After nearly two years we have said goodbye to the lesser-known but fifth member of our family: the car.

How do you pack for a two month road trip with the following criteria:

• four people
• summer through to winter conditions
• swimming, camping, fishing, boating and hiking gear
• assorted kids toys and entertainment
• one night hotel stays through to seven-day fully self-catered stops
• transport and consumption of vintage wine unable to be shipped home (obviously)
• in a surprisingly small mid-sized vehicle
• without taking four hours to unload and reload your vehicle each time

(plus two kids in there somewhere….)

The answer is 1) with difficulty and 2) carefully.

Everything has its place, even the hair dryer

Green = cooking, Red = coffee & cocktails, Blue = food

This component of the trip required a lot of pre-planning and thought, but has become remarkably well oiled.  We had some 24 bags of various size, shapes and purposes squeezed into the Q5 so that a) we could utilise every available piece of space and b) it allowed us to grab only what we needed for the type of place we were at, and the activities we were intending to do.  Everything had a very specific home to allow the roof and trunk to actually close.  A one-nighter took about half-hour to repack, the most elaborate stop-over took about two hours to get reloaded.

There’s obviously the minimum for any stop (Clothes, Valuables, Electronics, Toiletries), plus optional Swimming Gear.  But National Parks generally required the Hiking Grab Bag.  City breaks (art galleries, museums and restaurants) clearly required Dress Shoes.  Self-catered stops had any combination of Coffee & Cocktails, Cooking and the food Cooler grabs – or all three.  A bear-free country leg opened up Camping Gear.  Given some of the remote locations, the Emergency Grab Bag (Bear-spray, Torches et al) was re-assuring but fortunately little used.

No vintage wine wasted

Oops, lucky Daddy brought the First Aid Kit

Mmm, home cooked food

Always carry Bear Spray

Hiking champs

Civilisation

Why is this so hard?

Apart from the essentials, the things that we found super useful and well utilised for those considering something similar:

1. B&O Speaker (essential jazz whilst sipping cocktails in a beautiful location)
2. Expresso Coffee Maker (expresso each morning is not a treat, it’s a necessity)
3. Coffee Thermos (drinking that same expresso in a National Park is a true luxury)
4. First Aid Kits (scrapes, blisters, splinters and rashes are part of being outdoors)
5. Bear Spray (not utilised, but very reassuring when you are remote and in grizzly country)
6. Hiking gear (it’s rather dirty work being in nature)
7. Water Shoes (there water, but it’s not all sandy beaches once you leave the coast)
8. Cooler (eating something that isn’t fried, and for transporting that organic and gluten-free stash to somewhere less accommodating)
9. TripAdvisor (where’s good to eat say about two hundred miles from here?)
10. Kids iPads and Headphones (there’s only so much eye-spy and 6-8 year old music the car can bear).

Things that just didn’t get used – some surprisingly, some not:

1. Travel Pillows (just one single hour nap in at least a hundred hours of driving?!)
2. Running Gear (running in bear and mountain lion country is simply asking for trouble)
3. Snow Gear (just lucky given snow both a week before and after in a couple of spots)
4. Umbrellas and Raincoats (awesome; about 6 wet days in 8 weeks!)
5. Yoga Mat and other assorted stretch equipment (what were we thinking!)

The Thule (the big black box on the top of the car) is on some old freighter on its long and slow journey home: finger’s crossed we see it again!

And we will be following shortly.