by Loreena Walsh | Camping, Gear Guide
One of the big considerations when you decide to travel, especially if you aim to free camp, is having showers and staying clean. Gone will be the days of unlimited streaming hot water, and long hot baths, but it’s really just a case of being practical, thrifty and sensible and once you find your groove it’s not too hard at all. We get lots of emails asking about shower set ups for free camping and travelling on long term family holidays, so here’s some starting pointers.
Options for keeping clean quickly while travelling?
Quick and Easy Travel Hygiene
Let’s get honest here, some days it’s just not possible to have a full wash. It may be too cold, you may be driving all day and not arrive to camp until late, or there’s just such limited water having fresh drinking water is more important. Never fear, you can always freshen up if you carry 2 important items:
1: Baby wipes
2: Hand Sanitiser – The water-free kind.
Baby wipes are great for an all over clean up, or just the vital areas. Hand Sanitiser allows you to ensure your hands are clean and hygienic, so a combination of these works great for a light freshen up.
Water Saving Travel Bath
It’s surprising how effective a sponge bath can be. This is a common option for campers and travellers when there isn’t another option.
A small bucket or large bowl can be filled with warm water and a face washer or cloth is all you need to get a thorough clean. For travelling families who need a little privacy a shower tent is a great idea.
Another handy thing to know is that using sensitive skin, soap free options will still clean you but you don’t have to worry about the skin-drying soap residue if you don’t have running water to rinse with.
Camp Showers while Travelling
The ultimate in shower options for Travellers and campers is to imitate a “real” shower as closely as possible, and this is where camp showers come in.
There’s several levels of luxury and lots of options available, so here goes:
Solar Shower Bags For Campers
This option is a tried and true remedy for accessing heated shower water when camping. Black rubber bags are laid in the sun for a natural heating method. It’s best suited to when you are staying more than one night as the water bladder will need to lay in the sun for the day. Similarly it’s better for warm regions as the bags won’t heat properly on cold, overcast, rainy days.
12 Volt Shower & Heat Your Own Water
Of all travelling families we’ve spoken to, this option is probably one of the most common options for showering while camping. It’s simply the use of a portable 12 volt shower pump.
Heat up some water, over the camp fire is a great option for saving gas and making the most of the fire, other than that, just on the gas stove will do.
Mix the hot water into a bucket with some cool water until it’s the right temperature and then use this and the portable shower to wash.
12 Volt showers are mostly hooked up to a battery, either the car, or a spare to run the shower pump which is immersed in the bucket of warm water.
Complete Hot Water Units.
For those who don’t want to worry about having to pre-heat water, the use of a hot water service offers even more convenience. You’ll still need a bucket of water, but instead of having to preheat, the 12 volt shower runs as part of the hot water service, which has an adjustable temperature gauge on it. Brands such as Coleman hot water on demand, and Companion Aquacube are popular choices.
Top Tips for Camp Showers
The vital ingredient for this type of shower is the shower tent. These range from pop-up kinds to more sturdy dual ensuite options. Regardless of which one you purchase, it will provide welcome privacy for both a shower, and if you carry one, a portable toilet.
It’s a great idea to put some foat matting at the bottom of your shower tent to keep your feet clean and allow the water to run away. This type of matting is available at camping and discount stores.
When camped near a clean power supply such as a river or lake, this will allow you to use available water supplies instead of water that’s better saved for drinking and cooking. If you can make out in our photo here, we’ve got 3 pots of water on the fire to save on the gas so we could have enough hot water to wash everyone. It took a few rounds of water, but the water from the lake was fresh and beautiful, and it was a lovely warm day, perfect for a good clean up for the kids.
What tips do you have for camp showers while travelling?
by Loreena Walsh | Featured Posts, Life On The Road
March saw us deep within the beauty that is Tasmania. Wrapped in her glorious green forest, and calmed by her turquoise blue waters. The worst thing about acknowledging another month has passed is facing the reality that we are closer to leaving this stunning, soul inspiring island.
There’s a backlog of posts to publish, both from our journey to get here, and our explorations while we are here, so we are currently sitting for a few days at a powered campsite to relax, and catch up.
I figured the easiest way to stay up to date of what we’re doing and where we’ve been is to write a monthly reflection of our travels, so, this being the first one I’m going to focus right back from the start of our full-time travel journey and then follow on each month from now on:
Adventures Travelling Australia With Kids:
What it feels like to finally hit the road on our big Australian family holiday at last.
Week one on the road free camping at Bulahdelah NSW.
Heading toward Melbourne – Bulahdelah to Gunning free camping.
Staying at Jugiong free camping on the Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne.
