Hygiene on the road for a global overlanders
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- Опубліковано 11 лип 2024
- In this video I run through everything you need to know to stay clean on the road. What do I do for a bathroom, shower and laundry. What has worked well for me around the world, and what do I recommend for others setting out on a huge overland expedition
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Overland Travel Essentials: West Africa: Myths, Misconceptions and Misnomers
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#Overland #OverlandHygiene #OverlandBathroom - Навчання та стиль
Completely off-topic, but, .........as a native Southern Californian and resident of North County San Diego, with just a week until Thanksgiving, all the stuff going on in the World, it is so nice to watch a guy standing out in snowfall talking about crap! You got to love the World even when it feels shity.
Haha, cheers!
Thanks for the laugh 😁
Two tees in shitty
@@GF-pc5bt Thank goodness we solved that mystery.
The real reason everyone carries a shovel
On my last trip I tried one of these shower tents together with a 12V car cigarette lighter shower pump. We pumped the water directly from our 10 liter water tank. To warm up we often boiled 2-3 liters of water, which is enough to get the container warm enough.
This solution was very luxurious. I'm planning exactly the same setup for my next trips.
And public toilets in Africa can often take a lot of getting used to. So I always prefer bushes.
I do carry a very compact... well... toilet seat on folding legs. As I get older squatting, legs shaking, knees creeking is not conducive to a good----- yea... lol.
Love these videos with real practical tips. Not all of travelling is photo ops and glamour!
microfiber towel bath has been pretty nice on days I couldn't get shower. minimal water consumption and not much loss in body heat.
A couple of points. For the "washing machine" use a thick waterproof bag of some sort (sold for various purposes). You can roll these up when not in use and they take up minimal space.
For the shower use a 2l pressurised sprayer which is amazingly effective and uses minimal water. This was recommended by Paul Marsh and I find it an excellent solution. I am living off grid at present and this is all I have.
For the toilet I agree - just bury and forget. Don't be too prissy about natural bodily functions.
As ever a very good video.
A dry bag works. Puff it up with the clothes and water in it, rinse cycle is at lunch.
Tank you very much for sharing this info 👍
Thanks for posting this up.
I've been waiting for this one.
Thank you!
thanks!!!!you really answer my question last time
Thanks for the content. Happy to see your success
Exactly the episode i was waiting for. Answers all the questions nobody wanted to ask.
Awesome really videos
Nice explanation
My favorite resourceful man
Your videos are always very interesting! Thank you!
Glad you like them!
Most of the campgrounds I've been to don't have showers so I finally just built a hot water shower kit using a tankless hot water heater, pump, with a 1-lb propane bottle mounted and all encased in a hard-sided pelican-style case. At camp, you just open the case, attached all the fittings, stick a hose in a bucket of water, a lake, or a river and then flip on the power. I have it to where it runs off the cars cigarette lighter or can plug into an outlet. I based it off some video here on youtube.
Hi, is there a tutorial you can share? TIA
Very helpful
Love u and will always salute u ,
I use a Nemo Helio pressure shower - leave it in the sun for a while and you even have warm water. For a toilet ( sorry ‘bathroom’ for non-Aussies) I use a small camp chair style folding toilet seat - adds an element of ‘luxury’ to doin it in the bush !
Cheers
Dan you always have the knack of addressing the most important and valuable topics. Keep up the good work my friend
Thanks, will do!
Another good video, one issue I still have to tackle properly is bathrrom solution for my wife, have the sheewee but still far from ideal. Thanks
My Mom trekked in Nepal for a month and got by with two pairs of nylon undies & socks, switched out & washed every 3 days or so in sink washbasins or creeks and dried on a line (they dry really fast). Other clothing didn't get too dirty/stinky so she didn't wash them except in the hotel when flying back to the US so she wouldn't offend fellow passengers.
Great video, and I like that you addressed the second-half of the wash-bucket problem: Rinsing the suds!
The toilet/bucket/dig-a-hole question is also entirely dependent on where you're going. Many of my favorite places in North America are now literally overrun with crap. Some parks now requiring proof that you have a waste solution (WAG bags, cassette, etc.) because it's gotten to where there are too many humans and not enough places to bury stuff. Your solutions for Cental/South America and Africa make sense for those regions, for sure.
Most hand-washers use too much soap/detergent in their wash water. You only need a bit for the extra wetting properties to get the release of the soil/perspiration/smell/etc. The extra soap or detergent just makes for more expensive wash water plus extra rinses/rinse water usage.
The big luxurious suds don’t do any work, the bit of soap or detergent in your water PLUS agitation/scrubbing gets the “clean” happening...
Good topic. I wondered how you went about it. Here in Canada there are many free washrooms, sometimes free camping showers.
Most Fisherman marinas have free showers in Canada. We discovered it not a long ago.
Also truck stops have great clean showers in the US and Canada.
Have you been to Vancouver Island and the surrounding islands? It's beautiful.
