Secret Tools of the Travelling Woman

So, it's that special time of year again when the average daylight hours here in the North drop below the medicinally safe amount. So tomorrow I'm off to Tunisia for a month.

Today I'm packing, so I'll kick off this year's edition of Kati-on-the-road with a bit of handy packing advice.
I think I've had a "what to pack for the road" entry before on this blog, so this time I'll concentrate on revealing some Secret Tools of the Travelling Woman.

Secret Tool no 1: A plastic bag

Most travellers end up doing laundry on the road. And when travelling on a budget, not all sinks are appealing and few are equipped with a functioning plug. Specialized outdoor stores will gladly sell fancy travel plugs that supposedly fit all sinks. This still leaves the issue of grubby sinks unsolved - plus the one-size-fits-all plugs are somewhat of an oxymoron, since they don't fit all sinks. So you may end up watching your washing efforts and washing water go slowly down the drain.

But who needs to buy or lug around a special plug or worry about sink-hygiene when they travel with a plastic bag! Just line the sink with the plastic bag, fill it with water and start washing your undies.

But your ideal washing bag is not just any old plastic bag. Your dream bag needs to be big enough, made of thicker than average plastic and have sturdy seams. On this trip I think I'll go with Harrods Food Halls - a touch of luxury for the travelling laundry maid.

Secret Tool no 2: A long string (good quality, preferably white) and some screw-on hooks

This secret tool is also mostly used for laundry, but potentially handy in all kinds of miscellaneous situations, where a bit of string could save the day. Budget accommodation seldom features clotheslines, so you have to make your own. Also most budget rooms have very limited options for places where you can attach the afore mentioned clothesline for those wonderfully washed undies straight out of the Harrods Food Hall bag. So bring a long string.
The screw-on hooks come in handy when there are no places at all for attaching clotheslines - eg. in beach huts with wooden walls. Twist twist twist and there you have it.

I recommend white string. On my first trip I had a roll of quality string, which was bright yellow. This turned out to be rather unfortunate, since by the end of the trip all my white clothing was dyed with yellow stripes.

Secret Tool no 3: Diaper gauze or Indian men's wrap-around skirt

Now everyone knows that extreme technical travel towels from licensed retailers cost an arm and a leg and are mostly good for moving drops of moisture around the surface of the skin without actually absorbing them. Or rather, absorbing just enough moisture to get the towel moist enough not dry properly and to turn the extremely technical travel towel definitely stinky by the end of about a month of travel.

The third secret tool and absolutely best travel towel is a few meters of cotton diaper gauze. I've travelled many times equipped with this secret tool and give it an absolute thumbs up. The only flaw I can think of is that if you wash the gauze together with a dark fleece item, the fleece ends up covered in cotton fluff.

On this trip I'm trying out a different take on the super thin cotton towel - an Indian men's wrap-around skirt. This is an extremely thin length of cotton - and it does give slightly better cover when dashing down a guest house corridor towards the showers.

Secret Tool no 4: Blocks

Liquids are bulky and heavy to carry around. So block it!
Shampoos (lavender), conditioners (green), washing detergents (white) and of course soap all come in blocks. These are way handier on the road than bottled stuff. Also good in case you want to make a short trip with just carry-on luggage.

No secret

Finally here's the main thing to remember when packing for the road, and this should be no news to anyone: The most important thing to take is - as little as possible!

One of the main things you can do to travel light is pack multiple thin layers of quality clothing rather than individual heavy or bulky items of warm clothing. This way you can add on layers as the temperature drops and you're set to meet anything mother nature throws at you.

On this trip I am to expect temperatures ranging from +25C daytime in the Southern desert to close to zero degrees night-time in the mountains. My layers are: an extremely thin Goretex shell coat, a super thin fleece, lovely thin alpaca wool cardigan, an amazingly thin, yet surprisingly warm silk-cotton mix sleeved shirt and T-shirt or such. These are sufficient layers for a trip of five weeks - or of five months - unless one is going to extremely cold regions and needs to get intimately involved with thermal underwear and goose down. All my layers combined pack into an amazingly small space and weigh 900 grams in total.

The golden rule of packing is: If in doubt whether you need something or not, you probably don't. Also if you do end up needing something you haven't packed, you can probably buy it on the road. So don't take stuff along "just in case".

Travel light, pack little, live a lot!