Overlanding 101

So, you’ve pawed and gaped at maps and photographs of distant horizons, and you’ve had ‘the chat’ with your partner. Not that chat. You’re disgusting and you should stop doing that. The other chat, where you’ve done the maths concerning what you can afford, and mused over whether the kids really need school or even need to wear clothes. Finally, you’ve decided that, alone or together, you want to travel on your own steam. And now comes the fun bit!
As a very dear friend of mine is embarking on his planning and we started talking about electric needs, I started going back to basics. One third of your travel will be sleeping, probably even half setting up camp, preparing food, taking down camp and cleaning up. For me it’s as simple as one question: Where are you going to sleep? There are two facets to this: one is how you intend to put your head down each night; and the second is the geographic location. This influences your vehicle choice. Allow me to explain!

1. External Camping: Whether a pop-top or a roof-top-tent or a ground tent, you are limiting yourself to campgrounds or bush camping (more later). Bush, by the way, is Australian for out yonder. It even works if you’re Presidential as he’s waaaay out yonder. You’ll need some camp gear such as tents, sleeping bags, blow-up mattresses, and perhaps some cooking facilities, but generally staying in towns and cities may be out of bounds. Your vehicle choice is far wider though with small vehicles having cheaper fuel, cheaper insurance, you can park in cities and height-restricted parking lots, and you have the turning circle smaller than an oil tanker.
2. Internal Camping: If you’re sleeping inside your vehicle then that gives you more options: you can sleep anywhere from the back of beyond to a city. Generally, the vehicle will be larger than a standard saloon or estate car so you may have trouble parking and you’ll be a little more noticeable, but will have more space to breathe and afford some luxuries. You’re veering towards comfort camping with cushions and mattresses, and who doesn’t want to be comfortable?

Physical Location Now this is where we get to the real root of it:

• Hotels: you’re a millionaire, congratulations! Hotels generally limit you to places with at least some population, with or without parking facilities, but your vehicle choice can be anything!
• Campsites: If you prefer campsites with some facilities (showers, power hook-ups, washing machines) then that comes with restrictions of location – I’ve slept near airports, train-tracks, with five hundred other campers, and have had the perfect huge camp site all to myself and some kangaroos. It’s a lottery and season dependent. You’ll more likely be further outside of cities though and it costs money
• Stealth Camping: ‘Stealth’ here means camping in places where you shouldn’t really be camping (in a city) or sleep with no one noticing you’re camping. It changes the type of vehicle you need. Often when I’ve been travelling, I’ve been caught out from traffic, lack of planning, hold-ups that meant I didn’t get to where I wanted, or the surroundings felt dodgy as hell, so I slept near busy petrol stations or slightly more secure locations. It is free though, but invariably a poor night’s sleep depending on how tired you are! Where I said about a third of your time asleep? Forget that bit. You may get away with four hours if you’re lucky.

• 4. Bush Camping (and Bush Travelling): Without a campsite you simply need a flat patch of ground for you to pitch a tent or stick your vehicle. If this is your type of camping there are some lovely benefits with scenery, solitude, peace and quiet. However, and this is a big HOWEVER, you need a vehicle that can take you there e.g. some ground clearance, perhaps some tyres with grip, perhaps even four-wheel drive with additional suspension (Bolivian roads, sweet jesus!), and of course enough fuel to get you there - I met people with a range of 400km’s and they were always very nervous (my Troopy had a 1400km range). Then you need to think about water storage, shower and toilet needs (easily solved but depends on you as a person), food needs such as a fridge, which then brings you to electric needs like solar. And lastly there’s the thing that people forget all the time, how self-sufficient you are with vehicle problems or recovering your vehicle from sand? What spare parts do you have if something goes wrong? Or alternatively, how good is your communication devices (another thing to think about) that you can call for help, and then how good is your auto-insurance?  

Hope that helps!