Jonesberries

There seems to be two places to wild camp in Turkey: the beach and the forest. We went to the forest and found a sweet little spot for the evening. Really beautiful. And quiet.

A regular part of our travels is sorting through left over coins. Try as we might to spend all the currency before we leave a country either by putting it into the tank, exchanging it at the border or (the kid’s favourite) spending it on special foods.

We always seem to find extra coins in pockets or corners or…. So, a natural part of our homeschooling is to sort through the coins and put in small ziplock backs labeled with the country. Now we put the smaller bags into one larger bag of the continent. Alot of times the kids will count the money in each bag and put a small piece of paper in with the amount.  The bag goes into the safe and comes out when we return or when we meet someone going the opposite direction we make an exchange of currencies. It is always nice to have enough for a loaf of bread, or coffee or a pay toilet when coming into a new country, as we always say.

Hannah is our bookeeper. At first we did an XL document on the computer. Now that she has her own ipod we have put Xpensilite on it. We save receipts in a metal box on the dash. She takes the receipts and enters them into her ipod and converts the currency back to USD. She takes photos of any that are over USD 50 in value. She seems to really love doing this and she does it well.

We have changed to an ipod app for pocket money as well, called “allowabank”. Abi keeps her home currency in USD but the others keep their home currency in NZD. Every purchase must be converted to their home currency.

The world is quite small for our kids. They grew up understanding multiple currencies. They also understand different economies. Just crossing a border bread can go up to 10 times the cost of the previous country. We were poor in Germany, we are rich in Bulgaria. However we have the same amount of money. It is one thing to know this in your head. It is another thing entirely to know how it feels.

We enjoy a nice shower more than you.

Well, probably.

You see, this is my theory. In an age of instant gratification we rob ourselves of the ecstatic joy of receiving something we have done without. Something we have dreamed about and waited for.

Let me explain it better.

Have you ever been so tired that when you finally get to bed, put your head on that nice squishy pillow and pull those warm covers up that you laugh for the sheer joy of finally being able to lie down. Well, if you never get to that point of fatigue, that wanting but not receiving, waiting then your bed is the expected outcome at the end of the day, no joy.

Kind of like a shower at the beginning of the day. Normal occurance for most, eh. Showers are not a regular, daily experience for us. Last week we had gone a week + without a shower. I know, yuck!  We were driving and parking at rest areas for the night, wild camping at the Black sea coast, parking at an abandoned gas station. It was hot, we were sweaty, the only thing worse than the other person’s aroma was your own. We could jump into the sea but my hair still felt like it was made of cardboard. Then, Andrew found a cheap, old school, post-communist camping ground. First question. Do you have showers? Second Question. Are they warm? I opened up the wobbly door and went into the pink, cement room. When I turned the water on a gentle trickle of warm water came out of the nozzle. Sheer bliss, heaven in a gentle stream of water. Aaaaaah! Has there ever been something so beautiful, ever. After the shower it took me a while to come down from the euphoria. I sat back on some cushions at our camping site. When my hair dried I couldn’t stop running my fingers through it. No longer was I feeling a lump of straw on the top of my head. I was feeling silk.

When you live in a non-instant-gratification world you get to enjoy the world that much more. The euphoria of a shower, a bed, a sit-down toilet, a sofa….

140 square feet is the living space of the tiny house that Greg Johnson lives in. He says it has improved his lifestyle. He even wrote a book called Put Your Life On a Diet: Lessons Learned from Living in 140 Square Feet. I haven’t read the book yet.

140 square feet is also the living space of many village huts in North India where the Dalits live with their families.

140 square feet is 13 square meters. It’s not much living space.

140 square feet is also the living space of our motorhome, which has been our only home and base for the past 2 and a half years. With my wife and our 5 children, and our guest, we currently live with 17.5 square feet per person. Thats a little more than last week, when another guest was living and traveling with us, but it still not a lot of room.

Even less than Greg Johnson who gets to rattle around his 140 square foot home all by his lonesome.