Sailing the Spirit of Tasmania with Kids (& the dog).
We tried the beautiful local produce at Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm & Anvers Chocolates.
We stayed in beautiful Stanley Accommodation, and at the Country Club near Launceston.
We explored the intensely inspiring Port Arthur, and the kids did great activities.
We also were brave enough to face the Port Arthur ghost tour.
What’s coming up for April?
Well, we’ve really got the whole of Tasmania to uncover for you. From the breathtaking Cataract Gorge in Launceston, to the postcard worthy Bay of Fires, the most southern tip of Australia and everything in between. Over the next month, or two we’ll be uncovering the beauty of Tasmania and the best things to head out and explore with kids when you visit. One of my favourite experiences this month was the “Her Story” tour at the Cascades Female Factory in Hobart, so I’ll be sharing that with you soon too.
If I had to describe Tasmania in one word, as cliche as it might sound, then AMAZING is that word. I can’t wait to bring you more of our travel stories.
Where have you been in March?
by Loreena Walsh | NSW Accommodation
Jan 28th to Feb 3rd: It’s a surreal existence when your dreams are happening around you. It’s a spectacular sense of accomplishment, mixed with a dash of disbelief, a slight twist of vulnerability, and a nagging sensation that it’s all going to crash down around you sometime soon. At least that’s how it felt to me.
Our first few days on the road, well I guess, closer to a week were spent catching up with friends and family before we travelled off into the sunset to enjoy our nomadic dream. It was nice, and a sort-of in-between, where we were officially on the road travelling Australia, and yet floating around the familiar tracks of our past lives, not yet truly on our way.
The 28th of January saw us drive out of Matt’s Nan’s driveway with no real idea of where we’d stop for the night, it was everything we’d wished for; point the car in the direction we wanted to go, and just drive. Take things as they come, trust the universe would lead us to where it was we should go, and enjoy the journey, after all, the journey really is the destination!
As evening began to hit, we decided to pull up in Bulahdelah. This is a pure case of deciding to take a chance on a place we’d driven through probably hundreds of times before, and yet never really looked around. Living on the Mid North Coast made Bulahdelah the fuel and toilet stop of the Pacific Highway when travelling to Sydney; a nice mid-point. But, the highway has since by-passed the little town, and we’d noticed there was a free camp in the area so it was worth a look.
Truly, camp sites don’t get too much better than this one. It’s a dog friendly and family friendly free camp.
We arrived to find a nice big vacant area right on the bank of the river, with a jetty to our left and the walkway to the bridge not too far away. There wasn’t any shade in our new found yard, but we figured we were only staying a night or two, so it we’d work around it.
Van up, table out and a couple of chairs, and we were dishing dinner before we knew it. We’d anticipated a late arrival so had thrown a big feed of beef stroganoff in the Dream Pot before leaving, it was perfect by the time we were ready to eat, and a nice reward after the drive and set up.
There was no time like the present for the kids. Bellies full, they had the rods unpacked, bait net in and were keen for a fish. It didn’t take long before the bait net was host to a small fish. Jackson didn’t like the look of it, with a few ominous spikes giving a warning not to get to close. He gave a yell to Matt to come take a look, and before Matt made it to the Jetty, a lovely guy in the campsite near went to take a look and not wearing his glasses put his hand in to retrieve the little thing.
Ouch! He’d been stung, and boy did we feel bad about it! First night in camp and we’d already inflicted an injury on some poor bloke! We dug out the bites and stings book and I enlisted the help of good old Google to identify the sucker, which we soon realised was a Bullrout. Luckily we carry plenty of pain relief and creams in the van, so we offered him some, and then advised to wash it with hot water as per the first aid directions, also assuring him if it got too bad we’d be happy to run him up to the hospital for them to take a look. Thankfully it was all fine and not too major, but lesson learned for the kids, not to let others touch their nets until we’re there. I’d hate to feel responsible for something bad happening to someone else, even if it’s unintentional.
Crisis averted, Matt and the kids fished well into the evening, before it was time to hit the sack, we figured we’d stay another night, and then see where the road led us.
This plan, to leave the next day happened for several days, and we ended up staying there for five nights. We didn’t realise at the time that the site actually has a 3 night maximum, but it wasn’t full and we spent money in town every day which we thought the small businesses would appreciate so not a major issue.
