CAMPING FOR A YEAR

Camping for a year started for us when I received a phone call.

“I just want to tell you that we have a tenant who signed an offer to rent your house for next year,” the agent sounded mildly excited over the phone.

When the call ended The Wifey and I sat back in our chairs and looked at each other. This was it.

We just rented out our house and now there is no turning back. We will camp for the whole of 2023!

Background

We have camped incrementally longer for the past two years. We started with a number of midweek camps, then a month camp and then a three-month camp at Rocky Bay. I wrote about that on my personal blog.

After three months we wanted to stay longer. That was our queue that we should go for long-term camping. In this case a whole year of camping at different resorts.

At first, we tried for a 6-month rent period but that was unsuccessful. Then we decided to take the jump and let our house for a year.

I ran through all the possibilities in my head for many months to be prepared once the year-long camping trip became a reality. Nevertheless, I couldn’t prepare for everything and we would have to follow events as they unfolded.

After the phone call and subsequent talk with the agent, it was agreed that the tenant would move in on the 13th of January. That gave us about a month to arrange everything that had to wait till now while the agent looked for a tenant.

We had to pack, book storage and move in the next month. This was the beginning.

We have no idea what we will say after camping for a year, but I plan on writing a range of blog posts about our experience.

Arrangements for a 12-month camping trip

What needed attention before we could leave for our year-long camping trip?

Everything demanded attention. Nothing could be left to be dealt with once we started our adventure.

It is at this early stage that we experienced the emotions caused by such a big decision.

There are uncountable thoughts that pop up in your mind at any stage of the day or night. I experienced all the doubts and questions as part of the process of becoming a year-long camper, but I expected it and tried to take them in my stride.

The Wifey, however, being a female, a wife, a mother and a grandmother, always had the terrible habit of trying to solve problems between midnight and sunrise. That is about the worst time to try and allay your fears or solve your problems. That didn’t stop The Wifey from storming into the kitchen one night while I was having midnight tea and insisting that we should call the agent and “cancel everything because we are not ready”.

I think what drove her to panic was that I contracted bronchitis at that stage. I don’t know if she thought I would have bronchitis for the whole of 2023!

What I quickly realised was that most, if not all, of the concerns and fears for what we were about to embark on, were based on what we didn’t know. The unknown factors.

Many of the fears one has are fears for something that could happen but did not happen in the past. “What if …” is a good thing to consider, but it must not start playing games with your mind.

You can plan for everything you can think of. But after the planning has been done, you can only react and deal with what happens.

Some (not all) of the questions that needed attention were:

• Is our medical aid in place?
• Where will we get our chronic medicine?
• How will we renew our chronic medicine prescriptions?
• Will our home contents insurance cover the items we will take with us?
• Insurance for furniture in storage.

Why rent your house through an agent?

A question that often comes up on social platforms is whether to let your property through an agent, rent it out yourself or sell your house.

This is a question with many different answers for different people. What I saw in the social media groups led me to write a blog post about the question of renting or selling and camping permanently

What I also observed was that many people complained about losing money when they rented their house without an agent, mainly to save the agent’s commission.

People who lost money or suffered damage to property and who rented through an agent often used smaller agencies or single agents. Small agencies or single agents often lack the elaborate infrastructure needed to handle rental affairs with the same intensity as they would handle a selling mandate.

We decided to use one of the larger agencies active in our area, Rawson Properties.

Agent’s commission

The main reason people privately rent out their houses is to avoid paying the agent’s commission.

To me, this is a strange way of thinking although I understand the need to save money. The point is that you only save the commission because you don’t pay for the labour. On the other hand, it means you have the responsibility of putting in the labour, which means managing your tenants and property from wherever you camp.

Our agent charged us 6% of the rental over the period of the contract plus once-off admin fees. This percentage included finding a tenant, managing the tenants and the property for the contract period, and recording all signs of breakages or wear and tear so it can be compared to the results of a similar inspection after the contract term ends.

Let us work with hypothetical numbers because the monthly rental you get will differ depending on where you live.

So it could be R6 000, R10 000 or R15 000 which equals R72 000, R120 000 or R180 000 over the 12-month contract period. A commission of 6% amounts to R4320, R7200 or R10 800 commission. The commission is paid in advance and deducted from the first month’s rent.

