'How do you wash?' Living off the motorcycle full time - Lesson 101

There's certainly some interesting methods of living that goes along with the overlanding lifestyle.

Funny though, nobody ever asks such questions like 'just how do you wash?'.

In the US especially its expensive, like ridiculously expensive - we are looking at 100USD a night for a perfectly lovely little shithole of a motel. Most of us overlanding for a reasonable amount of time simply cannot afford this. So, apart from the odd gem of a hostel (Lazy Lizard in Moab, Utah) and awesome cabin stay (Pole Creek BnB in Pinedale, Wyoming), we are wild camping 90% of the time. This also goes along with the fact that we really can be 'out there' much of the time, away from the services and facilities that we depend on in our everyday 'normal' lives.

Campspots are easy enough to find. We are following the Great Divide offroad trail through the US which has a lot of wild camp options on state and federal property (like forestry). There's the IOverlander app too and the good old fashioned method of conversing with locals to find out what's around.

We camp usually in 4wd accessible forestry, if we are lucky besides rivers.  Although weve also camped recently in a dry riverbed on the high open plains of Wyoming, a hemp farm (thanks Gaddy), a kids park tree house complete with slide, a town park next to an obstacle course and baseball field and in a canyon right next to a cattle corral.

The hammocks go up when its warm (and there's anchors), otherwise we sleep in the tent.

So 'How DO you wash?'

Well, for want of a shower, we have some options.

No 1 is the dromedary.  This is a 8l water bag that can be slung up in a tree, there's a nozzle there to control flow - you can even heat the water on the stove if you're feeling fancy, otherwise, just get naked in the outdoors and to crazy.  This is fine however you need to make sure you really are alone.. Also when the wind blows, ooh it can be a bit chilly.

No 2 is the river. This is the cold option. Very refreshing however! Best to be alone also.

In a pinch there's the option of boiling water on the stove and just getting washed straight out of the pan. Indeed.

OR (and our least favourite, but when you've only got enough drinking water) the festival goers favourite of a baby wipe shower.

I guess there's  a last option of NOT washing. This, however, neither of us has considered yet!

There's the dromedary (in black) in the photo. It takes 8l. Mostly we fill it from a river (or gas station\grocery store\rest area) and if only showering, doesn't need pumping.

There was that time when Kevin pumped 8l of water out of the (very silty) Colorado River having to hide in his hoody from mosquitoes. And by 'pumping' I mean 'cleaning' through a water pump. It takes 20 minutes to do the whole 8l. This does not include time spent stumbling up and down to and from the water source.

Likewise for our drinking water - 7l between us gets filled everyday in platypus bags and the 2l nalgene bottle there. That, if we are very unlucky, needs pumping\cleaning before use.

We fuel up everyday so with that we usually get the drinking water. We have only had to carry fuel the once, for the Rawlings to Pinedale section, Wyoming which has no services for 370km\230m. The red gas can carries 4l and i managed to squirrel that in my pannier. I am a legendary squirreler if I do say so myself.

As far as food goes, we seem to eat one meal a day at a restaurant and the rest we carry. Although we can really only pack for a day or two. There's always the option of having a packet of biscuits for dinner (from a gas station) though - I admit ive actually done that in South America when I'm just too tired to do anything else.

We wash clothes typically weekly at a laundromat, otherwise I wash little things at every opportunity.

WiFi!

I've actually got data (I bought a US sim) so for logistics, we are not too restricted. Working out where to set up home for the night is usually the main priority, along with the location of gas stations and grocery stores and mapping\route planning PLUS all of that other stuff you never really get away from - banking, emails, social media - the general life logistics that we all have.

Electronics - we both have USB chargers on the bikes. These charge phones, go pro, head torches and intercoms. Other than that, I have 3 camera batteries which last until I get wall charging.

The things we do hey...