30 April 2021
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30 April 2021
Soft luscious grass is a rarity as far as campgrounds go – those who have embarked on their own caravanning adventures will know this to be true. Sand, asphalt, dirt, dust, concrete, river rocks, dead prickly grass… you name it, we’ve used our mats on it to provide extra space for all those outdoor activities that come hand in hand with a caravanning lifestyle.
Stargazing, playing guitar, watching the sunrise, competitive card games, snuggles by firelight. When the outdoors is calling you don’t want the lack of comfort to be the reason you can’t enjoy mother nature.
With that being said, we wanted to share 5 places our Recycled Mat saved my sanity on our caravanning adventures of Australia with our 3 kids in tow!
Pulling up on the bank of the Ethel River (Buttons Crossing Camp), I wondered how we’d fare on the uneven and pokey river rock. I, for one, am prone to ankle injuries so get very anxious on uneven surfaces. The fact that we could use our Recycled Mat both as an additional flooring for our outdoor ‘lounge’ room, and as a cushioned and flattening balancing measure for those outdoor showers was a God-send! Spread out over the rocks, the plastic’s thickness kept those rocks from moving around and becoming a tripping hazard for my clumsy feet.
Those who have experienced the Aussie Red Centre may have a deep ‘love – hate’ relationship with the red dirt out there!! As utterly stunning as the landscape is to see covered in that blanket of burnt crimson soil, the realities of keeping said shades from overtaking your camp setup and the inside of your home on wheels is more than a little stressful. Enter Recycled Mats…. Providing a large area outside of the van where we could safely strip clothing and footwear to help prevent dirt entering our living space. The best part? The carry bag our mat came in became our mat and shoe storage, confining the Pindan to one place – and it cleaned out super easily once we were off the red stuff!
When it was 45+ degrees in the caravan as we trekked the Savannah Way in the month of October, we were desperate to expand our living area to give the kids a shaded, comfortable area to play Lego, card games and cool themselves off with a spray bottle. Ordinarily, using our camp chairs and table might have been sufficient – but in these kinds of extreme heat where the ground surface is unbearably prickly and itchy – it certainly helped avoid irritability by having a soft clean and comfortable area to chill out on. Plus… camp chairs can go mouldy and smelly if left damp for long periods – whereas our Recycled Mat doesn’t so we let the kids go crazy with the water!
Hands up if you’ve been to Dundee over the summer (wet season)? This was one place where we truly felt our Recycled Mat become a necessity!! On those scorching days when we lived by the pool (because, you know you can’t swim in croc-infested ocean waters) we couldn’t get over the temperature of the concrete, and how much it hurt our feet!! Whilst there was grass in the pool area, my kids and I are prone to grass rashes, so our Recycled Mat came to the rescue and provided the perfect balanced temperature and comfort for our feet (and bums) in-between bouts of swimming!
Even though we live the camping lifestyle, I am still terrified of almost all creepy crawlies (I know, I know… crazy, hey!) Our first experience of seeing scorpions was around our camp at Port Gibbon in South Australia, and the only thing that made me feel safe enough to sit outside the caravan was having our Recycled Mat to put down!! I knew the scorpions could not sting through the Mat, and they couldn’t camouflage themselves against the black colour either! Massive ‘thumbs-up’ from this freaked-out mumma!!
There are countless other times our Recycled Mats have come to the rescue over our travels – the diversity of these mats is what makes us love them as an addition to our van-life adventures. We rate them to no end, and recommend them to every traveller we meet! I mean, they look GREAT and add some personality to our home on wheels, and throughout the past 2 years we have used our Recycled Mats to increase our comfort and expand our living area everywhere we have set up camp regardless of whether we have been parked up in the hardest or dirtiest areas of the country!
Who else has put their Recycled Mats through tough conditions on their travels? How did it fare? We’d love to hear about your experiences too!!
Follow the Kool Kampers Travelling Australia journey on Facebook & Instagram too!
Need to know which size caravan annex mat would suit your set up? Read our Blog Post "What size annex mat fits your van"? and SHOP our full range of camping and caravan mats here too! Happy camping!