SO . . . HOW DO WE PUT UP WITH EACH OTHER LIVING IN 140 SQUARE FEET?

- We make it a priority to get along. Disagreements are sorted out immediately and nothing lingers.

- Our daughters have always shared a room in houses so it was an easier transition for them.

- We don’t have much space but we do have our own space. We all have a locker, all to ourselves, to store our clothes and stuff.

- We make use of outdoor space as much as possible. That includes our outside kitchen and occasionally sleeping in tents.

- We like each other. We get along. Our kids play games together despite the differences in age. That has always been the case.

- We are willing to make sacrifices in order to maintain a high degree of travel. No pain, no gain.

We are headed for Stufstock, Romania. Big arts, movie, music festival on the beach. Hope to be there tonight.

We just had a great time at Camping Arena, Budapest, the cheapest campground in the city of Budapest. Nice people. We might return here next time. Highlight of our stay here was the thermal baths at Szechenyi Bath and a few dinners with campground neighbours and Gaby our Hungarian friend.

When the blog carnival theme came up this month for “RV Parks and Kids” my mind came up with a bit of a blank because we just don’t go to them very much any more. A couple of reasons come to mind. They are too dang expensive. With our amount of people we have paid €65 for just one night at a campground. Also, many of the higher end campgrounds can tend to smell, look, feel and act way too much like suburbia for our tastes. These ones also tend to cater to older clientele with visiting grandkids or small families.  We end up getting lots of photos taken of us but not much conversation.

However, sometimes we need a break from our wild camping ways. We look for a small treat when we are especially tired.  So, I will start off with some of these jewels and end up with alternatives to campgrounds in Europe and beyond. As you read our recommendations please be aware that we are a bit of a …. ferrell family and a great place for camping for us might not be your choice. We prefer to dive into local culture rather than find the perfect pool or shower temperature.

Here are some places we have camped.

First, some ground rules.

Look for places that are more down to earth, where you see lots of local license plates and away from touristy cities. The best places you find will be the ones that you discover on your own that fulfill your own specific needs.

In all of Europe an R.V., motorhome, camping car is the way to go. Do not think a caravan gives you the same privledges. A caravan reminds people of gypsies and you will be limited to camping grounds or your friends driveways.

Germany. Our favourite campground was one that we found when our car broke down. We took a taxi with our tent to a campground (their website) outside the village of Grunberg while our vehicle got repaired. In a great display of the German precision they have 7 stainless steel pools each age appropriate from infant to olympic swimmer. It is a set of community pools with campground attached. We go every year for a bit of a break. We also love camping at Edersee. Lots of campgrounds to choose from. We went to Teichmann (their website). It is a family paradise. Lake, daily family activities including BBQ and pancakes. Book ahead because they are crowded.

Spain. Campgrounds are expensive. Wild camping is dangerous. If we hear about anyone being robbed at night while they are sleeping in their RV it is always in Spain.  You can get a good deal on a campground here if you stay in the same campground for 2 months or more. That is not for us though. We rarely spend a great deal of time here, unless we are staying with friends. We did find a campground (TJs post) that was perfect for our needs north of Barcelona once.  Expensive, but it was only for a couple of days and we loved it.

Portugal. Our favourite camping experience is at Conscious Earth (their website) (our post). Great people. Great place. Say hi for us if you go.

Italy.  A couple of our favourite campgrounds are here. Asissi had a great campground (their website) and hostel in an olive grove with a giant, open air, family-style restaurant under a grape arbour. The type of things dreams are made of. You know how sometimes a place seems so perfect in your memory you wonder if it was real. Halfway down the country we found a huge, simple campground on the coast, next to a fishing village.

Croatia. Stay away from places with big, flash signs. Take the smaller road and look for small signs. Hope you find that farmer who was fortunate to have a bit of land on the coast and welcomes you to his family style campground. These special gems have no website just a friendly host and reasonable prices.