Our days were filled with swimming, fishing, wandering through town to stock up on supplies, and hanging out with our new friends, the resident geese and ducks, who would often make their presence known and had quite a bit of character about them.The kids enjoyed having a go at camp cooking, and even washing the clothes, although the fascination wore off pretty quickly 🙂
We chatted to locals, met lots of other travellers, some who’d been on the road for some time, others who were testing the waters and deciding whether to dive in and head around Australia full time on the big lap. (of course we told them to go for it, life’s just too short, we hope to meet up with them on the road) 🙂
If you’re in the area, then we can highly recommend this free camp. It’s an initiative of the local Lions Club, to help aid the community after the highway bypass. You need to be pretty self-contained, there is a tap on site for water top-ups, and there are toilets just a short 100 metre walk across the bridge, we carry our own shower, so that wasn’t an issue for us but I think there may be a shower at the showground for a fee.
Please, if you do decide to stay, support the local businesses, it’s a great spot, one of the best we’ve experienced, and by doing some groceries, going to the pub just for a drink or even for dinner, topping up with fuel, or grabbing lures from the hardware like we did it helps prove that the camp is bringing income into the town, as there have been rumours that there has been some objections to the existence of the camp there. We injected around $400 into the town, and most other travellers we talked to spent relative amounts depending on their length of stay, so the small businesses are truly getting extra income from travellers like us, and goes some way to show that towns offering free camping as an alternative definitely benefit.
It was definitely a difficult place to leave behind. Our deadline for reaching Melbourne to sail on Spirit of Tasmania was looming, and we knew we needed to be there by the 8th of February, so we had to give in to the demands of time and wave goodbye to our riverside home and continue on our way.
by Loreena Walsh | TAS Destinations & Activities
It is with so much joy and excitement that I share with you the first amazing journey of our new life as full time travellers. The hard work of getting ready to travel was swept aside in preparation for our trip on what the kids happily referred to as “the ferry”, known to everyone else as Spirit of Tasmania. Life doesn’t get much better than setting off on a road trip, knowing the end result will be exploring one of the most prominent destinations ever to feature on our must-see list.
The 14 hour trip to Melbourne was broken down into an enjoyable road trip with a variety of campsites at small towns we’d never visited before (more about that journey to come). The city greeted us with 40 degree heat, and upon arrival to Port Melbourne, the cool whisper of the ocean air was a relief not only because of its cooling effect, but also because this is the site we saw as we approached:
We were finally here!
Any friends we’d had who’d visited Tasmania previously had flown in for short trips and hired cars, so while we weren’t quite sure what to expect, we’d been showered with stories and yarns from other travellers who were more than happy to share their experiences at each of the campsites we’d stopped at on the way. One thing was for sure, Tasmania, they said, was amazing, and Spirit of Tasmania was a great adventure of its own. We haven’t met a single person who thought otherwise.
Boarding Spirit of Tasmania
Spirit of Tasmania sails nightly from Melbourne departing at 7:30pm, sailing overnight and arriving at 6am in Devonport, during peak times there are also day sailing options available. Around 5pm check-in opens, and stays open until 45 minutes before departure. It’s a smooth process, it may require a short amount of wait time, but we promise it’s worth it. It’s a great idea to make sure you have drinks in the car especially if Melbourne puts on the summer heat as it did for us.
One thing to be aware of when travelling to Tassie, is that the quarantine regulations are quite strict. This is in order to protect the farming and other industries that could be decimated by diseases carried over from the mainland. We were ushered through the security checkpoint after answering a range of questions about things we might be carrying, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, our fishing gear, and of course, about travelling with our dog, he had special requirements of his own.
The entire process is really well co-ordinated and organised, but if, like us you are travelling with camp gear, a caravan and food, it pays to read up on the quarantine requirements before you arrive, there are a few simple things you can do to make the process a lot more smooth and faster. It didn’t take us long and we were boarding the majestic ship that is Spirit of Tasmania I.
One of the best things about Spirit of Tasmania, that is especially impressive if you’re like us and need to bring your vehicle, is that it is a drive-on, drive-off ferry, when you’re towing a caravan this makes things even more convenient. There’s no need for awkward reversing angles, it’s super easy to board and disembark, just follow the directions and drive forward.
Aboard Spirit of Tasmania
With the car secured, and Yoshi locked safely in his overnight kennel, we headed off to explore the ferry that had been the reason for so much excitement over the past week. The first place to head, of course, was the deck to see what could be spotted frolicking in the ocean waves. We soaked in the imagery of Port Melbourne, the waves alive with jet skis and swimmers all washing away the day’s heat. The eagle eye of the kids spotted opaque blobs in the water; jellyfish floating in the boat’s current as we left the shore.
Spirit of Tasmania has everything you will need on your journey to Tassie, most of which is located on the central deck. You’ll find reception who can help with any enquiries, a tourist information centre which offers all the information you’ll need before hitting the shores, brochures highlighting must-see attractions and things to do in Tassie, as well as permits for National Parks, and fishing licenses. There’s also a store full of goodies such as souvenirs, toiletries, refreshments and for those who may need it, they also stock sea-sickness medication which Matt had to grab as just-in-case insurance.
