The pieces of our kit that we get asked about consistently are our poles, our packs and our solar array. My go-to comeback for our poles is "life is better as a quadruped".
What I love about our Voltaic Solar Array:
- They are extremely well-made
- They have really flexible usage modes
- They just seem to work…
- Customer service is amazing
History
Our first hit out with a Solar Array was on the Bibbulmun Track. I spent a lot of time talking to the Voltaic people, sorting out what we needed. Their recommendations were, of course, based on our assessments of our needs and the likely quality of charging. It turned out that we only just made it through The Bibbulmun by the skin of our teeth: I think we underestimated the density of canopy we'd be walking under, for one thing, and the hazy cloud for another. If we didn't have the option to recharge the Voltaic batteries in town, we would have been very stuck.
Voltaic were great and helped us work through our results and recommended upping our wattage from 4W to 10W. This is what we took on The Australian Alps Walking Track. We certainly didn't have an issue on that hike, but the canopy, when it was there, was much lighter and our charging opportunities much more fulsome.
After the AAWT we changed to their new V50 batteries and an ARC 10W panel, which had the benefits of a smaller form factor. We took this on our shorter Goulburn hike, and it even charged my phone up 25% on a dull day.
Charging on the Bibbulmun Track
In an attempt to understand what happened on The Bibbulmun Track, it not being completely successful, I plotted up the various bits of data I'd collected and presented in a long graphic:
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