My wife doesn't mind going to the bush. We sometimes warm up water on the side of the road and clean our hair and shower with it.
Do you/did you ever do any engine-cooking? When me and my friends were young and very poor surfers, we would wrap (over and over) potatoes in aluminum foil with a slit for the butter, and hot dogs, and then put them on the intake manifold of my '57 Buick Special (with surf racks). We would arrive at a campsite and have a wonderful hot dinner while we waited for the campfire. You can even do it on a motorcycle engine.
I tried once and burnt my hand badly on the exhaust manifold in the dark! That was many, many years ago.
I much prefer to use my kitchen setup, it works so well.
When I lived on a sailboat, I didn’t have a shower. I found I get paid daily with a very small pot of warm water and a washrag, and I honestly felt cleaner than I did with the shower. Probably because of the scrubbing. You don’t need to have a shower to keep clean. Also, if people are concerned about spitting there toothpaste out and just try baking soda as a tooth powder. Spitting that out as bad as natural as she couldn’t get.
I've been camping for years and pooped and peed outside . When I modified my work van into a camper, I built a composting toilet. Skeptical at first because I thought it would smell, it doesn't. Never really minded pooping outside but what I've always hated was going outside in the middle of the night. I could always pee in a bottle but my wife, no so.
Hey you did it! This is Justin from the overland page that talked to you about it
Just for you! (and Mike who also asked!)
when hand washing in a bucket the key is fast dragging movements of the clothes through the soapy water. This is what helps to separate the dirt. Think about how a washing machine works. Good video on an important topic people don't like to discuss!
agitation!
You can buy cheap underwear and T-shirts in every town market, you can find a taylor that can make you a pair of pants or a shirt in light cotton fabric in every sizeable market, but you will not find good sox. Those you should bring from home for the whole trip.
"...Finding solutions..." Well said Dan! I hope many more will adopt this way of thinking while overlanding. Seems most need to have all the latest gear to qualify as an 'overlander'. That is why this series of videos is by far the most authoritative, personal experience instruction on the 'net!
Thanks very much!
Only the ones talking about it online.. the ones who are actually doing it don't have any of that stuff.
For a toilet a good solution is a bucket with a toilet seat on top and either a hole in the bottom to let everything go down into the dirt or a bag inside that you can tie and dispose of later.
For laundry, I have an idea (haven't tried it, so maybe it's not a good idea). You only need a bucket, a drill, biodegradable soap (so that you can dispose of the grey water anywhere) and a mixer attachment (something DIY made from an old washing machine, just a concrete mixer or something similar)
Those ideas might work, but they take up precious interior storage space, and they're complicated. Keeping it all as simple as possible is the goal!
We used to use a (clean/new) toilet plunger in a 5 gal bucket. Up n down motion provides the agitation.
The Helio pressure bag shower is a great way to shower. Thing is its big bucks. Walmart sells a knock off online that we have used for a couple of years. Half full of water, warming in the sun, then boil your biggest pot of water and dump in, foot pump to pressurize it and wa la....two warm enough showers. They are great for low water dishwashing as well and because the water stays on the ground my wife can set it up just as easily as I can.
forgot to mention, they pack down into a small package too...smaller than a cookie tin.
Hey Dan, when I was a single guy travelling alone, the “dig a hole in the woods” plan worked well. Travelling with a wife is definitely different. I’ve spent significant time in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, and peeing on the side of the road is not as common or socially acceptable as you suggest, especially for women. I think a setup like a laveo dry flush toilet and a shower cube become more appropriate when travelling with a family.
I think people use those waterproof, roll top dry bags to do laundry. Fill with dirty clothes, water and soap. Roll the top closed and drive around. Dump soapy water, refill with rinse water and repeat.
Just a thought from my side. Even biodegradable stuff isn't good for the environment and not meant to be dumped there, let alone stuff like toothpaste/wash ditergent.
Get yourself a piece of simple curd soap. You can use it to wash your clothes, clean the car, clean dishes, wash body and hair. Its really multipurpose and also the best for the enviornment.
For toothpaste you can try out healing clay or use miswak sticks
Now I can justify the 20 boxer shorts I have..
Have really been enjoying your channel! Would be curious to hear your thoughts on clothing. When the wife and I go out for a weekend we always end up taking to many clothes. I struggle to imagine how to prepare for a multi-year trip. Plus we have spent a lot of money on "high tech" clothes that rarely live up to their promises. What criteria do you use to chose your clothes? Favorite brands? Must haves? Packing tips? Would love to learn from your experience!
Will do!
Dan, maybe you could comment: In many of the less developed areas I've been in, when needing to use a WC in cities, it's fairly common to enter a local bar, bodega, restaurant or similar shopfront, stop to ask about using the facilities and offering a quite small amount of money as appreciation. E.g. a 1 Euro coin when the Eurozone. Did you see that convention much occasionally in SA or Africa? Nice job on this one.
It happens sometimes for sure, but I'd say no super common.