Then you pay a monthly commission for the agent to collect the rent and pay it over to you. This differs but is usually the same as the agent’s commission percentage.

This can be a concern to some people as it will mean you get very little rent for the first month. But for the following 11 months, you get the full rental amount less the collection commission.

Balancing that with the alternative of acting as our own rental agents, we chose to use an agency.

Whether that was a wise decision, we will only know after a year when we get our house back.

Storing your furniture while camping

We decided to put the contents of our house in storage. The decision was largely made for us because rental agents don’t want to rent out furnished houses.

The agent does a very thorough inspection of the house that ends when the agent moves the tenant into the property and all parties agree on the state of the home. As our agent explained, it was nearly impossible to record all scratch marks on all the furniture and items that would stay in the house. It leads to unmanageable admin and disagreements once the owner moves back.

We were able to place the fridge with a family member but, in general, nobody has space for your furniture, so storage was our answer.

I looked for a reputable storage facility near our home. We also looked for specials such as the first month free. That would balance well with the reduced rent we would receive in the first month.

I tried Stor-age first because they are the nearest to our home and they have been in the business for over 21 years. Because providing storage facilities has become a popular business, storage companies sprout like mushrooms after the rain. This also means the buyer must beware, because storage quotes are cut easily to get into the market and because competition is tough in the storage industry.

The cheapest is not necessarily the best. The way my head works, if you want to save storage money, sell your stuff and don’t store it at all. But, if you store, your main concern should be to get your furniture back without damage. For that to happen, you need a reliable and safe storage facility with good security as well as insurance.

You can’t do more.

We settled for the Stor-age about 4kms from our house. Our two-bedroom house does not have too many items so we were able to fit everything in an 18 m² unit. Rent for a unit of this size was around R1700 per month when we rented although we got a reduced rate. It’s best to enquire in your area.

Storage unit rental on an annual basis amounts to R20 000 per year, which is not a tiny sum and should be carefully balanced against alternatives such as other storage facilities or even selling your furniture.

I spoke to one camper who has been doing long-term camping for two years and they opted to sell their belongings due to the fact that they may tour for longer which would add to the cost of storage.

The short distance we had to move our stuff was a consideration. But I was also impressed with the security measures, which include the mandatory electric fencing, armed response, cameras and central monitoring, and other measures they employ.

The fact that we got away with a reduced rate and no deposit also helped.

I would advise that you approach different branches because they all have their own specials, which I suspect are based on occupation rates and debtor control success, among other measures.

What to pack for a year-long camping trip

You can collect information or make long lists and ask everyone who camps what you should take on your long-term camping trip, but in the end, it depends on how you live – just like at home.

In general, what you need for a one-week camp will largely be the same as what you need for a two-week camp. What you need for a two-week camp is mostly the same as what you need for a 1-month camp. And what you need for a 1-month camp will mostly be the same as what you need for a 3-month camp.

What you need for a three-month camp is essentially the same as what we thought we would need for a one-year camp.

I believe The Wifey found the best way to deal with what we should take and what we should store. She packed the Scout with everything we used on the 3-month camp, and then she added a food processor which we use to make smoothies.

Then she packed what she thought we would need in addition and for which there was a space in the caravan and the car.

Everything that remained in the house, we packed, discarded or donated. Everything packed went to storage, what we discarded went to Isaac the dustbin diver who serves our property and what we could donate went to Solidariteit Helpende Hand in Centurion.

The Scout actually holds everything we need and with the tent added we have the space we need to camp for a long time.

I might just mention that we had a new tent made for the caravan because the old one was a bit worn. We had Maxcons make us a ripstop tent which is 3 metres (the original was 2,7 metres) and Maxcons added a rally tent of 2 metres (the original was around 1,5 metres).

That gave us a total length of around 8 metres (with an additional 2+ metres for anchor ropes and pegs on all sides) versus the previous length of about 9 metres all included.

This increased length gave us a slight problem at The Point Caravan Park in Mossel Bay, where we camped for the first 14 days. We couldn’t anchor the Maxcons pegs further than about 400mm from the rally tent pole because it was right up to the tar road. The best distance is 1 – 1,5 metres so the anchor pulls the rally tent roof tight and gives maximum anchor ability in stormy weather.

