Things you have always wanted to know about
travelling overland..........
How do we do
our washing?
At the start of our trip Pen did all our washing by
hand. This was very time consuming
and exhausting so Nev came up with a cunning plan (The idea may have
originally come from Richard Maspero!).
We bought a bucket with a tight sealing lid and strapped it on to the
roof. Every morning we put in the
previous day’s dirty laundry with some water and soap powder and as we drive
along the laundry swishes around in the bucket on top of the Land Rover. When we get to the campsite in the evening
we hang out the laundry to dry. Some
of the roads have been so bad that our washing has come out sparkling on the
other side! When we find ourselves in
a town, however, we do try to find a laundromat to have our washing done. |
Laundry Day
|
What do we
cook on?
Nev found
an old gas stove at an army surplus store (Thanks for the idea Nic!). He fixed up the stove and gave it new tubing
and burners and voila! It works like a
charm. It has two plates and we connect
it to one of our gas bottles. We also
have a black pot which we use to make potjiekos and when we feel very energetic
we braai.
How do we keep things cold?
We have a Minus 40 fridge in the back of our Land Rover, which is connected to a spare battery which we use to keep everything cold. At the start of our trip we used the fridge in conjunction with a Coleman cooler. We found however that the Coleman took up too much space and was difficult to keep cool so we have abandoned it and will use the fridge only for the remainder of the trip.
How do we communicate with the outside
world?
When we were planning our trip we investigated various communication options.
The ideal system would be to have a satellite phone which can be used virtually
everywhere. Unfortunately the cost of
satellite technology is absolutely exorbitant.
At the moment the cheapest phone on the market costs approximately
US$2700-00 and calls cost about US$3-00 per minute. We just could not afford it.
Instead we opted for a cell phone with international roaming. Although this option is also expensive, the costs are manageable. We can therefore make and receive calls internationally in those countries that have a roaming partnership arrangement with our service provider, MTN. We also have a lap top computer, which we use in conjunction with our cell phone to send and receive e-mail messages. Unfortunately, MTN only has a roaming partnership arrangement with countries as far north in Africa as Tanzania. MTN has however unblocked our phone so that we will be able to use local “pay as you go” cards in those African countries that do not have a partnership arrangement with MTN. Aside from this, we will have to rely on the availability of internet cafes to send and receive e-mails.
Our
email address is nevbos@mweb.co.za or bosmansbigadventure@mweb.co.za. We also have a hotmail address which may
come in handy when we are in countries where there is no cellular phone
network.
How do we get news?
We have a small short wave radio that we use to pick up BBC World and BBC Africa. These two programs seem to have the most up to date news about Africa. We are also able to tune into local stations to obtain local news. Most of our news of South Africa has come in the form of emails from friends. We were blissfully unaware of the Hansie Cronje saga until we received a flood of emails about it! We have found local newspapers to be completely useless as they contain very little international or African news and seem only to report on very local issues. They are also often 2 or 3 weeks old and still being sold at cafes and shops.
Where do we sleep?
We have a roof top tent on top of our Land Rover. It is perfect. It has a hard wood base and a mattress and is very comfortable. The tent also has built in mosquito nets and is high enough off the ground to be safe from creepy crawleys and animals. Nev has managed to rig up a light in the tent so that we are able to read in bed before going to sleep.
|
|
Nev is the primary tent-putter-upper!
Our tent was made by Christies in Cape Town and we got it with our Land Rover
when we bought it. A roof top tent is
really the perfect option for overlanding. It is compact and easy to put up
and also means that you are away from all the creepy crawleys and animals on
the ground. |
What about showers, toilets and ablutions
etc?
Most of the campsites that we have visited in Namibia, Botswana
and Zimbabwe have had fully equipped ablution facilities with hot and cold running
water and flush toilets. We suspect
however that things will not be that organised further north. Before we left Cape Town we bought a hot
water paraffin shower. These, it
would seem, can only be bought from the person who makes them and he seems to
sell them only at the flea market in Hermanus. The shower was one of our best purchases and although it cost
about R500-00 it has proved its worth and, I suspect, will continue to do so. The shower works on very simple basic
principles – we put a tank of water on the roof of the Landi, mount the
shower on the side of the vehicle, connect a hose pipe from the tank to the
shower and light the paraffin at the bottom.
