Overlanding Camping Lesson 101

It takes approximately 4 hours out of each day to make and break camp.  Thats half a working day, then theres the 200 - 300km we ride each day.  Its pretty tiring to be honest, and obviously its easier to stay in a hotel, but at $100+ a night (in North America here), its just not feasible for the length of time we are both travelling.  So, we generally wild camp for free, or every now and again, we stay in a Forestry/ National Parks managed campsite when we either can't find anything for free or we have left it too late in the day to be looking for something for free!

We have been using the IOverlander app as a guide for free camp spots, although often (especially on the offroad trails out in the bush), we come upon something before we get to a particular destination we may have pinned for that day.

Theres a picture above of the two 250s loaded up.  We are both individually self sufficient for camping/ living off the bikes, although together, we are sharing (my) tools and tubes and (Kevin's) tent, (crappy) Exped mattress and pots.

Making camp consists of 1 - Putting up tent.  2 - Blowing up (the shitty - thin, susceptible to holes) Exped mattress Kevin has and also my (awesome, although bulky - but free - 80s) thermarest.  3 - Rolling out our 2x 4 season down bags and 2x 2 season sleeping bags (little bags on the bottom, big ones on top). BED MADE.

Then we pile a bunch of stuff in its rightful places in or around the tent in the vestibules (tent doorways).

Next is SHOWER TIME (see previous post on this) - boiling water for the dromedary takes FOREVER.  If we are lucky, we have warm water from a nearby gas station.  Also, we will have filled our (2  and 3 litre) platypus bags and 2 litre nalgene bottle for drinking/ cooking water at the gas station.  Sometimes theres (generally non potable though) water at a campsite OR Kevin pumps it (using the water filter) out of a nearby creek.  Getting water is as essential everyday as getting gas for the bikes.

DINNER TIME involves unpacking pans/ stoves/ pre-bought food and preparing something simple. Soup is a go-to, as is those (Tasty Bite) Indian packet meals.  I do like a picnic table for this task, but usually i'm sat on the ground on my tarp surrounding by our gear bomb of kit. 

WASHING UP involves, if i'm honest, just licking things. Ya really. Well, ok, maybe not a pan - its pretty hard to get your head in one of those (especially the new ones Kevin's just bought - see photos below).  A bit of rubbing and some water and thats it, all done. 

So lastly, we TIDY UP camp, leaving no stuff hanging about. Sometimes theres a bear cache (see below) but most often, not.  We will then put all our food in a bag and hang it in (usually) a tree a ways from our camp, hoping the squirrels don't destroy it. 

Actually last night, there was a bear, but it wasn't interested in our tasty bite indian meals, couscous, coffee and snickers' we usually store in the bag - more so the blackberries at the base of the tree we lifted it into (sorry bear, you're sharing your berries this morning!).

BREAKING CAMP

Ah the morning - not my favourite I admit.  However i'm out of the tent first to put the stove together and boil water for BREAKFAST (and maybe retrieve the bear bag from a tree), which consists of tea and coffee, then oatmeal, then more coffee. Thats a bit of water - about 2 litres all up, boiled on our little gas butane stove.  Kevin packs the sleeping bags and tent up whilst I do this.  I generally sort of help a bit with this too, but he's pretty anal about how small everything needs to be packed into its' respective stuff sack (or it wont go into the giant poop!), and honestly, I'm pretty crap at squishing things into stuff sacks. 

We WASH up pots and teeth, CLEAN up camp, PACK the gear bomb away into my 2 panniers and 2 holdalls and his giant poop (because it truly is a massive shit of a thing) and holdall. He then spends a good 10 minutes sweating whilst trying to get the giant poop and the holdall to sit correctly with each other on the bike. 

In the meantime, i've cleaned my dusty goggles, got my kit on and am sat there with the engine running staring at him through tinted lenses.