Finances are important for long-term campers

Your financial matters are just as important when you camp as it is at home.

The dynamics of budgeting may change a little because some things will be different. You will use more fuel because you will travel more considerable distances from one camping site to the other or you will spend less on clothing because you live an informal lifestyle.

Discipline is the magic word. One feels like you are on vacation all the time, and that can lead to a relaxed feeling and a tendency to buy treats like you are on a holiday.

When you tell people that you camp semi-permanently or permanently, the usual reaction is “You are lucky, you are on a permanent vacation!”. It’s not true, you only have a different lifestyle.

After 10 days of camping and hearing about our permanent vacation, we opted for the “we are on a sabbatical” reply. If someone were to ask “A sabbatical from what?” the answer would be “A sabbatical from growing old”.

Your rental income if you rent your house to camp

How you treat your rental income depends on your personal circumstances.

At best it is an additional income that goes into your savings or an investment account and at worst it will be used to pay your living expenses. The latter means you will camp permanently in which case you probably qualify for the government pension or SASSA.

SASSA

SASSA used to be called “the old age pension” and it was the State’s “payback” to people who worked and paid taxes in the country.

Many people consider dependence on SASSA as a negative reflection on a receiver’s money management abilities, but keep in mind that it is probably only one generation of South Africans who were able to get by without a state pension or the help of a state pension. That would be people who worked in the period roughly between the 1950s and the 1980s.

Before that, a state pension was the main source of retirement income and after that, many South Africans did not have pension schemes for many reasons. If the subject interests you, there is a lot of material about the origins and development of state pensions the present state of pension schemes worldwide and the expectations for pension schemes.

It seems as if most pensioners will not receive adequate pensions from their pension schemes to last them for longer terms.

On the one hand, medical care and medicine become more effective and help us live longer and better quality lives compared to what the situation would be without the quality of medical care and medicines.

On the other hand, our pension schemes cannot afford to pay us a livable pension for periods of 20, 30 or more years.

---

Disclaimer: Not everything I write about on this website is something that I used or applies to me. Some topics I research and write about because there is a need for the information. I do not have more information about SASSA than what appears here. Complete information appears on their website or contact them at 080060 10 11 or e-mail to grantenquiries@sassa.gov.za.

---

The basic calculation to see if you qualify for SASSA

(Information is correct at the time of this article but you should double-check on the Government website.)

A single person

A monthly income of R7 190,00 (R86 280 per year).

Assets of less than R1 227 600,00.

A married person

A monthly income of R14 308,00 (R172 560,00 per year). This is the income per couple.

Assets of less than R2 455 200,00 per couple. If you own a house, it includes the house you live in, but not if you rent it out.

Camping fees

Camping fees differ so widely and change so often that it is not feasible to try and list them here.

No matter what you hear, what the situation was last year or what people on Facebook tell you, always email or call the resort where you want to camp and get the correct rates from them.

Insurance

The storage facilities offer good rates for insurance which could substitute your home contents insurance.

We had to have coverage for specified items such as laptops and could not get that unless we kept our house contents insurance going. The important thing for us was that we had to have proper insurance coverage wherever we went.

Our insurance covers items that travel with us, covers our car and we have roadside assistance for the car and the caravan. (4 Events per year)

Health

We kept our medical aid at Discovery (which we hastily joined after our medical aid went bankrupt at the end of September 2022). Our medical brokers were instrumental in a smooth transition to Discovery at the same rate we previously paid.

We get our chronic medicine at Clicks branches, which we found were the most convenient as they have the most branches.

Clothing

Clothing is an interesting topic.

When you camp long-term, your lifestyle changes.

What we did was re-evaluate everything based on our new lifestyle. One of the first questions we asked was whether the clothes we wore while working and living at home were the most practical for a travelling lifestyle.

We knew we would not have the shelf space and laundry and dishwasher we had at home.

What we did was buy clothing from sports or fitness apparel clothing ranges. Sports clothing is neat and can be worn during normal activities because it is designed for people who lead a “gym to town” lifestyle.

