General Pirate Camping Tips and Tricks

[Nick H-J]

Here is a good primer on Pirate Camping to get you started and help you get the most from your experience: http://ramblewriter.com/ramblings/?p=339

[Baer]

OK, first off let me say you guys are awesome! This is hands down the most entertaining travel site I have read.

But I have to ask the question, what do you do about the bathroom when camped in public areas?? I am assuming the remote areas get the shovel treatment, or did you have some sort of PETT toilet with you?

My girfriend and I traveled around the states this past year and did some pirate camping in congested areas, but found that the bathroom can be a challenge. The US is easy because of all of the public restrooms, but Central...and I'm assuming South America do not have the same amount of Public Restrooms.

Sorry if it is a private question , but I am just curious as we are planning a trip very similar to yours for a year from now.

Thanks!
Nate

[Nick H-J]

Hi Nate,

Sorry for the delay in my response, and thanks for the Kudoz on the site, they all go to Chelle, she is the mastermind behind it.

Chelle and I have slightly different takes on the bathroom issue, so I'll give you mine and let her share her wisdom on the issue.

There are fewer bathrooms in Central and South America for sure. As you guessed we use a shovel in the wide open spaces, and the cities are slightly more complicated.

I aim to hit a bathroom at a gas station (which are usually pretty easy to find) for crapping in more populated areas. For pissing I just lean against the wheel well of the truck and pretend to be messing with the windshield wipers. As long as I'm using my hands above the hood, no one seems to take any notice that I'm pissing below the truck. this does take some practice to achieve a drip-free clandestine piss, but these days I can pretty much piss anywhere and no one will notice.

As a matter of fact, yesterday we were in a city park with Rochelle's brother here in Buenos Aires, and we both needed to pee, there were no bathrooms to be had in the area, so we found a more remote corner of the park and did our business. The key is to point at something in a tree, and pretending to be talking and looking at something up there, so people that notice you look up instead of down.

[Rochelle]

As Nick has hinted, the bathroom issue is definitely different for men and women. And yes, when we camped in rural areas, we used a shovel. Rural areas are the easiest on the bathroom front - it's private, and much cleaner than 95% of the bathrooms that you are going to encounter on your rambles!

Cities, however, required a bit more creativity as a woman. As you probably already know, when you are camping in cities, you begin to look at restaurants and public bathrooms a bit differently. I always took note of bathrooms that were cleaner or with easy public access, and took advantage of them when we stopped in for a bite to eat. Since gas stations always have public bathroom access, whether you are a customer or not, we used gas station bathrooms frequently.

I will admit however, that I have peed in the weirdest places on this trip! Sometimes wondering the streets of a random city at night did not seem like the best option, so I would duck down behind the truck and that was that.

One thing that may be useful for women, although I know it is funny, is the P Mate ( http://www.pmateusa.com/ ). I haven't used it, but I hear it works. Another option for emergencies is to have some sort of a pee bucket, which I ended up using while we were in Chile. We were camped in a very public beach spot that was always filled with people, so when it grew dark and I didn't want to walk a few blocks to the gas station, I peed into the container (in the truck), and then dumped it outside. It's not the funnest thing in the world, but it worked!

So ladies, the trick is to just get creative, but also just to go for it at times. I can't tell you how many times I ducked behind the truck on the side of the highway with cars whizzing by (no pun intended), ventured out into the bushes, or hovered over gross, fly-infested toilets. Its a bit awkward at times, and sometimes not very "ladylike," but this is what true pirate camping entails!

[red87runnerATX]

We just recently drove 5000 miles thru the US, testing our pirate camping (we're actually calling it ninja camping since it involves so much stealth. Plus we didn't want to steal your phrase )

There were a few nights that sleeping in our 4runner was unbearable due to the summer heat. We'd crack every window, but just couldn't get enough of a breeze. I'm getting close to buying a soft top so we can enjoy the open air, which brings me to my question.

How did you guys keep cool while pirate camping in the warmer climates? If you roll up the canvas top for ventilation, aren't you exposed to anyone who'd see the truck? I know you had the security cage, but I'd assume this would blow your cover.

I'm planning on getting a couple 12v fans to run off of a deep cycle battery, but I don't think this will be enough in heat & humidity.

[Rochelle]

Hi there,

You're right, opening the soft-top, even if you have a cage, blows your cover. But after sleeping for weeks on end in the truck, we eventually just started not to care. What's the worst that someone can do? Ask us to leave? It's a pain, but not a big deal.

I don't really like strangers being able to watch me sleep, so while we were still in the States I sewed "curtains," which are just light pieces of material with magnets at the top and bottom. When the wind blew, they flew off, so I eventually just started tucking the tops of the fabric into our metal cage. It limits the amount of air that comes in, but helps with privacy. Nick always refused to have a curtain on his side due to the heat.

The fans are your best way to ensure cooling off, but besides, that, you just have to deal with the heat! There is no way we could have slept with the soft top down in warm weather - it's just too hot inside the truck.

Waking up with the sun and going to bed when it grew dark also helped concerning heat - it made cooking breakfast on the tailgate more enjoyable during early cool mornings.

I hope this helps, but I'm sorry that you'll basically just have to sweat it out! That, and not being concerned with how crazy other people think you are for sleeping and cooking in your truck...

Feel free to contact us if you have any more questions, and please post a few pics of your vehicle if you have time!
Rochelle

[red87runnerATX]

The fans are your best way to ensure cooling off, but besides, that, you just have to deal with the heat!

I was afraid you'd say that! For some reason I believed you guys would have some magical solution to that problem...Oh well, we can suck it up.

I'm not really concerned with anyone thinking that we're a couple crazy vagabonds camping in our truck...because frankly we usually are. I think once the soft top is set up, along with fans and curtains, the heat should be tolerable. There was just not enough ventilation with the hard top on. I barely had the windows cracked because I didn't want to invite opportunists & thieves. The more & more I think about it, that security cage you guys made was a great idea.

Here's two pictures from our road trip. The truck performed great, but I need to do a lot of modifications before it can handle a Pan Am trip safely & successfully. I'll have to post some pictures before we head South. THanks again for the advice!