bathrooms
 

What are the bathroom facilities like while on game drives?

There are hundreds of bush bathrooms on game drives (behind large baobab trees / thorn bushes etc) Just make sure your partner / guide is keeping an eye out for any surprises!

Some of the more "formal" ones are nothing more than a small hut with a hole in the floor. Even that can be interesting. I recall stopping at one in the small forested area in the N Crater in June 2002 and the wife telling me it was not usable as honey bees had taken up residence there.
Dick

If squatting in the "bush bathroom" isn't that appealing, look at this http://www.freshette.com/usage.html

You can go to a search engine and type in "freshette urinary" to find other links.

If you get one, my best advice is to practice using it at home. I used it for a week at home and there were a few mishaps that were better off happening at home.

And if you do squat behind a bush - and if you do use loo paper - please bury it well down. There is usually a stone around that you can use to dig a hole!! And even better would be if your vehicle carried that excellent implement called a trowel (where I come from) - you know, a small digging tool like you would use in the back garden.

Please don't leave your loo paper blowing in the wind.

From a poster who understands the question - and needs to "go" often.

Happy travels ...

Oh - PS - always carry a loo roll.
It's as essential as sunscreen and far more important than film.

As an alternative to the "freshette" - I've taken/used "coffee filters" for this purpose. Found that the 2-cup brown (bio-degradeable) filters worked best. Before departing home and packing these in your suitcase, simply snip one corner (as an outlet) and you're "set-to-go." And a box of these offer a very inexpensive option.

It is also a good idea to have a small bottle of the alcohol-based or other no-rinse hand sanitizers - there usually isnt any running water even in the more "formal" facilities (and I have yet to see a tree with a tap.....!)

Most places we went were the hole-in-floor type facility, we rarely needed to use a tree (depends on where you are going of course, and how often). Our group just developed the routine of having some toilet paper in one pocket and the hand sanitizer in another whenever we went to one of the bathroom facilities, and that worked just fine.