People often ask, “But what do you do all day?” My answer is usually, “The same as what you do with your day”. Let me tell you about a usual day for us when we’re in one place for longer than the one night spent between places, and a bit about our current set up, and how that may alter our day slightly from set ups we’ve had in the past.

In the past we had bigger rigs for our long stretches of time on the road, rigs with water heaters, showers, and toilets, and washing machines on board. Now we travel with a lowly 17’ Coromal Magnum pop top. No water heaters, no shower or built in toilet, and no washing machine. We do a have a portable loo that fits into a cupboard for overnight use. Do we miss the other luxury comforts? I thought I would, but actually I don’t. Not one bit, and that surprised me. I certainly appreciate the lighter weight travelling behind us, especially so ATM with the Trump inflicted price of diesel.

I can still do all the things I did with all those mod cons on board. I’ll give you a run down on our usual daily schedule, and I’ll tell you how this varies slightly depending on whether or not we’re staying in a site with power and water, water only, or with neither.

Firstly, we have a power station and solar panels with us. Vital for when we’re off grid. More about how we use it as you read on.

Our day usually begins when we get up around 6am. We do a few stretches, and a few exercises to keep our aging, arthritic bodies moving. Then it’s wake up coffee time. We like our freshly ground, percolated coffee, and we like it with frothed milk. We have a coffee grinder, two sizes of percolators, and a milk frother with us. Paul is the Barista. He grinds the coffee beans (enough for 3 – 4 brews), either using park supplied power, or using the power station when we’re off grid. The coffee percolator heats our coffee on the gas ring, and the milk frother froths the milk, either using the power supplied, or by using the power station if we’re off the power grid.

Then we’ll do the usual scrolling. I’d like say we do very little of that, but that’d be a lie. We’re both totally addicted to our screens. One day I’ll get my screen time down to 30 mins or less, but I’m not ready to attempt that just yet. Then it’s breakfast. Most days that’s Greek yogurt with a couple of desertspoons of chia, and some frozen raspberries mixed in. We let that sit for 1/2 an hour or so, for the the chia to soften a bit and for the berries to thaw. Then we top with 1/2 a banana, walnuts, and Paul also sprinkles a bit of his home made toasted muesli over it. Our week-end breakfasts are a little different. On Saturdays we have boiled eggs, and on Sundays we have pancakes.

For our Sunday pancakes I try to make them high protein, and I don’t add sugar. I put about 1/3 cup of whole meal flour with a bit of wheat germ and wheat bran mixed in, into a big bowl. To that I add a mashed banana, five beaten eggs, and sufficient milk to make a thin batter. That rests for about 1/2 hour, and then makes two good sized pancakes which we top with Greek yogurt and berries. If the berries aren’t sweet enough we’ll add a drizzle of honey or maple syrup. Tilz loves to get his small share of our pancake breakfasts. I thought the wholemeal flour would make them heavy, but with so many eggs in the mix it hardly seems any different that those made with refined white flour.

If you’re wondering why we have specific days for the different days. It’s because some rituals on certain days keep us in touch with what day of the week it is. Without some rituals reserved for certain days we’d totally lose track of which day of the week it is.

Next on the agenda is a bit of laundry and general housekeeping. Like I said – our days on the road are pretty much the same as our days at home. Housework duties don’t stop just because our home away from home is on wheels. We don’t have a washing machine on board any more. We’ll use caravan park washing machines when we want to wash our bed linen and towels, and we may throw a few items of clothing in with those if there’s room. However we wash most of our day to day clothes by hand using a ‘Scrubber Bag’. These bags will hold a couple of tee shirts, a pair of shorts or two (depending on the weight of the shorts), and a few undergarments in each wash. They have nodules on the inside that work like an old fashioned scrubber board. We need to do a bag full once a day to keep on top of our day to day items. It takes around 2 minutes to load the items into the bag with some hot water from the kettle, some cold water, and appoximately 1 dsp (or less) of soap powder, seal the bag up expelling the air, and give the clothes inside it a bit of a massage. Then let it soak for 10 minutes or so, give it another bit of a beating inside the bag, rinse out and hang to dry. (It helps give our arms a bit of a gentle work out too). While the clothes are soaking, we’ll tidy anything inside the van that needs tidying, sweep the floor (wash if needed – which is a hands and knees job with a cloth – takes less than a couple of minutes). The laundry is only possible if we’re in a place that has water. If there’s no water, we let it accumulate until we next have water available without using our precious on board water.

It’s usually around 10am by this stage, so time for our second (and last) cup of coffee for the day, (and a bit more of the dreaded, time wasting, scrolling).

At some stage during the above activities we’ll take Tilz for a morning walk. It may just be a five minute walk, or it may be for an hour or more, depending how we feel. He almost always gets a walk of an hour or more at some stage of the day.

If we are in a powered site we’ll boil a kettle for hot water, or if there is no power, we’ll use the gas ring to boil water. It takes very little time, and means none of our precious cargo space is used for a hot water system.

We have a power station and solar panels with us. The solar panels work well when we’re not in a powered site for keeping the power station charged.

Then we may do a bit of shopping, or we may go for a longer walk, or we may read a chapter of a book, or we may do a bit of site seeing, or go for a swim, or do a bit of beach combing, or we may just do what I’m doing now – write up a bit of a blog while paul does a bit more scrolling.

Then it’s lunch time. Lunch, dishes, and some more of something mentioned above. Today after lunch we’re going for a drive to check out Old Onslow. Apparently the cemetery there is quite interesting to look around. Yesterday we checked out 4 Mile Creek, (it looks like a good place to fish). Tomorrow we’ll take the fishing rigs to see if 4 Mile Creek will live up to expectations.

Then it’s dinner time. We go to bed early, so we try to eat early (somewhere between 5 and 6pm). We try to keep our meals simple. Lunch is most often canned salmon and salad. Dinner is some sort of protein. We try to alternate chicken or pork, with with beef or lamb, that gives us three meals of red meat a week to keep our iron levels up (we’ve both had low iron levels in the past so we’re conscious of keeping our levels up now). Because of Paul’s Poly Myalgia Rhumatica, we’re trying to stick to an anti-inflammatory diet. That means very little refined foods, limited alcohol, and because of his diabetes, and the effect that steroids can have on blood sugars, we’re limiting our carbs. It’s easier to do than it thought it’d be. A few days of eliminating most things with added sugars, most processed foods, and all ultra processed foods, and the cravings for them had gone. Very surprising.

We do have some carbs, either sweet potatoes, (sometimes normal potatoes), or brown rice, or home made flat breads. Our flat breads are sort of a chapatti, – wholemeal flour, wheat germ, wheat bran, a little salt and a little olive oil, mixed to a dough and kneaded for a few minutes. About a cup of flour mixed up and then kept in an oiled bowl in the fridge will make several days of flat bread. We twist of a small amount, roll it flat and thin and dry fry in a fry pan. Sure tastes better than any of the ‘beer mat’ type bread that’s usually available in small out of the way places. If, however, we find a good sour dough bread anywhere, we’ll buy that.

After dinner and dishes we usually have a few games of cards and if we see the clock turn over to 8.30pm then we go to bed and call it a late night. We have a tv for the caravan, but we chose not to bring it away with us. We don’t miss it. When we’re on the road we’re usually well asleep long before 8.30 though.

And that’s what we do with ourselves when living in the caravan. I’m guessing that apart from your daily television, it’s not a lot different to the way you spend your days. Am I right?