How to prepare a personal car for a trip?
Everyone started somewhere and it wasn’t always a well-equipped camper. With an ordinary passenger car, you can also go on the journey of a lifetime! With the old Golf II, we visited seven countries in less than two months. It was he who all the time played the role of a bedroom, kitchen, pantry, bathroom … It is possible!
Kitchen
To minimize the cost of the trip, we decided to prepare most of the meals ourselves. That’s why we took a small gas cylinder and a burner with us. It is thanks to these items that we could eat a „normal dinner”. It is worth taking a folding table and chairs with you (we had fishing chairs – they take up very little space).
For cooking, we used two tourist, folding pots to take up as little space as possible. Our necessary cutlery was wooden, plastic or wooden – in case of heavy braking, etc. They will not break.
Bathroom
Our bathroom was mainly equipped with … a bowl. We had a plastic one, but we advise you to take a metal one because it was very cracked at the end. For personal hygiene, we used natural shampoo and soap bars. they do not harm the environment. You used soaps to wash our clothes.
Bedroom
All our belongings were in the trunk and in the back seat. Getting ready to go to sleep, we would move the seats back and fold them flat. We had a car pillow or a sweatshirt under our head and we covered ourselves with a warm sleeping bag. We covered the windows and panes with towels. Contrary to appearances – you can sleep so well. We also took a tent with us but only used it a few times.
Car trunk
We wanted to develop this part of the car as much as possible and used plastic boxes for this. In the first one we had footwear (eg. Trekking shoes), in the second – cosmetic accessories, etc., in the third – food supplies.
The rest was taken by car repair tools.
Garage
The elements in the „garage section” of the car are:
• alternating wheels
• a set of keys
• jack
• 4 liters of oil (golf likes it very much)
• Coolant concentrate
• self-locking ties
• jumper cables
• tow rope
• Silver tape and electrical tape
• a set of fuses (in some countries the basic equipment of the car, as in Poland, for example, the Triangle)
• a set of light bulbs (depending on the needs of the vehicle, I actually took two of each type, which were in golf)
Other stuff
Despite summer, some nights were cold, and thicker socks were not enough; a rescue foil, which you can buy at a pharmacy for a few zlotys, was very useful. I wrapped it (gold side out) like a blanket to keep me warm.
It’s worth taking pepper spray with you. Better to have it and feel safer than regret it. Fortunately, I didn’t have to use it, but having it in my pocket improved my psychological comfort.
Inverter – came in handy for charging the camera’s battery.