In case you are wondering… The answer is yes. Yes, we are in fact those weirdos that live out of their campervan while it’s parked in their front garden. I guess what I am saying is, if you are looking for normal sane blogs to follow, ours shouldn’t be the top of your list. For many obvious reasons, but probably the most notable is that we actually want our family of five to live out of our camper for a year. Honestly, every time I say it, I can’t actually believe that I am on board with all of this.
Anyway, I digress.
The reason that we stayed in the garden instead of an awesome camp site close to home is that good old Optimus is currently not running for the moment. (I don’t even know why, and if we really get into it I have to say that it freaks me out a little). But we needed to start to get a real idea of what it would be like to LIVE in that 7.5 square metre space for more than one evening and with more than two people.
As usual Seth took it super seriously – packing exactly what he’d need for the week. From work clothes, gym clothes, cycling clothes, toothbrushes, towels, the whole pantry and so much else. He’s the packer in our relationship if that’s not glaringly obvious. I’m more of an, um, how can I say, um, free spirit. I just sort of wing it. It drives him nuts. I’ll have to work on that when we are all up in each others business everyday.
I basically treated the house like an ablution block (for going to the toilet, showering and brushing my teeth). But this ablution block also happened to have a cupboard for my clothes and more space to make supper. Oops. But there are some camp spots with a kitchen area and that kind of thing, so it was only cheating a little bit.
Which means that technically although we slept it in it consistently for a week, ate supper in it and all manner of other things we didn’t really, really live in it.
But I still learned quite a few things during this time:
1. NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THE CLOTHES CUTTING DOWN SITUATION
Since Seth proposed this idea to me I have been stressing about cutting down my wardrobe to only 7 days worth of clothing. Like really feeling rather bleak about it. But this week taught me that it’s actually going to be much easier than I first thought. You see, I am applying this fear to my current life. So having clothes available for getting dressed up for work, options for fancy date nights or events, dress up parties and even fitness gear for that one day that I may decide to move my body again.
But in the campervan on a year long trip of South Africa, I am not going to need anything fancy, or to go in to work or plan for any dress ups. I am literally going to need nice looking, comfortable clothing to just essentially chill and travel in. That cuts down my wardrobe dramatically and it’s quite a welcome thought. Guys, maybe I can actually do this!!
2. BED TIMES ARE GOING TO BE GREAT
The question I got asked the most when we were Insta storying through our campervan life, was what about bed time? And I get it. I mean what are the chances that having all 5 of us in the camper at the same time is going to go down well? What do we do? What do they do? How does it work?
Well, usually we divide and conquer in our house. One of us does the girls and the other does Knox. With the girls we leave after praying with them and playing their song. With Knox we sit there till he falls asleep (yes, we still do this and are happy to so let’s just leave it at that). However, in the camper, we are all together so we all pray, listen to the songs and then the lights go out. And man it is dark in there. Then Seth and I whip out our laptop, pop in some ear phones and catch up on series. The kids went straight to sleep.
Look I know this probably isn’t sustainable, but for a week it worked like a bomb so I’m optimistic!
MOTION SICKNESS PILLS ARE ON MY TO PACK LIST
I get motion sick travelling in the back seat of a car, in a boat or even on a plane. So being in the camper and having the three of them toss and turn sometimes made me queasy. I don’t know if there is a way to stop that, but wow. One movement makes the whole thing wobble a bit.
A CAMPSITE WITH A TOILET IS A MUST
We had a composting toilet in the campervan for our stay. Maybe you’ve heard of it now that we are in drought status, but you probably never considered it. Essentially it’s a bucket that you poop in and then you cover your mess with saw dust. No water involved and the sawdust is supposed to kill any odour.
It does I guess, but man. I just can’t bring myself to use it right now. But I’m sure after a few terrifying encounters with spiders in ablution areas I’ll feel differently.
I’M NOT THAT WORRIED ABOUT THE LACK OF SPACE
It seems weird actually saying that out loud.
But seriously, you don’t actually spend that much time inside the campervan. Right now we obviously went to work and the kids went to school etc, so it’s hard to compare. Though when we leave we will have the great outdoors literally on our doorstep. And we are also going to have a little afdakkie thing that you can pull out from the side of the campervan to extend the covered area to sit in.
I am under no illusion though, I know it’s going to be rough, but I think it won’t be as bad as we (I) initially thought it would be.
