A camping kitchen in a small backpack

We  are planning a trip to the Great Barrier Reef and leave in two weeks time. I was building a small camping trailer to take with us and then we found out that our small car, a Chery J1, can't have a row bar attached! When we discovered this there was much wailing and rending of garments I can tell you. Once the hysteria was over, thankfully my Captain Practical re asserted herself and I started planning how we would manage without the camping trailer. I went exploring the interwebs for interesting links and was really assisted by this great blog post Compact Car Camping on Zero Cost Living http://0costliving.blogspot.com.au/p/compact-car-camping.html From here I started the cull and here is my full camping kitchen in a backpack.

The back back is actually a travelling picnic set that we won many years ago, we use it for local picnics as it has plates, glasses, cutlery, chopping board, sharp knife, etc. So it was ready to be turned into our small car camping kitchen!

The a Wine bottle section 

The wine bottle section, where the wine bottle goes for day picnics. I have used put all my kitchen utensils in this space, luckily these are all small and some fold up. It holds: scissors, tin opener, spatula, egg flip, a biggish bowled spoon, a drainer, two glass holders that are pushed into the ground, bottle opener, Swiss Army knife, wooden spoon, cheese grater, small tongs.

The front pocket section

The next section is the small front pouch holding: 3 tea towels, two enviro reusable sandwich wrappers, the table cloth and 2 napkins.

The 'fridge' section

Next is the back section which is the 'fridge' compartment when picnicking, it contains our: cooking stove, a Trangia which has two pots and one frypan, a kettle and a handle, it's the best piece of camping equipment we have ever bought, a hand towel and some more napkins, plastic garbage bags, ziplock bags, another wooden spoon and a lemon juicer (bit of an indulgence but it fits, so why not, good for gin and tonics :) and the stove lighter.

 

The major compartment

I swapped out the original plates for our travel plate set as they have a plate, bowl, spork, cup and smaller bowl with lid all packed nearly together. Then there istwo plastic wine glasses, two tin mugs, two aluminium cups, the camp toaster, cutlery for two, three tiny chopping boards, miscellaneous small things such as clips for table cloth and bags, etc. Also, a small measuring jug, another set of fire lighters, matches and a lighter, our tea makers (we use these tea strainers instead of tea bags, one teaspoon of tea, place in cup, pour on boiling water, let seep for a delicious fresh cuppa, much better for the environment, the leaves go into the compost :) 

So, there you have it, a kitchen in a small backpack, I'm very pleased with this arrangement. The washing bowls are collapsible but don't fit into this, but that's fine, they can be slide into a small section of the car.

Happy small car camping!

Fixing the trailer for rego for our Explorer Box

Part 1 can be found here http://ozquilter.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/building-compact-camping-trailer-using.html

Preparing for rego

So we have been preparing the trailer to re-register, we pulled it apart, took away the rust, took of the heavy metal cage ...

Painted the cleaned up frame. 

Painted the sides for rego, a happy, bright yellow, as it was in the shed, waste not want not :)

Bought the marine ply for the whole Explorer Box, very pleased to get it on special as well, $215 for the whole lot! Bought new mud guards to attach to the trailer.

Cut the base.

I'm now painting the base while A checks and fixes the electric system for indicators and lights. We hope to register the trailer next week.

Building a travel kitchen

I have also been looking at kitchen layouts, the Explore Box comes with a nice shelving set-up, but I want something that pulls out and my co-builder says we can do that. I put together all my camp kitchen gear to see what why I needed to pack in this space.

I then looked at various American style chuck boxes which are a clever system, developed by the scouting movement I believe. However, Americans, bless them, have huge cars and big trailers, I needed to model something created for a small car with limited pulling. I was quite taken with the layout below.

I then looked to Europe and found just what I was looking for! It's called a Campinambulle and is designed for small European hatchbacks. It's really clever and I'm going to base my build on it's layout. I'll be using plastic boxes for lightness, but I am in love the pullout stove and cooking space and the table.

Building a compact camping trailer using the Explorer Box instructions from Compact Camping Concepts

http://compactcampingconcepts.com/

My partner and I are planning a trip up the coast from the Blue Mountains, in NSW, to the Great Barrier Reef in Qld in August/September this year. We'll take 6 weeks to pootle up the coast, camping at nice places and relaxing and unwinding. We haven't had a real holiday for two years, so we are really looking forward to it.

We normally tent camp, but I have decided to make a light weight camping trailer for our trip in the next 6 weeks. Yes, mad as a cut snake, such a short space of time, but I work for myself and I can spend a good amount of time on it during the day.


The project is being funded by the contribution from friends. I recently had my 60th and they gifted me the money for a DIY project, well, the money was

for a shoe making workshop, but being a Gemini, that which was shiny 4 months ago, has lost its appeal :). After I decided to change to this project a builder friend then gifted her time to the project and she and I will build the small camping trailer using the Explorer Box instructions from Compact Camping Concepts. Our car is small, a Chery J1 1300, so we can't pull anything heavy, and nor do we want to. But the small car restricts adding camping gear, we would be packed to the gunnels, this way we will have space in the car and a travel home as well.

The trailer is second hand one, once someone's pride and joy, its made from old metal bed bases and currently weighs 150 kg, not really heavy but we intend to strip it of its heavy metal to lighten it and build our new camping trailer box on its frame. The lighter the better for our trip.

The plan that Scott of CCC provides is really well put together, he uses inches and feet as he's American, but not an issue, easy to convert to metric. We also have to move the design to work with our Australian left hand driving. Each step is well outlined and its a relatively easy building project for an historical costumer and pattern maker, that's me, and carpenter and electrician, that's A, both very competant women!

See the full build here ...

The design provides kitchen storage and then the rest of the space in the trailer is for storage of camping gear, bags, food, gas bottle, esky or travel fridge, water, spare tire, etc. For sleeping a separate stand alone tent or, as we will do, add a roof top tent and annex and tarps for wet weather. 

I'm thinking of putting the kitchen at the back and the storage at the front, having the kitchen near the trailer bar seems like a way to end up with a lot of bruised shins, especially at night. However, we will see, the trailer's wheels are closer to the back, so there is less space.

From a camping forum

 I've also thought of making a simple pull out kitchen like the one on the left. Just shelves and a bench top for the stove, food preparation, washing up, etc. at a good height to save the old and cranky back!This one hangs off the back door of the trailer, not sure how much weight bearing our wooden one will have, but the same layout could slide.





When we've finished it should look like Jay's set-up below on the left. Simple,  but comfy. The Roof top tent

Jay's set-up

and annex has been purchased and is on layby, well not really, but the owner of the second hand unit has kindly allowed me to pay it off over a few weeks.

So, watch this space, I will document the build here for you all to enjoy.

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I'm The Tailor's Apprentice, maker of The Miss Page 1940s reproduction patterns, gowns developed from pattern pieces found amongst the remnants of Miss Violet Florence Page’s life and work. Affordable, elegant, and unique garments from the 1940s war years. 

All my patterns are available on Etsy and my website where you'll find out more about me as well. This year I am publishing an 1820s gown wardrobe pattern and have already published the Australian Army Nurses Services WWI uniform pattern.

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