After trying nearly every purpose-made traveling or camping towel out there, I gradually came to the realization that I was wasting my money. As a result, I have a large shopping bag filled with all these not inexpensive microfiber and microfleece contraptions. They are no longer used, and are near to being donated...
The problems are that:
- I have too much "me" to dry with anything small...I AM a rather large fellow.
- I insist that everything I carry have multiple uses, the more the easier the rationale for toting the item. A basic travel towel is good for only one thing.
So, my solution, as odd as it seems, is to carry a a bright orange
Gaiam Yoga Mat Towel, the type without the grippy - nonskid dots on one side. Of course, any brand will do. Here is why I opted to go this way, consider the many uses:
1. The yoga towel is long enough and wide enough (24" w x 68" long) to wrap around my prodigious frame, coming out of a semi-public shower...one would not want to be responsible for the ensuring horror or nightmares amongst the others... I can then discretely put on a clean pair of boxer shorts under the towel.
2. Even after I towel dry, the yoga towel can be used to "roll and stomp" water from already wrung-out hand washed clothing. The resulting damp clothing dries VERY fast indeed, unless it is cotton. Then again, you WERE warned.
3. The yoga towel dries very fast as it is a terry fleeced microfiber material. It can be hung or attached to the outside of my rucksack.
4. The yoga towel is large enough to use clothes pins or duck tape to form a privacy barrier if one finds them selves in an albergue situation with too-close adjacent bunks. For me the issue is less privacy than it is preventing contracting a respiratory illness.
5. I chose orange as my color so the yoga towel can be used hung on my rucksack as a bright colored panel to identify me to motorists, and as a signal panel in some weird emergency.
6. The yoga towel can be spread out and used atop "sketchy" or suspicious linens at an albergue.
7. The yoga towel can be used as a shawl or scarf type cover if the evening is chilly and my sleeping bag liner is not enough. (I eschew sleeping bags due to weight as I need synthetic fill for my allergies and anything pother than down is heavier).
8. If one gets a freak cold weather or snowfall at altitude (it DOES happen) the yoga towel becomes a head scarf...plus it is orange for safety and visibility if road-walking.
9. I suppose that one could even use the yoga towel to do yoga along the way, not for me, but it IS another use. I HAVE seen others doing yoga while on Camino.
I think that is about it. These are uses I have actually employed on one or another of my Caminos...except for the emergency signaling device, which I fortunately have not yet had to resort to.
I hope this helps.
