Moddom’s map prefers? I wouldn’t want to offend a map – it might lead me in the wrong direction.
The initial experiment was conducted (very scientifically of course) using a factor 30 Boots brand but I’m fairly sure my maps would prefer the more classy Piz Buin.
Hee – If it will clean the writing off a map, I daresay it might even clean skin on a grubby walker – hopefully not completely away! I have been having visions of pairs of booted feet, shorted bums and bikini’d busts wandering across the moors vertically separated by areas expunged from view.