Over the next few days you are going to see a few posts of our Annual holiday. This year we had another mammoth trip into Namibia.
As with most big events, planning for our trip began many months in advance. Not so much planning on where to go or what route to take to get there but what to take with us.
Standard Camping Packing list.
Lauren has her usual list of camping items we always take but this holiday was going to be a reunion of the whole family, a helluva undertaking when you think that we have family members all over the world. London, Newcastle, Cape Town, Durban, East London and Windhoek. Co-ordinating all this so that we didn’t bring the same thing was solved by my brother, Mick.
A sample of our google checklist
Mick, very cleverly, introduced us to the Google Documents programs and there we set up a spreadsheet of who was bringing what. As my folks were travelling across the border, they were not allowed to bring meat products through, Mick and his wife Jo were travelling internationally so were limited by what they could carry and so on. We planned out meals, who would bring fresh meats, canned food, dried foods etc. All made very much easier when you can use a live document like a google spreadsheet which updates in real time whenever anyone adds to it.
Moving on, as the time drew nearer the last minute things started. Filling up gas bottles, airing out musty old tents and such like. Our neighbours must have thought us quite mad for having a six man tent pitched on our front lawn. Finally it was time for packing…
Now, over the years we have accumulated quite a bit of camping equipment, most of which is very functional stuff that provides us with a few little luxurious. A small electric pump that allows you to inflate mattresses with no effort is just one example. However, all of this needs to fit into our car or “Betty” as we affectionately call her. She is not the largest vehicle on earth and as such everything needs to be packed with the skill of a Tetris master. Our holiday falling over the christmas period didn’t help this cause either, as we had items wrapped in wrapping paper which could not get damaged.
See who needs a trailer!!!
Durban Time
I love the idea of the spreadsheet. Will try it out on our next family get-together. Your car looks as though it could do with a “little help from a ….trailer!”