What's that box?

It's weird looking out the bathroom window and seeing a big box on wheels outside. Weird but exciting.

We had a bit of a clean yesterday, and measured up for some bits and pieces we need to add - new shelves, bed supports. I had a look for where the mysterious blue wire might have come from, but it's an unlabelled tangle in there so no idea. With no power to the socket so we'll have to get an expert to look at it. I also thumped the stabilisers with a hammer to free them from a bit of rust. Very satisfying and ultimately successful.

Still some major enhancements to go, but time is ticking away. Wi-Fi aerial and router and Gaslow refillable LPG system to name the two biggest.

No going back now

How exciting! This weekend we picked up our new travelling home, as pictured earlier, and now it's sitting outside our garage. Yee ha!

We drove it back from Cwmbran via a stopover for the night so we could get a feel for it. Well, we learnt something about the existing Falcon satnav: ticking motorways means use them as much as possible, whereas on both our own satnavs it meant avoid them. Since we discovered this after the last off-ramp, over the bridge to England we went, before turning around and coming straight back again. Nice view from up there if nothing else! That little detour doubled our travel time since we had chosen a campsite near to our origin.

The campsite was lovely. Lots of caravans that appeared to have been there some time, along with some that had arrived more recently, some tents,a few campervans and one other motorhome. It was in a small village which fortunately had a cafe as we had no food or drink as yet.

We walked to the nearest pub for dinner. Unfortunately, I can't recommend it (the pub, that is. I can always recommend dinner) - my lamb shank was overcooked so like an old boot in parts (or maybe I ordered sole?). In contrast, Judi's enchillada was undercooked! Anyway, the meals filled a hole.

This morning we got to explore a little more.

And then the trip home. We soon discovered that the cigarette lighter socket was no longer powering our devices. There were lights that suggested they were powered, but the batteries had run flat and nothing would run! (GoPro, satnav, usb socket.) We tried everything obvious but in the end had to use our phones. J's searching 'tinternet for a cause. We'd think fuse if it weren't for those lights...

Anyway, we did get home and J had the fun of manoeuvering it safely into our driveway. She avoided all the parked cars in our narrow streets and drive,  and now we have a big white box outside our window. Yay!

A bitter-sweet symphony

A bitter sweet day today as I broke the news I was leaving work. It's always sad to say goodbye to colleagues but there's new adventures to come too.

We started to pack up the house as well as we will be storing anything not going into the van.

Van. Camper. Motorhome. What are  we going to call it? We arbitrarily decided a camper was a van conversion while a motorhome was cab built or bigger, so our Hymer is a motorhome. Many travellers have a nick-name for their van/camper/motorhome but I'm not sure I can handle that. I did think Ramblin' Rowes would be appropriate signage but J thinks it's a bit twee. Waddya reckon?

A new adventure is on the horizon!

After quite some angst we finally have a vehicle to carry us on our journey. Today we trained 3 hours to Cwmbran to check out a 2001 Hymer B534. It was worth the trip as  we have put a deposit down subject to some tidying up being done. This will be our home for 3-4 months for our first trip, and we will be learning as we go.

The vehicle comes with most of the necessaries included which is a real bonus including dual solar panels and an extra battery so we don't have to rely on hookups. We will only need to add a conversion to refillable LPG and wireless to have everything we want. (Or think we want.)

Yee-haa!

Another tyre kicked

And another deflation for us. We went to see a very nice SWB Vauxhall Movano conversion. Unfortunately I couldn't see out the top of the window - a common problem for me - and the bed was a good 4" too short. Shame as it was very well priced, tidy and handy to get to. Someone else will get a bargain. The search continues.

Kicking some tyres

We had another day out looking at campervans and motorhomes. We have rules out any Fiat Ducati or VW cabs,  which rules out about  70% of campervans and 60% of motorhomes! This is because The top of the windscreen is at my eye level.

We saw a couple of motorhomes that seemed OK, but they tie up a lot of capital that we will need for our actual travel. I still think a Ford Transit hi-top conversion will end up being the one for us.

We are going to a van show in Peterborough in two weeks where we hope to see something we can buy - we are conscious that we are running out of time to break in a new vehicle before we plan to travel! Wish us luck.

Back from the dead?

After 7 years with no activity I was very surprised to find this blog still available to me! It was interesting to remind myself of some of the wonderful places we have visited since we came over here.

I was looking at the blog as it may be time to reopen it. We are currently looking at campervans with a mind to continue our travels around Europe, starting this year.

We kicked some tires at the Birmingham motor-home, campervan and caravan, etc, show twice. The first time looking at motor-homes, the second at campervans. After a huge amount of bickering discussion we have circled around to the idea of a Ford Transit based campervan with extra camping gear as the best for for our needs - not too big for Italian roads, reasonably inexpensive to buy and run, and ready at short notice for stopping or moving. (Ford Transit, by the way, as it was the only cab that allowed me vision out the top of the window!)

So the hunt for a van begins...