Bushwalk Australia

Recently we purchased a couple One Planet Bush-lite -7 700 loft DWR down with Pertex Endurance outer. They are much lighter and pack down to half the size the bags they replaced.
The new bags replaced our old One Planet Bush-Lite's -5 550 loft bags with Nextec Epic outer material They are 13 years old, have seen an awful lot of use, and have been cleaned once a few years ago by One Planet and boosted to -7. The 7 and 9 yo kids now use these bags.

Last night we all bivied on a local peak. Nothing out of the ordinary but the BOM was suggesting around 5 deg with 15 to 20km winds. Add 950m or so elevation and who knows, but I thought it was pretty cold.

Around 5.30PM all bags were unrolled to loft up, by 6PM they had significant due on them that I can't really explain. Both old and new outers were sodden wet in the morning, like it had rained. The thermarests had pooled due in the crinkled surface of the matt that not was not exposed to a sleeping bag. If you know kids they never sleep where they should.
My wife and I in the new bags both agreed we were warm and dry all night. However when one rolled to a new position there was a few minutes of feeling a bit cold and wet until the loft warmed. This is the loft you are squashing onto the matt and supposedly does't do much, but it does apparently. Now that sounds bad, but I roll like a crocodile every 15 minutes, and we are talking 11 hours of it. I slept in some fear of the water eventually making its way into the inner of the bag any time I woke. But no, in the morning the inner and I were still as dry as we should be.
From what I can gather from the kids without loading there answers, they too had a similar experience in the old bags.

So just some info to consider.

I will confess I'm a bit of a OP fan. I have a bit of their gear. I don't work for them, have nothing to do with them, just a pound Australian doing my bit to encourage other Australians to spend the money for home grown. I'm very happy with the years of service, and glad I can trust the gear for what we bought it for.

Happy days
Jason

I better finish the review I guess. The new bags are regulars. I'm 182cm, wife is a bit smaller. We are not all that thin these days but the bags have good room to move in. The hood trim lines are easy to operate and and the zipper works well, you just need to run a finger in front of the zipper to part the inner otherwise it sometimes eats the inner. I think they all do that. I am right hand and bought a left zip, the wife is the other. Doesn't sound much but it does make a differance using a zip with you preferred hand with movement across your body. It's a lot easier than beside your body, or across your body with you natural hand. When you wake up cooking, desperately try to unzip to cool down, in the haste jam the zipper in the inner, and then struggle to undo it with your non natural hand or along your side is what I am talking about. Or perhaps just getting out casually in the morning is another.

The bags have a zipped foot area. It does allow you to unzip the body part of the bag and keep the foot part securely zipped. We often use these bags as a sudo donna, and its veery nice having you feet ground - position the bag so it does't get away from you. Alternatively, you can open it right up as flat donna. Oddly enough for a -7 bag they go with us on 3/4 of the years adventures. Bushwalking or car camping, as a sudo donna it seems to regulate temperature very well.
The stuff sac is easy, comes down to 180 x180 easily without any grunting. The bags have an inner change pocket, or a spot for CC cards or drivers license perhaps. And hang hooks at the foot to store in the wardrobe. Not sure of the weight, OP web site will have it. Probably not the lightest around, but also not far off the pace either.

Thanks for the great review, Jason! I'm sure you expected a few more responses by now, but a review is there to sit until somebody (like me) needs it! We are currently comparing the bushlite (-11 version) to Monts Brindabella bag. Your review was great and gives us a very good idea of what to expect from the bag, except one bit I'm hoping you can clarify for us. You said that even the new Pertex Endurance bags were "sodden" come morning.... Do you mean there was a lot of moisture ON them? OR do you mean they had actually ABSORBED the moisture and were damp to touch? This detail makes a fair bit or difference for us, as we reckon that if the moisture was absorbed, then by the 7th night of our long hikes, it may make it's way all the way through the bag.

Thanks for the great review, Jason! I'm sure you expected a few more responses by now, but a review is there to sit until somebody (like me) needs it! We are currently comparing the bushlite (-11 version) to Monts Brindabella bag. Your review was great and gives us a very good idea of what to expect from the bag, except one bit I'm hoping you can clarify for us. You said that even the new Pertex Endurance bags were "sodden" come morning.... Do you mean there was a lot of moisture ON them? OR do you mean they had actually ABSORBED the moisture and were damp to touch? This detail makes a fair bit or difference for us, as we reckon that if the moisture was absorbed, then by the 7th night of our long hikes, it may make it's way all the way through the bag.

Hi LuxLuthor, glad it helped. Apologies for the belated reply.
I mean just sodden to touch ON them, the down and interior were still dry. The outer material certainly looked wet and soaked but still worked as a shell. In saying all this though, I personally would not shove them back into their stuff sacs and expect all to be great the following night without drying them in the sun first. If we really had to perhaps yes, but I would much rather make allowances in my days plan to dry them. It took about 30 to 40 minutes to do so in clear first sun up rays.