Road Trip South Africa
After almost 2 years of re-scheduling, we finally got to go on our road trip along the Garden Route area of the Western Cape in South Africa. Let me first start out by saying that sitting in the car for any extended period of time is pretty much my nightmare in terms of travel. I would 100% prefer to be on an airplane if and when possible (and have over a million miles on American Airlines alone to prove it) but this was a “test” to see if we could do it in a way to make me more open to them. South Africa is a beautiful country and there is so much to see…via car so we are seeing if this works for us both as a mode of travel. As much as we’d love to rent a small RV, that to me seems like a great upgrade from just a car, it is really a big added expense for a holiday so for now…our car it is!
Pre-Planning
Self Catering Accommodations
All of the places we stayed at were self-catering so at least the Gluten Free aspect of my road trip fear was taken care of. I made sure that no matter where we stayed, we had places to cook a proper meal whether it be on a stove top or outdoor grill. It’s frustrating enough trying to eat out in restaurants around where we live which is a tourist town that has more GF options than many other places. I knew trying to grab any meal on the road was not going to be easy without being prepared…so I did, I prepared like a boss!
Road Trip Prep
We planned to only stay 2 nights at each place max so I knew that I wanted to pack smartly and not take too much stuff. Taking all our cooler and the food pantry I made would be enough so I made sure the clothing side of things was a rather small case. It’s so easy to think that because it’s a road trip that you can over-pack. I think that is a mistake IF you are going to be moving from place to place. If you are going to sit at a campsite for a week, then yes, pack what you think you will need because you’ll only be un-packing once. But when you are moving around a lot, the last thing you want to do is having to pack, re-pack the car AND your things!
Food Pantry
Gluten Free Travel Pantry for Road Trip
I was so excited that I couldn’t wait to so I started packing more than a week ahead of time with items we weren’t going to be using before we left-food pantry items. I thought long and hard about how to make it an easy thing that we wouldn’t need to un-pack yet have access to everything that we needed easily since we’d be cooking a lot. I came up with the idea of using a plastic storage container that we already had. I have to say, it worked GREAT! Certain things once opened, moved into the cooler and as items got used, we could add things to the pantry that wouldn’t initially fit like the roll of paper towels, etc. This was a test since I’d never a) been on a road trip except those to stay on a houseboat for a week which is a completely different way of packing. All my other travels in the past have been via plane and not in self-catering places so this truly was an experiment or trial run for me.
Another Food Prep task that I did that made our trip that much more enjoyable was pre-cooking and pre-baking items and freezing them. The couple of weeks before the trip, I made a bunch of items that would be easy to eat in the car for snacks and easy breakfasts that took no time to prepare. I made the following items with us, all Gluten Free of course: banana nut muffins, pumpkin and dark chocolate chip muffins, home made bread loaf, banana bread loaf and a dark chocolate and pecan fudge. I would have pre-cooked meals and froze them but my husband loves to cook on the braai (bbq) so we didn’t do that.
Packing Organization Tips
Half of the Suitcase: All toiletries & shoes
I packed based on the knowledge that I would be living out of my suitcase and not unpacking at each of the accommodations. I chose the case that worked easily to just unzip and leave open. So I used a medium sized hard case suitcase that opens and sits flat with 50% of the case on easy side…perfect! I also wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t be leaving any items behind so everything would need to be easy to find and categorized so I’d know if something was missing. I achieved this by using my trusty and well-traveled Travelon Clear Organization Bags. Each size bag had specific items in it, for example, make-up, bathroom items, sunscreen and lotions/creams, socks & underwear, etc.
Packing Tips for Clothing
Half of the case was my clothes and the other half everything else (shoes, toiletries, etc). Because I knew I would be living out of the suitcase, I folded my clothes so that I could see everything at a glance. Some would call this the konmari method…I’d call it 15+ years in retail clothing and how I’ve been doing it for ages. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a BIG fan of Marie Kondo…Spark Joy!! 🙂
Half of the Suitcase: All clothing
You’ll see in the photos below how I packed and as with the Food Pantry, I can tell you this packing style worked perfectly! I know everybody always wants to know about packing cubes, and I do use them, just not for this trip. I will do a whole blog on packing cubes, how to use them, when, etc but there really is no wrong or right way to pack. I believe it’s just about making you have the most enjoyable and least stressful time. Whatever you need to do to make that happen, like packing a certain way or preparing, do it! I can tell you that packing up each time we had to move to the next place took about a total of 5 minutes…super easy and it really made me enjoy our trip that much more!
Biggest Road Trip Frustrations
Besides just being in the car for too long, although I handled it well, I did have one big frustration. That was not being able to get photos of some of the amazing things I saw on the road. I saw my first Secretary Bird…which is a BIG deal. If you don’t know what that bird looks like, look it up, it’s crazy and big and hard to see in the wild! I also saw a bunch of gorgeous Blue Crane birds, another BIG and beautiful bird. Not something you just see every day so I was bummed that you couldn’t pull over and stop…the roads were fast (120k) with no place to stop for pics.
What We Did Right
Besides packing smartly, there are some additional things that really made the road trip nice. One thing is that we never drove more than 4 hours in a day. Most times it was only 2-3 hours and I planned it that way from the beginning. We also stopped whenever we wanted, there wasn’t that rush to get there. Also when you check-out of a place at 10am and cannot check in until 2pm, it really forces you to take your time. There were many Rest Stops that we took advantage of to grab something from the cooler or just stretch our legs. I’d say the last thing we did right was to fill up with gas whenever we were at about half full and needed a pee break. We didn’t want to have the stress of trying to find a gas station if it was getting too low as we went through some desolate areas with very little traffic. Overall I think attitude and intent really helped us enjoy this road trip which I was very nervous about. I tend to get a bit “car crazy” when I’ve been cooped up for too long so I’d say I’m quite happy that this experiment turned out so well.
More Road Trips to come South Africa!