Macedonia. Our favourite campground here is outside of Lake Ohrid. Ask the locals in the town – they will all point you to the same place. It is called Autokamp Gradiste. No website. We went just before the main season and had the place mostly to ourselves. It is very popular during the main summer season. If you walk along the rocks on the small bridges you will find many cafes, clubs and even a cave church from the 1400s.

Albania. First of all, a bit of warning on the roads here. Only drive during the day and stay alert. People steel the huge manhole covers and leave huge holes in the middle of the road. Also, seems EU gave money for divided freeways but nothing for onramps. So, you will find a divided freeway coming off a dirt road with people going both ways on both sides of the road. Road signs are also frequently missing. Your GPS will be of little or no use as the information is not kept up to date. Beware also of speed traps. The speed limit will drop to 20 km for no reason except to give the police a chance to get money from the unknowing tourists. In reference, to camping, we only saw 2 campgrounds in the entire country. The route to Campground Praemer (their website) takes you through 10km of a road that is sinking back into the swamp from whence it came. 4X4 only. Nice campground and nice people, if you can get there. It is the heart project of a great couple. Strange, doesn’t mention the difficult route on the website.

Czech Republic. Did I ever say that we love the Czech Republic? Great campgrounds with pubs and cheap restaurants. The places we have stayed, on a lazy river, in the middle of the green countryside and the hopfields. Ahhhh.

U.K. Campgrounds generally charge by the vehicle and not the person. Much better prices than on the continent. Had some problems because we have a self-build motorhome and they are a bit scared of the Irish Travelers in England. Motorhome clubs are good to join if you stay around for a while because they offer “registered sites” and “farm sites”.

New Zealand. DOC campgrounds (our post) are great. These are government campgrounds. Off the beaten path. Some are quite standard, some are the idyllic, some are quite adventurous. We saw some great wildlife rooting around our campsites. Best to get your maps sent to you before you get to New Zealand as they can be difficult to find.  Our favourite "normal" campground (our post) was coming south from Rotorua and almost into Taupo. It was marked by a blue teapot and full of semi-wild chickens and peacocks. Heaven for us.

Now for the UN-CAMPGROUNDING.

Ground rules here.

If you park near some local businesses support them. Get coffee at the cafe. A beer at the pub and talk to the owners. Ask if it is ok to park for the night. One wild camping spot in Silves was emptied by the local police until the local complained that the police were putting them out of business. They petitioned to get the wild camping spot reopened.

Do not spend the night anywhere that is within 40 km of an international border. That is unless you want to get robbed, caught in an international dispute or accosted by prostitutes.

In France and Germany, remember this... In France, "Aire-de-campingcar"... In Germany "Stellplatz". These beautiful places can be found in a magical book "ADAC Stellplatzfuhrer".  It is possible to get on amazon.de or from any large bookstore once you get to Europe. DO NOT go motorhoming in Europe without this book. We bought our handy, dandy book in Germany and keep it in the front of the truck with a German dictionary. Good to have a GPS as well as many of these places are difficult to find. We have been to a beachfront parking lot in France with electricity, water and bread delivery in the morning for €3.00 a night. We have stayed in parking lots of camping grounds with use of all the facilities for a 10th of the price of those staying in the camping ground. We have stayed next to swimming pools for free. Horse riding clubs. lakes. rivers. pubs. etc. Facilities can be very limited but it keeps us flexible and creative. The book lists a few sites in other EU countries but none in Spain. A couple of our posts on Aires are here and here.

Would also like to mention that we have friends whose parking lots and fields they are generous enough to let us use. We are currently parked next to a castle. We have a key to the front door and use the facilities inside. Before this we were in a forest where other friends are renovating an old farmhouse and restaurant. We have stayed in hippie communities, squats, driveways, farms, fields and festivals. From here we will go to visit a friend who, with his invitation to come, told us where we can stay in our truck.

And beyond....