Here in Africa, it's like a moral obligation that everyone is willing to freely give you bathroom on e u ask. Even if u were driving in a town and stopped by and just tell anyone that u like to use their bathroom, chances are 99% you'll get someone make sure u get it, but it's advisable to carry your own toilet paper.... That's it..... While in cities or anywhere with civilization, if I feel I will need bathroom instead of using nature, I just ask anyone for bathroom and almost all the time I guarantee you will be escorted to the bathroom sure deal.
Always a good reason to have a beer there and then use the bathroom :)
Your channel is an absolute perfect primer for anyone considering going overlanding, every video I'm getting answers to questions I didn't even know I had, keep it coming! I do have a question I'd love to hear your thoughts on, traveling in a group. I'm putting together a group of friends to go up to Alaska, and we're deciding on how many vehicles to bring, what would you say is a reasonable limit for people and their stuff for everyone to be comfortable, per vehicle, for a month long trip, assuming everyone has their own sleeping setup? In my case it would be a full size 7 seat SUV. Is it worth stuffing more people in and splitting the fuel cost, or should we just bite the bullet and bring several vehicles? Would a trailer filled with our stuff make more sense than a separate rig?
That type of decision is entirely up to you - there's no right or wrong answer, but probably whatever you do you'll want to do something different next time. Not because one is wrong or better, just because a change is nice.
If you're on a tight budget, obviously less vehicles makes sense.
If you need flexibility so different people can potentially leave earlier or skip certain things, then maybe more vehicles makes sense.
What about using a dry bag (the sort of thing you'd take canoeing) rather than a bucket to have bouncing around in the car while driving? Easier to store than a bucket. I get the point about needing the right water to fill it and rinse though!
... I suppose that would work in the same way, if you're confident filling it with a ton of water and sure it won't spring a leak!
Hello
What do you use for insurance,very nice videos
Jose
Some countries require you to purchase at the border. For Africa there is one that will cover most of the West Coast, another that covers most of the East.
I was wondering about laundry. Did you ever have any trouble with botflies in Africa?
Looks like you've been getting the same weather we've been getting in Cochrane.
No, I never did. I know it's something a lot of people talk about, but I never experienced it
And my next question would be about communication like cell phone, internet, navigation etc. What did you use on such a long trip?
For nav I've got the following video. I'll do one on comms soon:
ua-cam.com/video/nZRQrG6bC3k/v-deo.html
How do you ship your jeep to another continent and how picky are the customs enforcement, ie… do they go thru the entire jeep etc?
Everything you want to know about shipping is here: ua-cam.com/video/nfXrj6J87Ts/v-deo.html
👍👍👍👍👍👍
In cool, but not "cold" weather, throw that shower bag under the hood for a bit after you stop and you'll have warm water.
The thinner fabric Red MSR dromedary bag helps transfer the heat as well.
After several road trips to Mexico, other than major fuel stations every road side toilet/ out house, whatever was found without the toilet SEAT😑.
So you either try to hover, or sit and hope you don't drop in w/ your 💩. The seats are a theft item.
You could carry one with you as those places are usually filthy.
Just a friendly PSA👌.
Just carry a small plank. Sorted.
@@Jasfras1
Good idea 🤔.
Thanks Jas.
How do you deal with different contries having different vehicle registration and inspection requirements ?
You can drive your vehicle to basically every country in the world right now, registered in your home country. You're just passing through, so you don't do anything locally. I talk about the process in this one- ua-cam.com/video/wPgKW0F3jFA/v-deo.html
For women....Diva Cups!
Try the bivvy loo
Translation for Australians: Bathroom = Toilet!
Haha hahaha... Yes bro, same case for us in Africa. A bathroom here is used to mean a shower place 😀😀and exactly this here is called toilet 😀
From an American. one refers to the whole room...the other refers to the fixture.
Winter hygiene ?? Sauna, roll in the snow, Sauna, roll in the snow, Sauna, roll in the snow......
Man, I’m the 7th to leave a comment :(
Next time!
Sorry bro, i dont think you looked hard enough for laundromats in Africa. In all cities you can find launderers, with washing machines that will wash dry and iron your clothes for cheap.
I live in Cote d’ivoire, i usually get done on the cheaper end for about 60cents a piece of clothing. Washed, dried, ironed and folding.
You can go as far as spending more on dry cleaners for higher end clothing if you’d like
Edit: you can also buy plain tee-shirts for about $2 each and throw em away after a few wears if you hate washing clothes.
Oh, I'm sure they exist in the bigger cities, but to be honest I didn't go to Africa because I wanted to spend time in the bigger cities. I went to explore the wild and remote parts. Also note Cote d'ivoire is *very* developed compared to many other countries. I was *shocked* how good the main roads were and how big Abidjan is.
As for throwing out t-shirts... that's terrible for the environment and $2 a shirt for 3 years is going to add up to too much.
It's not about Africa?
It's About Africa, and Central and South America.