Sports-type clothing is designed to wash and dry easily which makes it ideal for wearing and washing every day. You can get by with two sets of clothing if you wash and hang it every night.

We bought clothes from Decathlon and Mr Price Sport.

If you can really not make peace with such a dramatic lifestyle change, you will have to accommodate passive-location lifestyle clothing to your new active-location lifestyle.

Folding your clothes to save space

We learned from the tiny home movement which is popular at the moment.

There is a range of folding techniques that allow you to store your clothes in smaller spaces without wrinkling or damaging them. Marie Kondo is one of the celebrities in this field. You can find her ideas on her Youtube channel.

It was a revelation for me to realise that I could roll or fold into mini squares all my shirts, pants and underwear. When we tested these techniques at home, I ended up with a cupboard half full of clothes.

Internet connection when you camp

We work just like at home while camping and a reliable Internet connection is important for us.

Internet and mobile phone connections are one of those matters that constantly come up in camping discussions on social media.

There are as many answers and solutions as there are people because connections in South Africa depend on the location of cellphone towers, of which not all service providers have the same number.

Traditional Internet connection providers depend on fixed fibre infrastructure which means they can’t provide mobile Internet services. We are dependent on cellphone companies for connections that are available where we are.

Any advice about the service provider, Internet connection or wireless connection setup is usually based on the experience of the person who gives advice and does not mean it will be the best or most reliable for you.

It all depends on how you use the Internet.

We use it mainly for my work. This requires anytime unhindered Internet access with a healthy dose of monthly gigabytes. I ascertained that I would rarely use more than 100 GB. I also found out from the resorts we planned on visiting that my existing service provider (MTN) was virtually non-existent in many coastal areas.

At the time I had to make a decision (December 2022) during the Black Friday sell and buy frenzy, Vodacom offered me a wifi router with monthly 500Gb day and 500Gb night data at a monthly cost of R409,00 per month on a 2-year contract. They committed to 10Mbps speed, which was good for me. This is what I got in Mossel Bay:

This was adequate for me. In my first month, I used 40Gb (including downloading a whole website’s files and database).

If you download many hours of movies, you may need more than that, which is why you have to evaluate your own needs and habits before choosing what seems to be the best for you.

It is important to see if the data conditions fit your habits, alternatively whether you are prepared to change your habits.

The Vodacom Night Owl data plans run between midnight (00:00) and 05:00 in the morning. Should I need to download large batches of information, I can always set the alarm in that time slot and start my downloads before going back to sleep.

I don’t watch movies, but it seems to be what most long-term campers download. I would expect that they may benefit from downloading early in the morning to watch during the day.

Netflix says watching a movie in standard definition uses about 1Gb per hour and high definition uses about 3Gb per hour.

How much data to watch a movie?

• A 1080p HD 60 fps 2-hour movie averages 6 GB in file size.
• A 1080p HD 30 fps 2-hour movie averages 3 GB in file size.
• A 720p HD 2-hour movie averages 2 GB in file size.
• A Standard Definition (SD) 2-hour movie averages 1 GB in file size.

Check the Netflix numbers.

If you are a subscriber to DStv and use their app, you need to be vigilant or you may use all your data without planning it.

DStv says: “The data used is dependent on how much content you watch. However, as it is a video service, it can potentially use large amounts of data and we encourage you to make use of the settings available in the app to manage the video quality and data consumption. 

The app uses about 1.15MB of data per minute when you’re watching at the lowest quality resolution and up to 41MB of data per minute at the highest HD resolution available.“

Again, the best advice is to evaluate and understand your online habits and to shop around for a data plan that fits you best, from a service provider that is available wherever you camp.

My basic kit for camping

Conclusion

This is a concise, although long, report about our experience in the run-up to our planned 12-month camp. It was written two weeks into our year trip and I may make changes to it as we gain more experience and insights as our tour progresses.

I hope to write about the mental processes that influence your experience of such a long-term camp later on our trip. Early on our tour, I realized that subconscious views influence your experience. I touched on it above when I wrote about clothing. An example is the difference between whether you view yourself as a tourist or someone who made a lifestyle change.

I hope it helps you in your own decision-making and wish you a happy and prosperous long-term camping experience.