I love travelling with a house. The rooftop tent was our first home purchase and although we missed out on a first homeowner’s grant (one of life’s perks for Aussies going for the Australian dream) we bought it in cash, rather gleefully. Admittedly it is difficult to insure.
We had a fortnight to prepare for this trip, as we took some time to decide between finding new sedentary jobs or living on the road. It was only a couple of months before take-off we the car, we weren’t sure what kind we wanted but we knew the car of our dreams had to be a good workhorse kind of car, a car that would fit the name ‘Bruce’. The three cars we saw were not Bruce but then we found her (see below) – and it was pretty amusing to get her service record and find all entries addressed to Bruce, the name of its former owner.
In our 4x4 course we learnt that all 4x4s are female and that driving them takes finesse. Fantastic, I said, her name is Bruce.
Anyway, here are the little things we have with us to feel at home wherever we are.
Camp chairs from friends, picnic basket from previous home, kettle, thermos, coffee plunger at Storms River Mouth, South Africa
Furniture from friends. Something we didn’t buy but definitely makes us feel at home. A colleague of Andrew’s gave us these great Kenyan three-legged stools when we were in Nairobi and my colleagues in Cape Town gave us these lux camp chairs. I like how both sets of furniture reflect the style of the place it came from and how both sets of friends knew how much sitting around on our bums we do.
Kettle, thermos, coffee plunger. The only thing we’re missing is a teapot but the thermos is taking its place.
Picnic basket. Andrew refuses to travel without it. I think it’s been to five countries so far.
Kitenge bunting from the Manchewa Mountain Mamas co-op in Malawi
Awesome gifted Kenyan stools
Festive Kitenge bunting – makes any tent feel like home! (made by a widows and handicapped womens’ co-op in Malawi)
Rice cooker, a.k.a. Wonderbag. For my family reading this, this is the best value rice cooker – ever. Perfectly steams rice and keeps it hot for hours and hours without energy.
Welcome mat. We wanted one for kicks and got some free scrap material at a camping store.
Wonderbag
Spices in upcycled winebox/spicebox. We like to cook – and reuse stuff.
Drawers. We didn’t have time to make our own but we bought some plastic ones so we can pretend to be organised. We also asked The Carpenter’s Shop in Cape Town who trains homeless people to make us a chest for the car and they made an excellent one out of recycled pallets. It is an amazing psychological balm to be able to put stuff away.
Braai grid. For making friends.
