Doing laundry in the desert

Well, we’ve safely arrived in Merzouga, on the edge of the Sahara Desert, though not completely unscathed. We’re now 2-1, as Angela dumped her bike in some sand just 300 m from where we are staying. Fortunately it was on the right side, and so on the same pannier I damaged a few days ago. It’s now more damaged – definitely not waterproof and beyond the mighty abilities of duct tape. We will wrap it with a spare Rok strap, and unless it gets bashed some more it should survive the next two weeks. I think we are now sold on soft luggage vs hard. Or at least something more durable than the fragile OEM bags that come with the Africa Twin.

We settled into our new digs, and did a quick load of laundry. On the road, everything seems to be just a little more difficult. Take laundry, for example. We have only brought a few changes of essentials, and so have to wash clothes fairly regularly. We were fortunate that we could use a machine in a few locations. Otherwise, it’s handwashing in a sink and hanging to dry.

We’ve been playing with this method. For instance, I bought a dry bag and figured I’d throw dirty clothes, water and soap in it, ride a few hours and the laundry would be clean. I’d just have to rinse and hang dry. Unfortunately, dry bags seem to work better at keeping water out than keeping it in. Either that or my MEC dry bag wasn’t the one to buy. Second, the quick dry clothing we have doesn’t dry that quickly, at least in lower temperatures. Now, when strapped to the passenger seat in a mesh bag it dries a little quicker.

Fortunately, today our laundry dried fairly quickly in the dry desert air, aided by the sandstorm that brewed up just after supper (which was fabulous!).