Inside, Outside Or On Top? The Path To Peaceful Sleep...
SA4x4|February 2019

Whether you’re a weekend camper, holiday adventurer or hard-core overlander who stays out for months at a time, your sleeping solutions will vary widely.

Inside, Outside Or On Top? The Path To Peaceful Sleep...

Ground tents, roof-top tents or interior sleeping accommodations all have their pros and cons. In this column, we discuss some of the issues faced by campers and how to deal with them.

Interior camping

I remember a horrific story my father told of a French family that he knew who were camping in Zaire (now the DRC) on a Cape to Europe trip. The parents slept in a roof-top tent, and the two kids below in the Land Rover. Needless to say, they were attacked in the middle of the night and the parents were helpless, as men with machetes stood at the base of the ladder. The fact is that, in populated areas throughout Africa and the world, human attack is far more likely than an attack from an animal, and in such situations, it’s often imperative to leave quickly. For this reason, it makes sense for overlanders who are uncertain of their next overnight stop to organise sleeping arrangements which give direct access to the cab. The theory is that one can drive away from trouble.

One way to achieve this set-up is simply to have a large vehicle like a Unimog, Land Rover Forward Control, Iveco Daily 4x4, Sprinter 4x4 or similar, which gives you plenty of space to move about inside. You are ready to sleep, cook or move along, without having to leave the vehicle.

The downside to the extra space is that the vehicle won’t fit in a standard container for crossing oceans, will struggle in narrow bush, is too tall for forested or overgrown regions, and may be too wide to fit in many tracks. Recovering a large vehicle is also much more difficult.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 2019 من SA4x4.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 2019 من SA4x4.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من SA4X4 مشاهدة الكل
SA4x4

Uganda The Pearl Of Africa

This trip, the very last in the series of stories from Dan Grec’s two-year Africa round trip, details a scary mishap and some extraordinary wildlife encounters

time-read
10+ mins  |
March 2020
Chewy, But Edible
SA4x4

Chewy, But Edible

Take another look at those garden pests

time-read
4 mins  |
March 2020
Auto Perfection?
SA4x4

Auto Perfection?

Adding a six-speed auto to Mahindra’s workhorse ups the game for this value proposition

time-read
3 mins  |
March 2020
SA4x4

Defenders On Tour

The second 2019 Defender Trophy event kicked off in Limpopo and was unique in that participants camped in three different countries…

time-read
9 mins  |
March 2020
SA4x4

Rad Rig The Dream Catcher

Motorhome world’s one-of-a-kind luxury globetrotter

time-read
4 mins  |
March 2020
The Difference Between An Overlander And An Offroader
SA4x4

The Difference Between An Overlander And An Offroader

A very important distinction needs to be made between the offroader and the overland traveller; often the two are thought to be the same.

time-read
5 mins  |
March 2020
Steelmate TP-S9
SA4x4

Steelmate TP-S9

Solar powered TPMS (External sensor)

time-read
3 mins  |
March 2020
SA4x4

Light on the dark side

VW AMAROK DARK LABEL

time-read
4 mins  |
March 2020
Monkey business!
SA4x4

Monkey business!

Vervet Monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) are the most widespread of the African monkeys; occurring from the Ethiopian Rift Valley, highlands east of the Rift, and southern Somalia, through the eastern lowlands of Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia (east of the Luangwa Valley), Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and all nine provinces in South Africa.

time-read
3 mins  |
March 2020
SA4x4

GREAT ZOOKS

There are a few mishaps as a bunch of Jimnys tackle one of Lesotho’s premier off-road challenges, Baboon’s Pass

time-read
10 mins  |
March 2020