The lounge area has cozy seats and televisions showcasing movies for on board entertainment, the kids enjoyed taking some time out watching a movie while we kicked back to relax with a couple of refreshments. There’s also a movie theatre, which plays a range of the latest movies in an early and late session, as well as a kids play room, and games room along with a bar if you’d like to enjoy a drink while you sail.
If you’re wondering about Byron’s not so impressed expression, it was because I set the camera to self timer, then ran up, incidentally bumping Matt’s beer all over Byron’s leg in the process, but, if you’ve ever tried to get kids in photos, you’ll know 2 out of 3 with ok looks is good enough haha 🙂
A Menu to Impress
For our trip over, we were treated to a delicious three course meal at The Leatherwood Restaurant. We can honestly say this is some of the best food we’ve tasted, and the best part is that it features Tasmanian produce, offering a tasty introduction to the state. For entrée, I enjoyed the “41 South hot smoked salmon, watercress and fennel salad”, while Matt indulged in the “Tasmanian tasting plate”:
Mains of choice were “Nichols chicken breast marinated in sage and white wine” and for Matt “Tasmanian tenderloin of beef”, WOW! Desert consisted of “warm chocolate tart with double cream” and a “House of Anvers tasting plate”, some of the best chocolate you will taste anywhere, ever. The photos tell the story, the food tastes even better than it looks.
The great thing about The Leatherwood, is that the kids meals are a wonderful selection of healthy, real food. Byron and Amahli chose Nichols chicken breast and vegetables, while Jackson decided on the Roast of the Day with vegetables, and they all enjoyed ice cream and topping for desert.
A Night at Sea
Our rooms aboard Spirit of Tasmania were 2, 4 berth cabins located at the front of the ship, meaning the kids could sit up near the port-hole and look out to sea as we set sail, and even more excitingly as we saw the Tasmanian coastline come into view. The rooms are comfortable, with plenty of room to unpack what you’ll need for the night, and a roomy en-suite complete with toilet and shower, which is a bonus to our kids at the moment after weeks of caravan travel. There are also power points to allow you to charge your phone and camera other gadgets while you sleep.
The sensation of sleeping at sea wasn’t something I’d thought about before we set sail, but as soon as the kid’s heads hit the pillow, they were out like a light, rocked gently by the waves of the Bass Strait. Matt was a bit concerned about sea-sickness which he suffers from, but a couple of Kwell’s eased any worries, and our big days of travel leading up to our Tassie adventures ensured he was tired, and slept soundly until the captain’s wakeup call just after 5am.
So it was, that we made our way down the stairs, back to level 5, to collect Yoshi from his kennel. Needless to say he was overjoyed to see his people, and head back to the car to begin our Tassie adventures. A short drive off the ferry and a quick check through quarantine and we headed off into the Tasmanian sunrise.
*Disclaimer: We sailed as guests of Spirit of Tasmania, however all experiences and thoughts are our own, shared to give you our honest opinion on our experience.
by Loreena Walsh | Thoughts & Ideas, Trip Planning
So this is it. Our first real step toward long term family travel.
Look closely and you’ll see it.
Doesn’t it look amazing? Ok, I’ll admit, it doesn’t look anything out of the norm does it?
There is our car, towing our boat, nothing unusual about that….. except…….
The boat contains parts of our life, tucked away under that cover.
The quad bike given to the kids by my brother. The outdoor chairs we bought about 4 house moves ago when the kids were so very much younger, that have welcomed guests during birthday parties, get togethers and many fun bbq’s.
The little glass top table and 2 accompanying chairs that Matt bought me to sit out on the verandah of the first house we lived in when we moved to Wauchope.
Matt’s swag I bought him when he was doing the rodeo circuit and needed somewhere quick and easy to stay.
A wiggles rug I found tucked away in the shed that’s decorated the boys room before the kids all outgrew the colorful foursome.
Other bits and pieces are in there too, off to live at my brother’s house. Our first full load of things being rehomed, and it’s all feeling just a bit (ok maybe a LOT) real right about now!
We don’t have an exact date we’ll be properly homeless, but the shop is on the market, and we’re starting to downsize and sort through everything.
I have a feeling, as with any other move, it will turn into a massive frenzy when the vital moments draw near, because as much as I feel organised, I know it will sneak up on me and I’ll realise we still have too much stuff that we’re supposed to have said goodbye to.
But regardless of what’s ahead of us, this is a defining moment in our journey to embark on family travel around Australia