Some more pictures from our time in the camper (I am so excited to revamp this interior – I like yellow, but wow…)
28 comments
you guys are the best kind of crazy
LOL – for now anyway. My business partner keeps joking how we are going to be wandering around with no shoes, dreadlocks and head bands singing with our guitars by the time we come back hahaha
Yes the outdoor tent type area will double your space, Plus the kids will naturally play outside more, which is great! Just make sure you plan your trip to avoid rainfall seasons… It will be great. When I was a kid we did 8 weeks with a caravan around the country. It was great! still have memories! My mom bought the microwave along with us and set it up in the great outdoors… Just one question, do you plan on hooking up a car behind the campervan? That way you can leave your camp set up if you are going out for an evening or day trip? or will you hire cars along the way for a few days at a time?
This is actually a huge debate that we’re having. I am a fan of taking a car with. Seth is not as keen because it will be double the petrol. But like you say, being able to leave our “house” behind and set up for living might be something we really need. But in that case we may rent a car as we get to places and find that we need it.
Babes have you watched the documentary called Expedition Happiness? You have to watch it!! I seriously take my hate off though, these guys bought an old school bus which is quite a lot bigger, and only one dog, NO kids
I have watched it!! It actually made me panic a bit (it was so much bigger for just the two of them) but the part that made me panic was how they started off having the best time but after 7 months it just became stressful. Eeeek. We’ll have to see how it goes!
I say nothing ventured nothing gained. At worst, it doesn’t work out and you return home
I can’t imagine doing this myself but looking forward to following your adventures!!
So true! That really is the worst that can happen!
I’m so glad you guys are practising already. Nice! My husband is the packer in our relationship too
Don’t forget the mosquito cream.
Yeah I think if we didn’t practise we’d be in for a rude awakening when we eventually moved in there!
Awesome! And since you already have a tent just pack it too for the odd occasion
Yes definitely going to have the tent just in case
Good for you for testing things out! You never know what you can do until you push yourself!
So true!!!
I just love this!!! I am so frikken excited for you guys x
Eeeek!!!!!
It sure is an adventure right?
It really is!
You might not be concerned about the lack of interior space now, in sunny dry weather. But when you are on Day 5 of rain (e.g. up north in KZN…) it’ll get old very quickly! It would be a good idea to have a extended rainy/crap weather contingency plan. ON a related note, have you though of how to keep mess out of the van? e.g. a muddy campsite, muddy shoes and therefore mud inside the van? Ditto beach sand!
These are VERY good points! The weather thing is a tougher one I guess, but maybe in that situation we would book a camping area that has a games room or something? Or spend the day at the mall hahaha. The mud and sand is another issue altogether. I’m not even sure how we’d start to work through that, but it will have to be a bit of trial and error I guess?
I’m just going to say it… I am so jealous! We have four kids and at a stage, we were camping once a month and then life got busy… It’s so good for us as a family – uninterrupted bonding time, no distractions, the kids playing and running outside, just taking things slow with no rushing, etc. I so wish we could do this but with a 10 year old, 8 year old, 6 year old and 5 year old, it would be difficult because of school…
What an amazing adventure and what a beautiful gift that you’re giving your family! Just wow!
So with you – that freedom of just doing what you want when you want to. I think it’s going to be quite liberating and hard to get back into the swing of things when we come back home!
You guys are awesome and I’m jealous! No doubt you have already done much research, but have you read http://www.crazyfamilyadventure.com? They travel around US in an RV, with 4 kids and 2 dogs! She has a few posts with tips on travelling with kids. Good luck, can’t wait to read about it!
Hey Cindy
Once again,, a post which is a pleasure to read.
Just on the topic of the toilet situation. When we had a caravan, my dad bought a liquid chemical from the caravan place which smelt like pine. This was put into the base of the toilet where all the waste gets dropped into when you “flush” and instantly transforms whatever you’ve flushed into a liquid so when you empty the toilet the next morning, you are basically just throwing out a pine smelling liquid – you don’t see or smell anything else.
This was more than 30 years ago so I’m sure they’ve made great improvements to the system since then. Pop in to one of the caravan shops and find out if this is still available. It’s worth a try.
Our caravan only ever smelt like pine – nothing else.
That sounds AMAZING!!! I’m all for the waste not smelling anything like it did when it came out hahaha
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Cannot wait for your trip!
Me too!! Eeeek!