What I packed for six months overlanding Africa

In November 2018 I flew to Gibraltar to join a 22-week Oasis Overland trip: across the Strait to Morocco, then down through West Africa on a converted truck, camping almost every night until May 2019. Six months, one bag, and a whole lot of countries with very few shops selling anything you'd forget.

So the packing mattered. The day before I left I laid every single thing out on the floor and photographed it, which is the best packing advice I can give: if you can see it all at once, you can see what doesn't need to come. This is exactly what went in.

The bags

On an overland truck your main bag lives in a locker, so it gets thrown around, rained on and covered in dust. A rucksack with lots of straps and a frame is overkill. What you want is a tough, waterproof duffel you can drag out of a locker and dump in a tent.

The North Face Base Camp Duffel is a classic choice for overland trips. It's made from heavy, waterproof material like a lorry tarp. It has backpack straps for the odd walk from a bus station, and the big D-shaped zip opens the whole top so you're not digging for things.

The North Face Base Camp Duffel with its backpack straps

For days off the truck I had an Osprey Nebula daypack. It's big enough for a day of walking, takes a laptop, and the padded back is comfortable for hours on a bumpy road. Osprey guarantee their bags for life too, which counts for a lot when you're going to abuse them. See my Travel Kit for the Osprey bags I'd buy now.

Packing cubes: the best thing I took

If you take one tip from this post, it's this: buy packing cubes. Living out of a duffel in a tent for six months is only bearable if you can find things, and cubes turn one big bag into a set of drawers.

I used Eagle Creek compression cubes. The compression zip squashes everything down by about a third, and they're tough enough to survive months of being stuffed in and pulled out. I had one for t-shirts, one for shorts and trousers, one for underwear and socks, and a small one for bits. A smaller cube even fits inside a bigger one.

Two Eagle Creek compression packing cubes

Smaller packing cubes packed inside larger ones

Clothes

Overlanding West Africa is hot, dusty and sweaty for most of the day, and then surprisingly cold at night in the desert and the hills. So the clothes are mostly about quick drying and layering, and not caring if they get wrecked.

T-shirts: about ten, rolled rather than folded. Rolling packs tighter and stops creases. Technical running t-shirts dry overnight, cotton ones don't.
Trousers: a couple of pairs of lightweight walking trousers, including zip-off trousers that turn into shorts.
A microfibre travel towel, which packs to nothing and dries in an hour.
A packable waterproof jacket, mine is an inov-8 Stormshell that packs into its own pocket.
A grid fleece mid layer for chilly mornings.
Socks and a beanie: the desert at night gets properly cold.

Trousers, a microfibre towel, a packable waterproof and a fleece

For cold nights and nights out I had one smart-ish pair of jeans, a base layer, a packable down jacket and a pair of trail shoes, plus Havaianas flip-flops for campsite showers.

Jeans, a base layer, a down jacket and trail shoes

Sleeping

Most nights were spent in a tent, which the overland company provides. What they don't provide is comfort, so this is the part I'd spend money on.

A folding camp bed. Getting off the ground means no rocks in your back and no creepy crawlies.
A sleeping bag good for cool nights, and a Sea to Summit silk liner for hot nights when the bag is too much. The liner also keeps the bag clean, and it's nicer than some hostel sheets.
A Grand Trunk hammock for lazy afternoons at camp.
A couple of Lifeventure packable bags that fold into their own pockets.

Camp bed, hammock, sleeping bag, silk liner and packable bags

Tech

Power is the big challenge. Some campsites had electricity, a lot didn't, and the truck's charging points were always in demand.

A rugged solar power bank, the most useful thing in this pile. Leave it on the dashboard and it tops up while you drive.
A universal travel adapter with USB ports, so one socket charges four things.
A GoPro with a floating hand grip, a head strap and spare batteries with a dual charger.
A rechargeable head torch, which you'll use every single night.
A rugged portable hard drive to back up photos, as WiFi was too slow for cloud backups.
A combination padlock for lockers and bags.
Wireless sports headphones and a spare pair of wired earphones, plus all the cables in a dry bag.

My tech: power bank, adapter, GoPro, hard drive, padlock, head torch and cables

I took a laptop too, for writing and sorting photos. If you don't need one, leave it at home: it's one more thing to worry about.

Toiletries and first aid

A compact first aid kit, topped up with plasters, painkillers, rehydration sachets and anything your travel clinic suggests.
Insect repellent with 50% DEET. Mosquitoes in West Africa carry malaria, so take this seriously along with your tablets.
Soap leaves and fabric wash leaves, so you can wash yourself or your clothes in a bucket.
A universal sink plug, because half the sinks don't have one.
Earplugs and an eye mask. Tents next to roosters, mosques and truck stops are not quiet.
The usual: toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, lip balm, nail clippers and a little hair product for the rare nights out.

Toiletries, first aid kit, insect repellent, soap leaves and earplugs

Water and dry bags

A filter water bottle. I used Water-to-Go, which filters tap and stream water as you drink, saving money and a lot of plastic bottles.
An insulated travel mug for early morning coffee on the truck.
A set of lightweight dry bags in different colours. Everything in a dry bag stays dry and dust-free, and the colours mean you know what's in each one.
A cloth tote bag for markets.

A filter water bottle, an insulated mug, dry bags and flip-flops

All packed

And this is how it all went together: the duffel with the wash bag and kit bags on top, the daypack, the camp bed bag, the sleeping bag and the packing cubes. It looks like a lot, but laid out like this you can see every item has a job.

Everything packed into the duffel, daypack and packing cubes

If you're packing for your first overland trip

You'll be washing clothes all the time, so you need fewer than you think. Take plenty of sun cream, because it can be hard to find in parts of West Africa and expensive when you do. And start with the duffel, the packing cubes, a head torch and a good power bank, and you'll be ahead of most people on the truck.

Planning your own trip? Have a look at my Overland Africa bucket list goal and my Travel Kit page.

Some links in this post are affiliate links: if you buy through them I may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. More about this.