Vintage Camping Gear

Vintage camping gear is cool! No too ways about it. Its also vintage, as way back when it was made, they made it to last.

Take a look at this vintage Cadac twin gas burner. Encased in this rugged all in one carry case.

Tested it out on my first camping trip with our Son. Worked like a charm. Easy to setup, worked perfectly in the wind. Solid construction and has a spares container included for washes and gas valves. The dials on front controlled the gas flow perfectly.  I contacted Cadac to try find a date this was made, a little disappointing as have had no response. So if you do know, please feel free to comment below.

Wish the new gear these days lasted. If you have some vintage camping gear, take a snap, send it over to [email protected] . Tell us a story about it and we will include it on this post!

1975 SA ARMY ISSUE CADAC 2 PLATE PORTABLE GAS STOVE

We found another one,  and vintage camping gear is only made better when it comes with a story! Here Warren shares his story of “Schwarzenegger”.

This stove is but one of many cookers / cooking systems that I have collected over the years.

I’ve had this stove since 1974.
The tale of this stove and how it came to be in my possession is worth the read, see  the narrative below…

I found this stove at Rundu military base back in 1974 – 1975 during my 2 year national service Angolan bush war border duty, lying abandoned behind the QM stores.

Although filthy dirty at the time, it was (and still is) in 100% working order.

I love this cooker… It’s come a very long way with me, and has given me sterling service for some 43 years

On the border, obtaining gas was not a problem, it was getting hold of a means to use the gas that was a problem, so I went to my tent, collected my towel went back, dropped my towel over it to conceal it and carried it back to my tent.

I then found a suitable ammo box buried the ammo box under my bed and after a thorough cleaning hid it in the ammo box, and swore our little group to secrecy.

That stove served us well… gave us heated bully beef – hot tea – hot water for our teeth toes and “other important man-goods” and a whole heck of a lot more…. I think it became common knowledge amongst us troepies, however it was never “discovered” and confiscated.

When we packed up and flew “flossie-airlines” back to Waterkloof, when I finally opened my balsak (duffelbag)…….Surprise – surprise it was inside…..

I swear to this day I have no idea HOW it got in there, or what happened to the clothing that was supposed to be in there…. I can only assume that it grew so attached to me, that just before we left it somehow crept into my balsak and hid there…..

And I’ve had it ever since.

PERFORMANCE / MY RATING

This is the Arnold Schwarzenegger of all gas stoofies…. Man is this guy a powerhouse…. \

Survived the Angolan Bush war…………Survived being imprisoned in a wooden box buried underground

Stowaway-ed on a military aeroplane and made it all the way to SA

Bliksem’s ugly, built like a 1930’s ablution block come wind, come rain, come hail….There is just no stopping this one…..

This fella is my go-to stove. Whenever I go camping this is the one… Heavy yes, but it has never ever let me down, no matter what the weather… Open the valve, light the burner and it settles down to its comforting shhhhhhhhh sound…. The wind deflectors work extremely well and it all packs up into its very robust case

Nowadays, it no longer has to sleep in a hole in the ground. Now it sleeps in its very own rip-stop bag

The only thing I’ve ever done is give it a coat of spray paint, and add the griller plate. I rate this unit a 4,5 out of 5 due to being on the heavy side.

Thanks again Warren for sharing this awesome story!