This past week has seen packing, unpacking, umm-ing, arr-ing, culling and then repacking.

The camping chairs have had much discussion and the final verdict is that we are still young enough to get our butts up from the ground. So we have packed two different picnic rugs, one really big wet weather one and one modest family size dry weather one, and the chairs are staying at home.

Pod and Wheel Well

Not taking the camping chairs in the pod has meant that the much advised (from other friends/blogs) pool noodles can be packed. Also in the pod is reef walker shoes, towels, fishing gear, snorkelling gear, daypack and even a clarinet! Why are we taking a Clarinet – glad you asked, Riley has homework to do for the the music program.

We have also packed around the wheel well in the back in the car. The Sportage has a full size spare which means a bit of space to pack in and around. It is surprising what can fit. We have managed to get the items we should not need at all, but have just in case. Things like the tent, sleeping bags, air compressor, tool kit, tyre deflator, shovel ohh you get the picture.

More items will fit into those little spaces I am sure, but a good start for now.

Our Bags

On the inside of the car items, we each have managed to keep our clothes to our allocated 60L Cargo bags. We have done this really well thanks to the use of “Packing Cubes”. Not that this has allowed more clothes to fit, just that we can get clothes out easily in smaller packs and they stack nicely in the bag.

This has still allowed us all space in our bags to have a rain coat each and some extra items. The boys have toys, school work and a couple of books to read. We have books, some card games and other luxury items we want.

Shoes and toiletries have been another item of much discussion. Shoes were going to be packed in our own bags but it didn’t work for various reasons including some wanting more shoes and others having big feet!! So an extra bag is going which also holds things like the hair clippers, medicines, washing liquid and all those other random items.

Tech

We laid out the tech to make sure we had everything we needed and didn’t need but wanted. This was also to check we had power sources, cables, memory, recharging options for all devices.

We also tested all the tech would work with just a mobile phone as our internet router for those devices needing the internet. This did not include A’s work laptop but we had tested that before and knew I would leave space for it.

It seemed like a lot of stuff but it came down to this in the end. The boys to carry their own iPads and Headphones in the back of the car, the CB radio in the passenger door, the drone in its own bag ready to go, instax photo printer cartridges to go into the wheel well as we don’t need those that often and the old Crumpler sling bag with everything else in it.

So with all the final packing checks done, we just need to start this trip. Our dog Shadow also wants to go with us, which he will for the very first leg of the trip.