The paraffin heats an internal pipe in the main shower component which
in turn heats the water. The shower
also has both hot and cold water taps to ensure that the temperature of the
water is perfect. We also bought a toilet seat which we
have not really had occasion to use yet.
We will probably be forced to use our toilet seat along with a spade
as we hit the more undeveloped areas.
|
Our bush shower |
What about food?
We carry quite a bit of food with us – mostly canned
and dry goods. We have however found that
fresh meat and vegetables are readily available (at least they have been in the
three countries that we have visited – this may change further north). We did struggle in Namibia to find fresh
fruit, vegetables and bread in the outlying areas although consumer goods like
canned goods and sugar were available everywhere. We fear that we may not find much in the way of fresh dairy
products further north – to solve this problem we have taken one of those
Glomail, Dairy Wiz yoghurt makers so that we can make fresh yoghurt and
buttermilk. We have also made fresh
bread in our black potjiekos pot.
What about beer and other alcoholic
beverages?
We have found virtually no wine along our travels
through Namibia and Botswana – which has been pretty depressing for
ex-Stellenbosch students like ourselves.
The wine we have found has in most cases been imported from South Africa
and has been very expensive. We have
however found plenty of local beer which has been relatively inexpensive.
What about fresh water?
We have a British Birkfield water filter which we use
to filter all our drinking and cooking water.
The British Birkfield is a two tiered water filtration system that is
made of stainless steel. The filters are ceramic candles that can filter out virtually
everything. We have also taken along
some water purification tablets to use in an emergency.
Things that really work
·
Head torches
– these are torches that attach to one’s head with a strap. This means that you can have light without having
to hold a torch – so you can have both hands free!
·
Rechargeable
Batteries – It would be impossible to have enough batteries to power torches
etc for the whole trip. Rechargeable
batteries are the perfect solution as they can be recharged every evening.
·
A 12 Volt /
220 Volt power inverter - max 120 Watts
·
Cups with
lids – this proves very useful to prevent spillages when drinking coffee and
tea on the run
·
A stainless
steel flask
·
An army
surplus gas stove with built in wind protection barriers. This works so much better than cooking on a
single gas burner as it means that you can cook anywhere – irrespective of the
wind and weather conditions.
·
A paraffin,
hot water shower
·
A 12 volt
kettle that runs off the cigarette lighter – so that you do not have to take
out the gas every time you want a cuppa and you can make tea and coffee while
you are driving
·
A long
extension cord – often there are electricity boxes in the camps that can be
used to power lights, battery rechargers etc
·
A roof top
tent
·
An air
conditioned vehicle – an absolute must!
It is virtually impossible to cool down otherwise.
·
A gas
firelighter – made by Cadac – a gas firelighter is a contraption that can be
screwed into a gas bottle and used to start fires. We have used ours almost every night. Often ordinary fire lighters are not available and in any event
gas provides a cheap alternative.
·
A hidden safe
– so that you can hide cash, traveller’s cheques and passports out of sight
·
A bath plug –
a must have! Most ablution blocks do not
have plugs.
·
Washing pegs
– useful for all sorts of things other than hanging up laundry!
·
A measuring
jug – very useful for measuring everything from milk powder to paraffin
·
Slip slops –
very necessary when showering in ablution blocks that look dodgy.
·
Diesel
Injector Additive – can be added to diesel to clean it. This means that you don’t have to worry too
much about the quality and cleanliness of the diesel you are filling up with as
the additive sorts out all the problems.
·
A fishing rod
holder – we constructed one out of a piece of 110mm plastic drain pipe with
screw in stop ends on both sides mounted on the roof rack. The rod holder is not only great for fishing
rods but also for those pesky gas pipes etc that don’t seem to have a home in
the Landi.
·
Plastic “wolf
pack” ammo cases – ammo cases can be stacked easily and neatly on the back
seat. Remember to take along additional ammo case clips as they tend to break.
·
Wet Wipes –
great for cleaning sticky fingers in the car
·
Dettol Soap –
you will be amazed at how dirty your hands get – clean hands go a long way to
avoiding gastro intestinal problems.
·
A GPS –
essential for navigation where there are no road signs!