XTG solar charger

Originally I got this solar charger for my phone, but it was never one of my “go to” tools. It took a full day to get half a charge, and that half a charge would only charge my phone halfway, and half a charge on that phone barely lasted half a day. So as a charger for my phone, this one wasn’t much use.

When my phone stopped working (Turkey requires foreign-bought cell phones be registered, and my registration expired) this solar charger lost even that theoretical purpose.

However, it has found a new purpose, and that purpose is not theoretical at all. It’s serving as a great night light for reading and writing.

The days are shorter now. The sun sets about 4:30pm, and when it does, things get cold fast.

When the evenings were warmer, I liked to spend them lingering around the village, chatting, drinking tea, straying from my tent. Now I’m usually in my sleeping bag by 6:00pm.

That means I have three hours to kill each day, hours in which, without a light, all I can do is stare into the darkness.

So now I use this solar charger for its LED light, and I carry a book, which I didn’t do until a week or so ago.

By the way, I am currently reading Cormac McCarthy’s All The Pretty Horses, a book which I think I read in the 90s, but forgot. I got this copy by raiding a friend’s bookcase the day I left Istanbul. The book was my third choice. My first two choices my friend was not willing to part with, but this one he was.

So the solar charger has been repurposed as a book light, and it is currently helping me read a book about horses that are pretty and stuff.