so the storm came wasn't too hectic or at least it wasn't too hectic for me i didn't really
notice much from inside the caravan i just had all the windows and stuff closed i had the little vent
open so i could still get a bit of fresh air in here and it was actually really really pleasant
toasty toasty in there andy actually said he was also super toasty in his tent last night and it
really handled well in the wind and the rain and everything like that so he's also pretty stoked i
think today is going to be one of those days where it's edit videos and chill and have coffee in this
amazing weather i mean this is the best weather to sit on the computer and get some work done so
let's see how it goes i'll keep you guys updated throughout the day andy does end up going for his
walk and if i end up going with him for the first bit and then you know turning back at a point
um that might still be on the cards for today depending on if the weather kind of clears up
but it's dangerous to hike in the mountains where it's misty like this so let's see how
it goes as the morning goes as the sun comes out and hopefully cooks away all this mist
what an absolutely awesome little morning here just been watching the
clouds dancing through the valley coming and going there is blue sky
hiding behind these clouds for sure and i think we're definitely going to be heading
out for a hike in about 30 minutes to an hour or so coffee is done now as well so
all that's left to do get ourselves ready for a little bit of a hike i can show you
guys how beautiful the little valley is here anyways i'll see you out on the trail
this place is pretty pretty magical now just to get to this little spot from the campsite
is really a 20 minutes walk maybe 15 minutes if you're quick but it's so beautiful but for
now we're gonna chill out soak this all in i'll catch up with you a little bit later
do
so it's been a beautiful hike this morning we've done about i think one and a half case
how many k's uh 1.84 1.84 k's um so i'm going to make my way back because taking us about an hour
to get out here we have stopped and filmed and we had a little break and stuff but i've got
to get back to editing videos andy's going to be going all the way up so i'm only going to see him
tomorrow i've left him with the garmin inreach mini so that if anything goes wrong he can sos
or he can send me a message via satellite because i think the signal right about now
has kind of disappeared so at least he's got that he's got everything he needs i'll go back
but it's stunning really is stunning i'm glad i got to come kind of walk out here and show you
guys a little bit unfortunately also broke my foot recently and i'm not allowed to do
too much walking um so it's been nice to kind of get out use the trekking poles and everything
and test out some of the new first ascent stuff so far loving it loving it so anyways
time for me to get back to camp i'll catch you guys there back at camp i actually want to go
and see how the solar panels are doing so the jackery's been charging and i've been charging
up the national luna 25 amp hour battery box in the back of the bucky because today what i need to
do is actually need to use the jackery to charge the caravan so i can keep my lights and the fan
and the fridge going because i don't think that fridge is running anymore that's going to be
an interesting task for today okay well the jackery is actually almost fully charged that's
done about 20 percent of the power in about two hours let's go check on the national luna quick
so the national lunar has actually also charged up really nicely and it's charging at 6.2 amps so 6.2
times so 6 x 15 60 30 so that's charging at about 95 to 100 watts for 150 watt panel everything's
powering up beautifully here so i'll run a couple errands around here get set up and um try and
figure out a way to charge this damn caravan okay so i figured out how to charge the caravan let me
run you through the little bit of trickery that i'm using here so i've got the jackery
and that is plugged into an extension lead that extension lead is then plugged into the national
lunar smart charger which is just your 220 it's a 5 amp charger so it'll charge it about five times
twelve so about 60 watts we'll have a look at the actual consumption on the jackery now as well
and then because the jackeries the solar saga solar panel is a bit short what i've done is i've
used an adapter from jackery to be able to use my flexor power solar panel which has got a 10 meter
cable so then that is running into the jackery i'm about to charge my phone and some stuff as well so
what i'm actually seeing here in terms of usage of the nl5 is 86 watts and i'm
sure that is going to vary throughout the different stages of the smart charging cycle
and we are charging with solar about 50 to 60 watts the sun's just gone behind the cloud now
so it'll pick up again um so yeah that's all sorted so we are finally charging the caravan
awesome
all righty dishes are done food is in and it is 5 30.
i've done yoga today i've gone for a hike i've edited a video i filmed video it's amazing how
much stuff you can actually get done when you don't have the normal distractions of life
it's quite crazy actually but i'm running low on water so i'm going to take a little
walk down to the stream and fill up some water bottles and yeah should be sorted for
tomorrow for some coffee and some oats in the morning and um yeah i wonder how andy's doing
i haven't heard anything from him yet so i'm assuming that's a good thing but yeah i wonder
oh my gosh they write you above my head i just have to make noise
so that they don't come near me then i'll be safe all that's fine those baboons are massive
yeah yeah yeah yeah whatever
this is my magnificent view it's really really gorgeous it's beautiful right here
amazing i'll be going up into that mountain way up there you can see up that side
so today's been a really chilled day for me i've just been working on the new video
not this one the one from last week i'm loving this kind of
digital nomad lifestyle i think having something like this little caravan here
is incredible to have at your base camp to be able to work from i've been managing everything
through solar to have extra power but essentially we've been off-grid for
i think this is the fourth day now so actually we've been off grid for
since monday and it is now saturday so this is our sixth day off grid we haven't charged
anything we haven't i think we bought 10 liters of water um so we will obviously get to a point now
as we start reaching the end of the week where we're going to need to go resupply our groceries
we're going to need to resupply on water we're going to need to resupply on a bunch of things but
i'll tell you now before we leave here we're gonna fill up as much water as we can from
the beautiful river here been using that water for coffee been drinking it fresh it's amazing
um so we're really blessed out here but from this point on um we'll be wrapping up here tomorrow
morning we'll be saying goodbye to hermits wood and we'll be saying goodbye to the drakensberg
tomorrow we will be heading through to Balloch nature reserve which is back in the eastern cape
highlands if you guys remember my series from last year before the december holidays i explored the
eastern cape islands i thought it would also be a good test to get the caravan on the dirt roads
a little bit and see how it performs i'll touch base with you guys when andy comes back to camp
the rhino man himself that was magnificent an absolute challenge but
i feel like i feel like alive well thanks so much for the suggestion it's extremely difficult
really i think the only muscle that's not so is this one here
if i sit now i'm not getting up so there's some there's some box wine
and there's some stew waiting and so how did you just all you did was eat snacks
i had snacks y'all and then i actually sat right at the top of um so it's that one there
that one all the way at the top yes yeah so i had that and then I sat with the Basotho's they
were teaching me a few little words so we had a few little snacks that i had left over together
it was such an experience i'm so glad you've opened this world to me thank you
but i was up there i'm like crazy crazy excited about all of this that's amazing i definitely miss
my tent in my sleeping bag it was a bit chills but i missed my tent home sweet time i'm back oh yay
it's been really really nice it's been a bit of a mental shift swapping from living out of a Bakkie
to living out of the caravan but i must say once we've made that transition it's actually really
really nice because it's obviously a lot more purpose-built for being a kitchen for being a
bedroom for having that kind of clothing storage and stuff like that so it is a purpose-built
product and i must be honest i'm i think by the end of this trip i'm going to be sad to see it go
after this review but uh that's that's how things go but anyways um we're going to be heading on now
to Balloch in the eastern cape so let's get going we've got a long day we'll catch up with you guys
probably next week so thank you so much for tuning in and watching this episode i
hope you enjoyed hermits wood as much as we did it's a beautiful beautiful part of the country
and it's really been a special experience anyways we'll catch you next week cheers
i just wanted to thank my awesome patreon members for the continued support
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anyways i'll catch you guys next week sunday cheers