This was a letter that a reader of Tips & Teasers sent me after I posted my newsletter about travel tips. I asked her if it was okay to share her ideas with you so here they are!

These are Jane’s words and her 5 tips:

I’ve enjoyed your books, tips and teasers for several years now.  Having once had an international career involving multi-stage trips that often started in Geneva and ended in the African bush, I have a few ideas for you to think about, incorporate as you wish. Some are more standard fare, most are geared towards traveling VERY light.

1. If there’s a chance you may be driving somewhere through the “outback” or some other form of “bush”, take a longish, flowing SKIRT.  It will serve as your privacy curtain when you need to pee en route by the road with nary an outhouse, never mind a bush…to squat by. Much easier than having to deal with pants while your traveling companions wait.

2. Always take a pair of shoes you can walk in.  Even if you never have to wear them. The #1 piece of “security” advice I was given once by personnel of Operation Lifeline Sudan (the humanitarian air lift operation into southern Sudan years ago) was to wear walking shoes whenever you boarded the small planes, so that in the not too unlikely event that you might have to crash land, you were prepared to start walking.

3. If you are going someplace that may involve walking about in sandals in dry and dusty areas, take a pumice stone for your heels.  If you are going to a hot, damp tropical area, take anti-fungal cream.  While living in the African bush someone once brought me a bar of beautifully fragrant french-milled soap.  It’s been almost 3 decades since the ”spit” baths taken with it-and remains a vivid and delightful memory.

4. For the Geneva side of things, one basic black skirt, solid jewel toned tops (all knits/no iron) of simple and classic lines that formed the background for a collection of memorable scarves, from silk to thick woven wool wraps…depending on the season there… and jewelry……Everything in one small carry-on bag, always…..and everything coordinated to “mix and match”…

5. One more ”bush” fashion must, in my experience…at least one large cotton scarf that can be wrapped about ones hair if riding through wind, dust, sun in an open vehicle….it doesn’t do much for the hair underneath when you take it off (the advantage of long hair tied in a bun) but it saves you from the damage one such drive can wreak on your hair. Even if you have a hat on, the scarf is a must…and (you’d have a flat head of hair anyway).

Awesome tips, Jane! Thanks so much for sharing!

Anybody else care to share? Add comments to this blog post. I love it!

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