101 Ways to MAKE FIRE - #16 At the Crags

How to make a fire with water. Without matches or a lighter. Joe Kinder stars as himself. Many plastic water bottles have a curved portion at the top which would approximate a sphere (or part thereof). Many have an almost perfectly hemispherical section. This bottle had a round part at the top, a gimmicky packaging concept. The round part was shrink-wrapped with the design of an apricot, indicating the apricot juice inside. One of the cleaners at Tranquilitas campsite was using the bottle to store the bleach she was using to clean the toilets. This was one confused lady when I told her I wanted the bottle to start a fire. Did my best to rinse all the bleach out of the bottle to save Joe the embarrassment of a hospital visit (A small amount of bleach wouldn't be dangerous. In fact, in disaster situations, governments and aid agents often issue bleach as a way of sterilising dirty water.) It was easy enough to rip off the printed plastic film with the logo and design, to reveal the clear plastic of the bottle. Most water bottles are made of PET. Even though it has a slight blue tinge, which would work against us, the thin plastic walls of the bottle are effectively transparent and colourless. The bottle mostly acts as means to hold the water in a hemispherical shape. The water forms the lens, much as it did with the fishbowl fire.
For smigtin (pronounced smigh-tin, the G is silent) I used a small piece of bracket fungus. Don't know the species. Can't even remember what type of tree it was growing on. My experience is that almost any type of bracket fungus (especially if it is dark in colour) will work effectively as smigtin (smouldering ignition tinder) for a solar concentration fire. For secondary tinder I used some cow dung. No shortage of that lying around. Although there had been a fire through the area, the cowshit hadn't burned, presumably because it was still wet at the time of the fire. All I had for flinder (flaming tinder) was some eucalyptus leaves. Aka blue gum. Not indigenous, but a reliable option because of the oils in the leaves. It was so windy that I couldn't make up a traditional tinder bundle. Didn't have anything to contain the leaves. So just made up a pile of leaves in the ground. Because there was a big chunk of smould (the cow pat) it didn't really matter.
The part of the dumb American tourist was played by Joey Kinder. In what I like to think was a good Adam Sandler impression. He's a funny guy, and not quite as stupid as he was pretending to be. He's also a pretty good climber. As in 8a good. And 8b. And 8c. As in Petzl gives him all his gear. And pays him to climb. Yeah, that good. He was in South Africa at the invitation of the SA National Climbing Federation, doing some slide shows, pep talks and training or the youth team on their way to the World champs in Austria. He was here with his girlfriend Colette McInerney, who did the camerawork for this video. She also climbs. Well. Watched her fly up a 29 like it was a flight of stairs.
I had the job of showing them around the Lowveld for a few days. Spent an enjoyable day in the Kruger Park as a tour guide. The kids had a ball with the strange alien visitors, pointing out birds, insects, spoor, etc. Eventually made peace with the fact that crocodiles are in fact alligators and antelope are deer. There is a limit to my teaching skills.
Censor beep was used as a humourous device (or that was the idea anyway). In real life Joe doesn't swear. No really. He might curse a little, of course, especially after he takes a fall near the top of a project. You can go to his blog joekindkid (dot) com to see some more of that sort of thing.
It was pretty cold. Had three T-shirts on under the khaki shirt. So props to Roberta for prancing about in her bikini. Cool thumbnail on this one. Liking the coulds and the rolling hills in the background. You can make out osme of the world-famous red quartzite cliffs in the background. Part of the Waterfall area, much beloved of cover photos on international climbing magazines.
funny comedy comedian prank cool science trick magic water physics solar power free energy from the sun not exactly a solar death ray but enough to get something smouldering survivor survival ray mears bear grylls les stroud mythbusters crocodile bloody dundee windy transparent globe of clear liquid sunset i can't think of anything else to say I'll be back. cool weird funny different ways methods to light a fire using only common household objects things around the home experiment science magnifying glass lens tinder fungus john lennon glasses

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[phector2004]

So water = fire when you need it...

Is that why Bear Grylls drinks piss?

[ROBwithaB]

@phector2004

When I make the condom fire I'm going to try to use urine to form the lens.

[kerozenimus]

Oh boy, Roberta got all mad with the blondie girl! You are one of the greatest - if not the greatest - youtube entertainers! I love your videos, man, please try to keep them coming!

[davidlikesthis]

how bout some new vids?

[ttwilkable]

This is a great video

[ttwilkable]

great video thanks

[jessyjessy4]

really informative and interesting

[khijasmith]

some sweet info here

[alexasmithy]

love the video man

[calguy01]

Is #16 your most recent video in this series at this time (12/2011)?

[micers]

Yeah, linseed oil on cotton in a jar when the sun is shining. Not too much oil, just wet the cotton good and then drain it out. Now then, if you leave the jar without the top it will spontaneously combust. If you screw the lid on the jar it will not but it will char the cotton. Try it.

[xbeast133]

Hey rob. Sh**. And shit.