The campervan capsule on the road

A few weeks ago I wrote about the 33 item campervan capsule I put together for a month long trip to Spain and Portugal. Now we are back home I’ve had the chance to review my selection. The first interesting thing I noticed was that I didn’t wear every single item; however, I wouldn’t make any changes if I was doing the trip again, as this was largely weather dependent. We left France in deteriorating conditions, temperatures hovering around zero and snow moving down from the north. As we crossed the Pyrenees the weather worsened and we spent a night at Burgos in northern Spain with about three inches of snow. The fur-lined snow boots certainly came in handy and was I glad that I had left home wearing my thick winter hat, thinsulate gloves and scarf.

We went to Portugal to get away from winter...

 

We finally left the snow behind and made it to Portugal. The temperatures weren’t as good as we had hoped. The week before someone had posted on Facebook that it was 24c at the campsite – I think she must have been staying somewhere else! Generally, the days were dry and sunny, with temperatures around 12c, so a long sleeve t-shirt, sometimes with a thinner microgrid fleece over was the norm. One day it rained continuously all day and night. The local red clay soil was turned to a thick sticky mud which stuck to our walking boots necessitating the sacrifice of the washing-up brush for the clean-up operation.

 

On the clifftop walk near Lagos

 

We did have a couple of warmer days and I wore a short sleeved t-shirt once and the long sleeve shirt over the black vest top for a meal out in town. However, three short sleeved t-shirts and a pair of summer zip-off walking trousers came back unworn. Everything else was worn several times and all washed and dried well, either in the campsite laundry or by hand.

I could have taken one less pair of shoes, as I didn’t wear the Merrell walking shoes much. I tended to wear either crocs round and about the campervan and the Quechua walking boots when going out. They have turned out to be an excellent purchase, well worth trying on nearly every pair in Decathlon and ending up in the men’s aisle! I only wore the Aigle suede shoes twice, for going ‘into town’. I didn’t regret only taking the rucksack. There was no occasion when I would have preferred a proper handbag type bag and the rucksack was great for some of the beach and cliff walks we did as there is plenty of room for a fleece or gilet. On balance I think the campervan capsule was about right. Out of 33 items I used or wore 28, but if the weather had been a bit warmer then the short sleeved t-shirts would have been needed. There’s nothing I missed or should have packed, so overall a success!