New Zealand. The ONLY way to see NZ is in a self-contained campervan. Many places to rent from . We thought the funniest ones were with a company called "Wicked". The back of one said "They call it pms because mad cow disease was already taken". OK, well, appeals to my sense of humour. Maybe not yours. So....where were we. If you have a self-contained motorhome you can go and park just about anywhere. We had tents and stayed at the DOC campgrounds. DOC campgrounds are cheap government campgrounds that can take you to some of the most idyllic places or on bizarre adventures.

OK, that is it. Have I wet your appetite? So, who is coming to Europe... or New Zealand?

This post is part of the FOTR Blog Carnival.

Woke up this morning to the sound of rain on the side of the truck. It was 6:15 and Lizzy wanted to go for a run. She carefully considered an alternate route, donned her raincoat and climbed out the door. Moments later Abi woke up to do her morning yoga. She chose Lizzy’s bed (has more headroom than her own) instead of the roof of the truck before beginning her sun salutations.

I thought about my plans for the day. Good thing we got our shopping done yesterday. Lizzy is midway through her 12 week art course that required a week of fasting from movies or reading. Since we live in a single room we joined her for the movie fasting. She breaks her fast today. A rainy day is a great day for watching a movie, or two. I could use the excuse of a rainy day for avoiding doing the laundry.  Well, I could use the opportunity to wash my clothes in fresh rainwater instead of creek water but the clothes wouldn’t dry outside. I could also assemble and try out my new collapsible drying rack.

Thinking about rainy days. Of choosing an opportunity rather than an excuse in a less than desirable situation.

Like an outdoor picnic in the rain

Taking a canoe grocery shopping when the road is too dangerous.

Finding old friends on the way back from the emergency room.

Creating a-mini paradise in the middle of a pile of discarded tyres while waiting for truck repairs.

Creating a new path where the old one is broken.

Realizing that some of our best family memories are when we are confronted with difficulties that encourage excuses and find the opportunities instead.

As you might know, our blog called Jonesberries is partly inspired by the Wild Thornberrys, a family traveling the world in their motorhome with a geeky father leading the journey. Nigel Thornberry was trending this morning on Twitter . . . don’t really know why.

We changed the spelling in the name because at the time we were talking about picking strawberries in Europe in the summer as a way of supporting our travels.

We still like the Wild Thornberrys.

Most RV’s cater for a retired couple and their dog. We, on the other hand, are a family of 7 including Mum, her 6 foot 6 inch husband who needs a custom bed (that’s me) and five kids who all need beds and a place to stash their stuff. And who wants to travel around the world in an RV unless they can bring their own bike?

Already you can see that most RV’s are woefully insufficient. Not big enough. Not strong enough. Not fun enough.

We were fortunate to find a big, strong, 4×4 truck with an empty box awaiting our design. It was a lot of work but the kids are happy with the result.

These are the 5 best modifications we made to our RV to make it family friendly:

1. An outdoor kitchen. Our main kitchen is located in a big steel container outside the RV with a hinged door. Huge gas burners for some serious flamage and big pots to cook for the kids and their friends. Plenty of space outside for everyone to cook and eat.

2. A roof that opens. The front part of our roof opens up to allow our kids to sleep on the roof. We also built a high rail that pops up around the roof so that nobody falls off during the night.

3. Storage boxes underneath the truck to store the inflatable kayak, tennis rackets, extra tents, art supplies, etc.

4. Lockers for everyone. Located under the couch, the lockers are not large but they give everyone their own storage space.

5. A double decker bike rack. 7 bikes for 7 people. It’s also a great deterrent against thieves. Who wants to rob the Partridge Family?

Other family friendly modifications were less successful and short lived. The double hammock snapped in the first week, crashing to the floor with mum and dad still in it [ouch] and the climbing wall instead of a ladder was a little too awkward. But the RV is still a work in progress and the kids have more ideas. Like this one:

What’s a family-friendly RV without a slide coming down from the roof?

This post is part of the May Blog Carnival on Families on the Road. Check out the others.