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"No man can live this life and emerge unchanged. He will carry the imprint of the desert, the brand which marks the nomad; and he will have a yearning to return. For this cruel land can cast a spell which no temperate climate can match." Wilfred Thesiger, Explorer. |
We decided to ensure that we had sufficient supplies to ensure a breakfast and evening meal for every day that we were away. The main reason for this was the potential difficulty in ensuring that Belinda had a gluten free option when buy from a foreign shop or eating in a restaurant.
This is the complete list that we packed, in two 50 litre 'Really Useful Boxes' (see here) , for a 21 day trip.
I had always loved the look of rooftents and following our trip to Morocco, where we used a pop-up type, we realised that there was a practical advantage in keeping all your bedding etc. together in an easily deployable place. So we took the plunge and bought a Howling Moon 1.4 Tourer. We have now used the tent in the UK several times and in the desert, made a few modifications and improvements. So I thought I would outline here why we choose this particular tent, how good it is in varying conditions and some of the things we have done to make it better.
Now some people would argue that my car is far from 'understated' but I have always aimed to keep her appearance fairly 'clean'. I am not a great lever of stickers on a car but for once I decided to make an exception.
Using a garmin satnav has distinct advantages. In normal use UK & Europe the mapping is similar to other units (Tom Tom, etc.). It's when you wander off road or beyond Europe that these advantages emerge.
I intend to itemise our entire kit list on here. Much like Tom Sheppard, in his Vehicle Based Expedition book, I will list each item and identify where we store them.
I recently took delivery of a spot gps tracking device which provides a 'breadcrumb' like trail of waypoints which can be viewed by anyone using Googlemaps. In addition it provides an emergency SOS function anywhere in the world. When the spot is activated, this page shows a map of our current location so that you can track our progress on our trip to Tunisia.
With all the kit in the back of the car I wanted to add some security. Initially I though about tinting the windows but the options for this had issues.
I have often thought how I would react if I came home one evening and found the disco gone. The amount of time and money that I have invested in the car is immense so it was item for some security.
One of the key pieces of kit recommended for overland travel (and especially in the desert) is an awning. When we went to Morocco we took an Ikea awning with tent poles. We aimed to attach this to the roof rack with short bungees and support the outer edge with the poles. In the end we never used it there (which turned out to be a good thing).
