I have used candles, headlamps, and at least one portable camping light to provide lighting for reading and writing at night in camp. A drawback of all those tools is the glare of the lamp. By contrast, this simple system is easy on the eyes. It is a gallon milk jug filled with water with a headlamp pointing into the water. One gallon is 3.78 liters.
This picture was taken inside my Subaru station wagon while I was lying in bed, working on my trip journal. The system works well on a picnic table too.
One of my photo sets contains a detailed history of my systems for sleeping in a car.
brewbooks, Coal and Ice, and 47 other people added this photo to their favorites.
brewbooks 63 months ago | reply
What a great idea!
B:SIDE (photobsides.com) [deleted] 63 months ago | reply
haha great idea with lighting and photo, think how cool things could look with 5- 10 of those water jugs around to light up a subject
Pictoscribe - Home again 63 months ago | reply
Thanks for the tip.
safoocat 63 months ago | reply
neat idea, thanks for sharing
edgehill 50 months ago | reply
Yep, I discovered that one too. The trick is to set it outside though for cooking dinner, that keeps the moths outside. I put the ice chest outside, open the door & set up the water bottle lamp on top.
subynut 40 months ago | reply
That is neat!
Desert.Sage {:::Heating UP!!:::} 37 months ago | reply
GREAT idea!!!
Summit42 37 months ago | reply
haha awesome idea, I can already think of a few ways to implement this.
admx 15 months ago | reply
awesome! Thanks for sharing :)
OregonNative2010 15 months ago | reply
... when I read, " with a headlamp pointing into the water." In my minds eye, I pictured the headlamp of a car ... and I'm wondering 1) how are they adjusting the headlamps and 2) what if you only have 1 empty jug?! LOL - then I got it when I saw the photo :) Great idea!
listorama 15 months ago | reply
Thanks, everybody.
kcsierradad 14 months ago | reply
Somebody is taking credit for your idea on lifeprotips.
Not cool...
www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/savv7/lpt_when_camp...
listorama 14 months ago | reply
Doug.Mall 14 months ago | reply
Works with a regular sized 16 oz water bottle as well. This tip though could save a few lanterns! Thanks!
listorama 13 months ago | reply
cmrowell 12 months ago | reply
Very cool. Will have to try it sometime. Weird that I found a link to this through one of my facebook friends. I had never gone back into your stream far enough to see it. Looks like it went dare I say "viral".
Janet Branson 11 months ago | reply
Thanks for pinning! I will definitely try that camping next week.
@aerial_m 9 months ago | reply
How handy! Cool tip.