The start of our ten year odyssey from amateurs to overlanders

Mom and Dad instilled a love for camping in me as a child. Trips to the South Coast, visits to Cape Town, and the Drakensberg were just some of the places we frequented. Everyone was expected to help and we each had a clearly defined task. I became proficient at wielding a rubber mallet, folding tents into bags, and earned a degree in tripping over guy ropes and tent pegs. 

Aside from the obvious aspects, camping taught me useful life skills such as how to adapt and make a plan when things go wrong; magically being able to fit awkward shapes into impossibly small spaces; and the importance of planning in advance. It was also during these holidays that I grew to love the outdoors. 

Whilst dad loved camping, he was adamant there should always be functioning facilities, I was thus accustomed to communal ablutions, flushing toilets, electrified campsites, and running water. Little did I know that such luxuries would all become optional extras when my husband and I started with our version of 'serious' camping... 

I associated my childhood holidays with quality time. It represented hours of fun: we would play card games, I'd try (unsuccessfully) to beat my dad at table tennis, or we'd just sit as a family and enjoy the flames of the campfire whilst the sun disappeared behind the horizon. These vacations provided me with some of my most treasured memories growing up.

With mom, I was still in nappies
Gulu, East London, 1981

Camping with Dad
Drakensberg, 1998

When we first met, I wouldn't have immediately described Gerhard as an avid camper, but with his love for adventure and the outdoors he didn't need much persuasion.  I remain a firm believer that before one gets married you should go on a camping trip together. If you return and you still 'semi like' each other and were successfully able to erect and then pack the tent away without wanting to commit violence or run in the other direction, you've successfully passed the first test. 

Floaty tomatoes and the afblaas matras

In 2012, a couple of months before we were married we took advantage of a long weekend and went camping in the Pilanesberg. We emerged relatively unscathed (i.e. we didn't beat each other over the head) but weren't yet decided as to whether we actually enjoyed camping as a couple. Loath to spend money on expensive equipment, we 'made do' with what we had: a large Coleman cooler-box, a small dome tent dubbed 'yellow submarine', and a few other odds and ends. 

Me sitting in Yellow Submarine
Pilanesberg Game Reserve, April 2012

Forays into this form of holidaying with the gear that we had weren't, what I would term, comfortable. In particular, we had two pet peeves:

1. Our cooler box didn't work very well at all, groceries only stayed cold for about a day, helped along by copious amounts of ice. In the hot South African climate, the ice would soon melt and by the end of a weekend, our tomatoes would be floating in the melted water, alongside the margarine. Of course, the beers were never cold, which didn't make Gerhard particularly happy either. 
2. The Blow-up mattress didn't stay up, which is how it earned its name of  'afblaasmatras'. I lost count of how many times that blasted mattress somehow acquired a hole and resulted in us sleeping (or pretending to) on the hard ground. If I had to pick, I think the afblaasmatras was my most hated aspect of our initial setup. 

 

The afblaasmatras strikes again - my unhappy face after a sleepless night
Warmbaths Forever Resort, Bela Bela, October 2012

Leveling up

Shortly after we were married, towards the end of 2012, we decided that camping was our preferred way of holidaying, but only if we resolved some of our bigger irritations. 

With limited funds, we decided to upgrade some of our gear. We shopped around a little and decided to buy a small camping trailer, which was equipped with a rooftop tent and could accommodate future modifications. Luxuries such as a fridge/freezer drawer system and some form of power supply were beyond our budget. Doing away with the afblaasmatras resolved a portion of our concerns and we convinced ourselves we'd manage well enough with what we had until we could afford to renovate the trailer to suit our needs.

Maiden camping trip with our first trailer
Klein Paradys, Brits, November 2012

At first, we were really pleased with our acquisition. We'd definitely leveled up our camping experience - sleeping in a rooftop tent was far superior to sleeping on the ground. Around the same time Gerhard 'accidentally' purchased a 4x4 (more on that in another blog). Our 4x4 with the little trailer hitched looked quite the part, and we were proud of our 'rig'. 

Offroad but not yet off-grid

Of course, new toys needed to be played with, so we did a little planning, packed the trailer, and set off on a trip to Port Elizabeth for the summer holidays. We still had no real appreciation of the capabilities of a 4x4 vehicle, but our stopover at Camdeboo boasted a 4x4 route. Naturally, we tried it out... This may well have been the start of our fascination for seeking out the road less traveled. 

Our rig
Camdeboo, December 2012

The campsite in Port Elizabeth was quite luxurious - it provided electricity, a paved area for the tent and we even had our own private ablution. We were all set to enjoy a great vacation. 

