Tarps, tropical roofs and a lil taka

we spent 18 odd months living in the tropics north of broome with at the time an 18m old baby, we only had 12h of power each 24hrs and less on weekends, we foung the best set up was a 12v system, that you will of course have, and we had 12v computer fans set above our heads that blew air down over our faces and down our bodys, it worked excellent for us and bubs .....One thing you will find is that bubs will sleep when traveeling if you have AC, if you dont i would not bother leaving home, we would feed bubs just before leaving someware and he would sleep "like a baby" hahha
We would also take the car fishing in the heat of the day, of course when bubs wanted to sleep and park up right where we were fishing and leave the car running on high idle with AC running, sometimes for hours, a mazda bravo at the time, and bubs would sleep like a log ....... car would sweetly tick away and use bugger alll fuel, you can run the risk of giving bubs heat rash if you dont let it get some "cool" sleeps, when we had really hot humid weather and never went anyware for a while bubs did get it a few times .....
I know i have not answered your "tarp" question but i dont think you have any options other than a shady spot ........ ditch the heavy tarp :-)
(buy a dvd player and use AC)
Cheers n good luck

We had a tarp which is a pain to put up. In the end we got a piece of shade cloth and would just lay it on top of the trailer. It would drop the temp heaps. In the middle of the day you could not go into the trailer, put the tarp over and it was ok. Also try a misting bottle of water, give the kid a spray to cool him down. The fan idea of Joe's is a good idea if you have the power.

Josh

Good tips guys. Any idea where to buy battery operated fans that would achieve the same? We plan to do as much of our travelling between campsites when it's his sleep time so he can be in the air conditioned car.