How We Travel and What We Take With Us

If it wasn't already completely obvious (wink wink), our favorite way to travel is by car. Specifically, by Duster. We've had one before, then it was replaced by a Subaru XV and later by a Crosstrek. And now we've come full circle and are back to the Duster again. 😉

It's not our first four-wheel-drive car. With our first Duster, we explored quite a few roads away from the tarmac, including the alpine gravel roads around Monte Jafferau in the Western Alps…

…or had a bit of fun at the off-road driving areas in Most and Milovice.

So yeah, that Duster has been through quite a lot with us. 😉

Then we got our first Subaru, the XV, and covered plenty of miles and had plenty of adventures with it as well. The Crosstrek came next, followed by many more trips and getaways. And it was with the Crosstrek that we really started making the most of our current camping setup, including our Quechua rooftop tent from Decathlon.

And now we're back to travelling in a Duster again. We obviously kept the same tent because it works perfectly for us, as well as most of the other gear that has proven itself over the years.

Even when my wife and I bought this Quechua rooftop tent from Decathlon some time ago, we were already really impressed with it. The setup, handling, materials and build quality are all things that make this tent one of the best in its price range. And maybe even beyond it…

We then upgraded it with an awning / annex, and now it's pretty much perfect.

We all probably have slightly different requirements, preferences, tastes and budgets, but I genuinely like a lot of things from Decathlon. We've bought almost all of our camping gear there. From sleeping bags, a table, chairs, cookware and a grill, all the way to a shower and a shower enclosure. The latter was actually one of our new additions, along with the awning and the new grill.

We usually stay at Bezkempu, where we look for places with as much privacy as possible, or simply as far away from other people as we can get. But even so, the shower enclosure makes things much more comfortable. It literally takes two seconds to set up. But, as is usually the case with anything that takes two seconds to set up, getting it back into its bag takes about ten minutes with two people. Especially when you're doing it for the first time… 🤦🏻‍♂️😉

But other than that, it's absolutely brilliant.

Another new addition was the Campingaz gas grill. And honestly, it's really good. It has a great cooking surface where nothing sticks. Seriously, nothing. Not even eggs, which you can simply slap onto it without a drop of oil and leave them to cook on their own while you take care of the rest of breakfast.

Maybe I'm just clueless and haven't tried enough grills yet, but the fact that you actually put water into this one was a complete novelty for me. A very welcome one, though. Fat and juices drip into the water, so nothing sticks or burns onto the cooking surface itself.

Just brilliant…

You can also remove the grill plate and instantly turn it into a stove. We don't need to carry anything else with us, since there are only two of us travelling, so we simply don't need more than one burner. It's also lightweight and compact, and the gas cartridge lasts for a long time.

Our newest addition to the camping setup so far is a folding kitchen cabinet, which is really practical, along with a compact cooler that is more than sufficient for our needs.

In short, we've managed to get a lot of useful gear and a lot of fun for relatively little money at Decathlon, and I'd say our travel setup is now pretty much complete. Of course, I'll probably think of something else to spend my wife's money on eventually, but even as it is, we've got things pretty well figured out by now.

Oh, and before I forget, it's also important to have a source of power when you're travelling. For us, that's the EcoFlow RIVER 2.

So that's our current setup. We'll see what else we eventually discover we're missing on the road.