For those that use pop up shower tents

Most places in middle of bush wouldn't worry great deal, but some minimal fee places ddon't like even smallest quantity. These places tho may often have one central drain near toilet block for instance.

Having said that, we did come across one reserve in Wagga Wagga on the edge of town that we were going to stay overnight at. The sign said that you had to be totally self sufficient in all waste collection. So basically you had to have a motor home or van with grey water tanks. We had our Patrol with roof tent, no pegs in ground and toilets on the reserve but for cooking or washing up, we couldn't comply and did not want to risk a fine and of course, we like to do the right thing. We couldnt really see the reasoning behind it as it was a large but fairly ordinary piece of ground, but rules are rules. Michael

Good on you Michael :). So many let their grey water flow at Wagga Wagga which will spoil it for everyone. While a couple of self contained only parks insist that grey water tanks be inbuilt only, most others accept the portable 'wheelie' grey water tanks. Most do not allow buckets and cannisters as they can be left to overflow, but some places do accept that the method is not important - just that the water has to be removed from the campground. Anyone can save and removed water from the site, even when tenting.

My Blog What Does Self Contained Really Mean has the above in more detail.

Back to kevmac's question. There may be ways of collected the water from an external shower, but if in an area where water may not be spilled on the ground, just have a tub bath - sponge over. You can get clean and fresh, and the water can be placed into a cannister and removed from the site for disposal.

Although there is an increasing trend to removing all water from the campground (some have a dump point on site for this), we have been to very few campgrounds where our water bucket could not be emptied into bush or grassland outside the perimeter of the camping area.

I loved Blackall, and when purchasing our camping permit I was asked "are you self contained?" "I have a bucket". That was cheerfully accepted and was easy to empty into the dump point at the campsite. We did not have a lot of water to dispose of as there were nice hot showers a moderate walk away in the town, which we appreciated.

We normally use them too Greg, but sometimes could make messy in a laid out free or minimal charge place......looking more at containing rather than comfort(muddy feet)

No worries - getting a bit elaborate and possibly cumbersome if you need to collect and somehow then move/redirect/transfer the water though. I'd be jumping in the car and going for a short drive into the scrub...dont even need the pop up tent if you're careful...:)

Cheers
Greg

...further to that have seen at a few exploration camp showers using the bottom section of these (1000 litre water container - minus the metal frame) cut off at ~15 or 20 cms



You can get them on ebay for less than 100 bucks. Suppose it would not weight that much and could be tossed onto your roof rack. Still have to get rid of water though.. lay flat hose?

Cheers
Greg

Bulk bins aren't uv stabilised plastic so you'll need to paint them if using long term. I have seen a camper trailer with a flip over boat rack with a proper shower tray on the underside. The whole show sits a couple of feet off the ground and a tent gets erected over the top. Easy enough to then hook a hose off the standard shower waste to reclaim into any receptacle you choose. Probably a Flexi tank on the ground would be the most portable option? Definitely a way to reclaim all of your water however. I am looking into something similar so you can have a shower near the camper but the waste water being piped away to not flood the camp. Her indoors can step straight out of the shower tent back into the camper. Surely she could ask for no better arrangement? Don't answer that......

If Bulk bins aren't uv stabilised why do they use them to store things like acid & bleach and other nasty stuff then leave them out in the open for months?

Stuffed if I know. I get them for free through work and we keep a couple to feed pressure washers away from water supplies. They don't last too long in sunlight.

Maybe while liquid is in them they're stable but disintegrate after being empty for a while.

Yes maybe, although a few of our guys took then home to catch stormwater off their roofs during the drought. They didn't last long there either. A coat of acrylic house paint works well. They are a disposable non returnable item.