Campervan-ing ... the perks and snags (by Karen)

Meet 'Snoet' (that's Snout in Afrikaans)

After my first few weeks of campervan-ing I have begun to get a feel for the perks and snags of this adventurous mode of travel. I'm certainly no expert yet, but give me a few more weeks and I'll be sprouting all sorts of wisdom :)

After 4 months of being limited to carrying only what could fit in our backpacks, the first big bonus of having a campervan is that you can spread out, and even make a few purchases. Of course, the snag is that at the end when it comes to fitting everything back into the backpack we'll be screwed!

Our camp in Rifle Gap State Park (Colorado) ... so serene and peaceful

Our food and toilettries only juz fitting in the bear box

I can see why there are so many snails out there, because having your house with you at all times is very handy indeed. There's no chance of forgetting your wallet at home, or not having your rain jacket just when it decides to bucket down. You can also pull off anywhere and sleep, provided it's legal of course (or not likely to be noticed :). The snag is if you do get noticed then you get a rude awakening at 4am with a cop knocking loudly on the window ... which is what happened to us one morning. As it turns out, the cop wasn't actually interested in us per say, but was responding to a 911 call and thought it might have come from us. But since it was illegal to sleep in your car in that particular county he was obliged to mention this to us. He did very kindly let us sleep on till day light though :)

Fat American toilet :)
(actually its a flush basin)

It helps to have a well trained bladder if you want an undisturbed nights rest. With all the pallava of climbing over the other person and getting out the van to pee in the middle of the night you end up being quite awake, and getting back to sleep can be tricky. I find the key is to not open your eyes fully and to try to keep your mind in that drowsy-almost-drugged state. Hang on to the images of your last dream and  don't let your mind fire up with any real thoughts. However you can train your bladder to hold it in, and after a week I now seem to be fine till morning. But it is such a nice treat when we stay in a motel and can simply slide out of bed and pee quickly and effortlessly :)

Our dashboard: 4th of July party flag, San Fran half marathon
bling medal & Mr Bobblehead (free in the race pack!)

But the real problem is if you do hold it in, then by morning you're pretty busting and it can be quite desperado getting out the van in time. With my experience of this there certainly wasn't time to carefully select a choice pee spot, instead I went crashing through the scrub and hunkered down just in time. It was only then that I noticed I was surrounded by poison oak. Shit! Did it touch my legs? Did it touch my bum?? I couldn't really remember, but there was certainly a chance I got touched somewhere. For the next 3 days we were on red alert (it can take up to 3 days for the incredibly itchy rash and blisters to appear). Placebo affect immediately came into play and now suddenly itches were sprouting up all over. I frantically googled what to do if you get poison oak on you, and spent a day worrying about what luckily turned out to be a false alarm.

Washing in the river, California coastline

I've come to realise that a hot shower is probably the next best thing since chocolate. While in San Francisco we really struggled with where to sleep. All the camp grounds were either really far out the city or were super expensive. But even if we were willing to pay the unaffordable rates or travel the distances it made no difference as they were all fully booked up anyway. So we mostly wild camped a bit out the city, and then broke this up with a couple treat nights in a motel. 

Wild camp shower in Rifle, Colorado

So after not showering the previous day it was a priority to find somewhere, anywhere, to shower! In the end we went to a public swimming pool where we managed to get a very 'public' shower ... no closed cubicles, just and open shower which we had to share with all the kiddies who had just finished their swim lesson. I'll never forget the image of Roné huddled in the corner with her back facing out, looking over her shoulder and saying "Kaz, I don't do public showers!" :)

Just one of the stunning places our campervan has taken us to: Bryce Canyon, Utah

The charging station

You don't resize how much electrical equipment you have until you don't have a permanent power supply. Our little van doesn't have an extra battery for powering things, so we bought an adapter that goes into the cigarette lighter and provides a USB plug as well as a standard USA wall socket. However it is limited as to what you can run/charge off it since the voltage is pretty low. All ova sudden you find that you have 101 devices that all need charging at the same time. Our adapter is permanently on the go with at least 2 things charging at one time :)

Our camp in Yosemite ... the smell of the pine forest was really something special

Morning coffee after a wild camp outside San Fran city

Ever had it that you're on a road trip or journey somewhere and as you cruise past a pretty beach you say "ooh wouldn't it be nice to stop and have a coffee here"? Well, with the campervan you can :) It's so easy to pull over at any point and fire up a brew. And not only coffee ... breakfast, lunch, dinner, you get to choose what view you enjoy while cooking and eating.

Stopping on the coastline for a lunch break

Wild camp outside San Fran

One of the best things in this world is waking up to the sound of the ocean, or the smell of pine trees and forest and birds singing. It's the little things, like doing my exercises looking up at the stars, staring into the flames of a camp fire, peeing with only a full moon as witness, and driving long straight desert roads with vast open plains all around, that really feed my soul. And in our little campervan we have got to experience this plus so much more. So despite any snags I would most definitely say there are way more perks!!

I love a big fire at night :)

Chilling the white wine!

Another stunning spot our campervan has taken us: Yosemite National Park, California