The broken slops and the lessons learnt

There are always lessons to be learnt, even for the most seasoned planners among us. Here is a lesson or two from a planner who welcomes more seasoning in their life.

We did a lot of planning for the second biggest adventure of our lifetime, 7 t-shirts each. Ok, so it felt like a lot to us. We were doing serious planning, discussion, investigation, talking and fantasising for about a year and a half before we finally hit the proverbial road. You would imagine after the number of hours spent our efforts would pay off with a more or less seamless experience. Well, you’d be right, more or less.

Criteria count

One of the lessons was about what clothes and footwear to take with, more specifically, evaluate what you want to take with you according to criteria. As a starting point, we had only a couple of criteria. Did we have it and would it fit in the suitcase?

Very soon we began to see that the selection process would need to be a lot more complex than that.

Questions to ask before choosing your gear

1. What material is the item made of?

2. Durability?

3. Functionality? Like cargo pants that morph into shorts. Or visa versa.

4. Warm or cool?

5. Fit - tight or loose?

6. Weight in relation to everything else in the suitcase?

7. Packability - can it be rolled up or is it too thick to roll?

8. How often will it need to be washed and how quickly does the material dry?

9. Does it need to be ironed?

10. How many of the item do you need? Not want, need!

11. Do you really need that many pairs of underpants or panties or can you get away with washing more frequently?

Check out the weather

A starting point was to look at the weather wherever we planned to travel to. For a normal vacation, no problem. How long will you be away? Between one and two weeks. If you’re lucky, three to four. We expect to be travelling for about a year for the first stretch, without returning to South Africa. That’s at least one full change of season. Summer to summer etc. In our case we’re moving from Southern Hemisphere winter to tropical summer, to Southern Hemisphere winter to Northern Hemisphere winter, all in the space of 6 or 7 months. So that’s thinking about hot and cold, dry and wet, and whatever is in between that. Do you take jeans and cargo pants? Do you take a full length dress and summer skirts? Do you take button up shirts and blouses? Do we need a work jacket? And a load more annoying questions.

Is well worn the best idea?

The one thing we didn’t really give a lot of thought to was the age of the items we were taking. We have a budget to stick to so we didn't want to spend any more than was necessary on clothes and footwear. We also wanted our tried and tested stuff with us because we know it fits and works.

The slops ….

That’s where the slops come in. They’re nice slops or, as they’re called in SA, flip flops and other places, sandals. They were pretty inexpensive but not “they’re junk’ cheap. They were comfortable and I bought them not expecting them to last a lifetime or for that matter, more than a year or two. Well, they lasted until the end of our first week of travel. No signs of wear and tear, just ping and the one strap separated from the other, tearing asunder my ego-driven understanding of how awesomely we had prepared.

…. and, the t-shirts ….

And, there are two t-shirts I should have left behind. Both were also inexpensive no name brand items, one a lovely pink and the other a nondescript black. Both of them had recently had a traumatic washing experience and responded by trying to change their shape from that of being a t-shirt into misshapen rags. Presumably in the hope of either not being worn again or not being traumatised by another washing experience. And one had a small hole. Should have left them behind. After only a few weeks of travelling they are almost unwearable. So much for 7 t-shirts each.

…. and a dress

Ingrid brought a dress, lovely and delightfully summery. A gorgeous floral creation that she has had for many years and it is one of her favourites. She refers to it as her diving dress. It’s worn before and after diving and it’s hellavu comfy. It had tiny holes in it before we left SA - not too noticeable. The holes are now larger. It’s becoming unwearable. Should have left it behind.

Not a crisis, and an interesting, albeit small lesson on looking at what you’re going to take on your nomad / work / lifestyle adventure and ensuring that none of it is nearing end-of-life and, don’t take it just because you love it.