So I’ve spent the better part of almost 3 weeks getting most of the equipment we need, building custom “drawers” for the back of the vehicle, buying the big 8 man tent we needed and putting it all into or onto the Land Cruiser. A very productive (and expensive) 3 weeks it has been.
But now we have to figure out how on earth we are going to fit clothes, food, laptops, cameras, sleeping bags, camp chairs, tables and all the other gubbins we will want to take with us into the vehicle while leaving enough room for 5 humans. With ammo boxes full of medicines, tools and fan belts, a fridge and a huge tent taking up so much space already, we have about 2 cubic meters left in the back of the Land Cruiser to pack all the remaining crap into somehow – and then once it is in, we have to pack and unpack it almost every day for 3 to 6 months. Joy.
A real unknown is how much, and what sort of, clothing to take and how on earth we’re going to do laundry. I’m fairly sure that Fiona is not going to volunteer to crouch by streams hand-washing our underwear. I’m dead certain I’m not going to. I’m also fairly sure that we aren’t going to find a lot of convenient coin laundromats on our travels. The 4×4/safari salesmen/gurus showed me a $300 offroad 12 volt washing machine – a fantastic idea had we the space to put it.
But being a thinking man, I’ve done a lot of research and come up with a plan that I’m sure will work: we’ll just swim fully clothed every time we find a swimming pool and get changed into a new set of dirty clothes once they’re clean(ish). And we’ll only take clothes that don’t need to be separated into darks, lights, colours or whatever you’re supposed to do. We’re just going to wear light brown/khaki that won’t discolour too much from pool chlorine for the entire duration of the trip. An added bonus is that if we start off brown, all the dirt, mud, dust, food, muck and coffee stains won’t be terribly noticeable and we should be able to stretch our clothes usage to the limits of acceptable personal hygiene – maybe even a little bit beyond.
We are heading off next weekend for a single night’s camping with all our gear packed into the car – a trial run to see how we manage. Sadly, that’s not enough time to test the laundry theory.