A British backpacker has spoken of her disappointment of returning to her microfibre towel after three weeks without it.

Caroline Gough, who is currently on an eight month backpacking tour of Australia and New Zealand, explained “The microfibre towel is great in many respects because it doesn’t take up much room in my case and also dries really quickly which is important when you are staying in a dorm room that lacks drying space.

However the one fundamental thing that it doesn’t do is dry you properly. When you pat yourself with it, it does initially transfer water from your body to the towel, but that then makes the towel too wet to dry the rest of you, which just leaves you feeling damp.”

For the past three weeks Caroline has been able to leave the towel at the bottom of her suitcase and ignore it completely.

“The Australians now believe it’s winter,” Caroline explained “Whilst in fact we are still experiencing temperatures that in England would qualify for a heatwave. Therefore I have been able to find some excellent cheap deals staying at beachside hotels and apartments, all of which come with incredibly luxurious and fluffy towels. It has been wonderful.”

Tomorrow however Caroline will fly to Perth to embark on a Western Australia adventure that will see her staying in a string of backpacking hostels up and down the coast.

Caroline said “here in my current hotel room, I can get out of the shower and have one towel to wrap around me and another to dry my hair. And if I get sick of them I can leave them in the bath and the housekeeper brings me new ones. It’s a world away from traipsing around with the same old towel that’s been failing to dry me properly ever since I  landed in Sydney in November.”

The towel told us “I can’t do everything. I have stripes, I’m compact, I squash into any space without any complaints, what more does she want?”