What we weren't prepared for was the strong wind, but it was PE and there was no escaping it. Our little trailer with its canopy and sidewalls was no match for the blustery weather. Scared that our camp would take flight, we removed the sidewalls to reduce some of the risk and, noticed the other campers had storm straps securing their tents. We promptly invested in two straps of our own in an attempt to keep our canopy from blowing into the sea.

These storm straps came in handy on many of our later trips and became a prerequisite when packing to go anywhere near the coast.

 

Storm straps in place and sidewalls removed - the wind was hectic
The Willows, Port Elizabeth, December 2012

The wind was at its worst on our last evening in Port Elizabeth, not even the storm straps helped. Sleep was impossible and Gerhard and I could be found running around the camp in the pouring rain, stubbing our toes on tent pegs (and swearing) as we tried to save our belongings. Fortunately, the bad weather abated in the wee hours of the morning, affording some respite. We were still grumpy when we packed up our soggy tent the next day. It was camping at its worst, and it's times like those where people could be forgiven for thinking we were crazy. 

Inclement weather conditions are part of camping, one has to take it in one's stride and move on, and on the bright side, this particular story still provides much hilarity when regaled around a campfire.

Go big or don't go

Early in 2013, I spotted an article in the Drive Out magazine advertising 4x4 training at a place called Kungwini. Since I was searching for a suitable birthday present for Gerhard and with a 4x4 residing in the garage, it seemed fitting to gift him (us) an offroad training experience. The camping facilities at Kungwini were a lot more rustic than what we were used to, but we loved it. The course itself was great and taught both of us an enormous amount. 

My review of Kungwini published in Drive Out, April 2013

The 4x4 travel bug had bitten hard, we just needed to decide where we wanted to go first. Overly confident, armed with newly acquired knowledge, and keen to start exploring further afield we decided on a trip to Botswana. We had a 4x4, and a trailer how hard could it be?

If you'd asked me then I would have assessed us as fairly experienced in camping. Pitching the tent wasn't rocket science and we (mostly) managed to do so without fighting.

Whilst we coped well enough in civilised settings, the reality was we were complete amateurs at rough camping (i.e. no facilities, or sometimes also referred to as 'wild camping').

A little research was quick to point out our naivete, the advice was unanimous: 'Don't try a trip like this with only one vehicle and make sure you are totally self-sufficient.' 

"Now what?" I asked Gerhard

"Now we find other people who want to go to Botswana with us." 

"Ok, uhm where? We don't know people who do stuff like this, and we aren't self-sufficient. Our trailer doesn't have batteries or water tanks yet?"

"True, let's worry about that later."

As luck would have it a friend of ours popped by for a visit shortly after our conversation. It just so happened that he, together with a group of friends, had a trip to Botswana planned for July 2013 and, he kindly offered to include us. 

With the first problem solved, we turned our attention to the self-sufficiency concern. The group we'd joined were experienced overlanders and we received a (very long) list of items needed for the trip. The bottom line was our modest rig was wholly inadequate to tackle a 'rough trip', our 4x4 would be fine, but the trailer wasn't even remotely ready. If we really wanted to go to Botswana we'd have to invest in some serious modifications or find an alternative solution.

The planned route for the Botswana adventure

We weighed up the cost of renovating the trailer we owned versus investing in another one that came standard with everything we needed. In March 2013, with a little over three months until the Botswana trip, we decided to 'go big or not go'. We sold our little trailer, trading her in for Herbie. Herbie joining the Scholtz family marked the start of our evolution from amateur campers to overlanders, and we've not looked back since.

If you are keen to find out more about Herbie, our adventure to Botswana, tips, and tricks, and other useful information we've learned over the years, stay tuned for my next blog.

Lessons learned:

• Don't buy random camping gear that looks cool in the store. Items such as collapsible cupboards or stands for washing basins, bulky camping chairs, and fancy hooks add weight and take space. If we could redo this aspect we'd have rather saved our money until we were absolutely certain of what we wanted to buy. 
• One of the best investments we ever made, other than our offroad trailer, was a reliable fridge/freezer. Its an expensive purchase, but worth every cent.
• We spent a lot of time researching and visited several Outdoor shows to check out what options were available to us before we bought Herbie, this helped provide us with a better idea of exactly what we wanted.
• In our case, investing in a proper offroad trailer made sense, we love to camp and our gear is used frequently. Other alternatives could also include hiring an offroad vehicle, trailer, or caravan for specific trips.
• Despite making the move to a Rooftop tent, we've hung onto Yellow submarine. This tent folds up small, is very quick to set up, and it always comes in handy when someone wants to join us for a quick trip away.

“Camping is my favourite season” - Unknown

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