Castles, cures and cassoulet

After our wonderful swim and picnic on the beech we headed towards Lourdes with high hopes, we found a camperstop in Pau on the way which was basically a car park heaving with campervans.

I am afraid we are now motorhome geeks that enjoy nothing more than the sight of a hoards of them lined up.

Sunday 28th: Lourdes, for me, disappointed greatly but I guess I am an atheist who hates tacky tourist spots and Andy spent most of the day amused at my frustration with the place.
Arriving in the town we were suffocated by souvenir shops and crowds who have forgotten how to smile.

All of our friends nearly received gifts of Virgin Mary shaped water bottles, filled with holy water, lucky people.

There are two sides to Lourdes, the centre is milking the towns meaning for all its worth and the Grotto is where the magic, sorry i mean religious ceremonies, happen.

We headed to Sanctuaries Notre Dame de Lourdes to see swarms of people in wheelchairs

Andy Fact: Each year the place sees about 70,000 invalids, with only one certifiable miracle each decade.

Among the crowds were visitors from Newcastle and Hexham Diocese and Shrewsbury Diocese, a small world indeed.

After taking as many pictures as possible and seeing the sights we made a swift exit and vowed to go somewhere a bit more fun and friendly.

So we set off on our own pilgrimage towards Carcassonne.

Tuesday Morning: I seem to have lost a few days here and there, lets just assume that we are sunbathing, drinking beer and unsurprisingly being forced by Andy to
visit as many French DIY shops as possible, much to my delight.

After spending a romantic evening walking around Carcassonne castle we cuddled up in bed to watch some West Wing.

We are now heading towards the coast to Narbonne after a day of walking around the castle in the sunshine, it is such an incredible place, you can walk around the outer walls, overlooking the town and Pyrenees, the rest of the castle is full of narrow, cobbled streets filled with restaurants and shops.

We stopped to eat the traditional dish named cassoulet, well, after convincing Andy that eating pizza everywhere we go is not allowed until we reach Italy.
Andy has decided that he will be doing all of the driving because he doesn’t even nearly trust me enough and generally for the good of our relationship therefore I get to drink beer for breakfast lunch and dinner.

Day One: A Race to Bordeaux

20:00 English time: Finally 48 hours after we had planned to depart, me, Andy and our beast of a campervan have left rainy Yorkshire.

All of the maintenance has been completed, we have a water system, an electric system and have managed to not kill each other over the stress of it all.

We are 100 miles into the journey on our way to a 2:30am ferry, I am sat next to an 80s child who is loud and proud and currently deafening me while joining in with meatloaf’s I would do anything for love.

We started the 280 mile journey to our ferry which will then be followed by a gruelling 600 miles in one day to get to Bordeaux for my first cheese and wine review.

We are having a productive journey so far, I have called my loved ones, already wrote the expected letter to my granny, added to our so far uneventful blog with an actual travel story and we have finally named our LDV the Millennium Falcon.


01:00: We arrive at the ferry with plenty of time to make a brew in the back and put the TV on, what a luxury.

The ferry crossing was my first and definitely wont be my last, it was magical. We left the port looking back into Dover with all of it’s twinkly lights, the calm sea barely moved the boat while we held onto each other in a less cheesy but just as romantic version of Titanic.

For most of the journey we stayed outside and looked up at the stars that only look so clear when surrounded by such darkness and waited for dawn to arrive.


05:00 French time: We arrived at Calais and headed for our first services, for months Andy had been telling me that we could stop at services to sleep but with my only experience being of rainy, miserable English ones, I had been quite dubious.

But when we pulled up to a peaceful stop, overlooking the French countryside, surrounded by other campers all of of my worries disappeared. This place would easily rival many English campsites.

11:10: We woke up after a much needed sleep, Andy had a slight panic about the solar panels, but the crisis was quickly averted, so we made breakfast and headed south towards Bordeaux.


17:16: We are 571km from Bordeaux, Andy is driving and I am on blind spot duty which neither of us are very keen on me having such a responsibility. We have just driven passed a huge sign that says Camembert and got excited all over again.
So we are very happy, Andy has began his role as driver and photographer and so far my writing has already begun, we did not forget anything important and everything seems to be working like clock work.


Saturday: It has been a few days since I have been able to blog, mainly due to the amount of time and effort involved in being a navigational officer but also due to the fact that living in a van involves hours spent finding a place to sleep for the night.

Wednesday: We drove all day until the worst imaginable happened, the van lost power every few minutes, by this point it was past midnight, we were exhausted, sweaty and wondering when the fun was going to start but luckily we found an Aires (a stop over for campers) which consisted of a parking space and a toilet in a quant, peaceful town.

Thursday: The final part of our epic journey to Bordeaux began, we had breakfast on the go, Andy driving and me attempting to direct and feed him when necessary, we were doing so well until the van starting loosing power again. by now we were even more sweaty and stuck in the 28 degree heat in the middle of nowhere.

Fortunately for me, my fiancé (and I hate to admit this) is a genius, he fixed a problem that numerous mechanics could not and we were on route. running just on time we found a campsite, we confused the owner greatly when asking to pay just for a shower, by this point he could have named any amount and we would have been grateful.

Over two days and 800 hundred miles had passed and in the end we were one hour away from Bordeaux which would make us arrive one hour late for our review, so we admitted defeat and headed to the nearest Aires to relax for the night.

In a town on the edge of St Emilion we found the most wonderful free camperstop, just a few pitches in the middle of a vineyard. We drank some local vino and took a walk through the vines while the sun set.

We were woken, in my opinion, by the loudest, fiercest thunderstorm I have ever seen, usually I love to look out of the window in the safety of my home and be amazed at the flashes of lightening, but when you are over a thousand miles from home in a tin can while the sky looks like a scene from Ghostbusters, it makes you feel very insignificant and vulnerable. Andy wanted to go outside but by this point I was being a big girl.

Friday morning: I will remember this forever, we woke to a glorious day without a time limit or agenda, strapped up the solar shower (a bag with a tube coming from it) and showered outside, in the middle of the vineyard and headed to St Emilion to wander around the medieval town sampling local merlot.

Friday evening after being stuck in our first traffic jam since we reached France, while driving into Bordeaux, we headed towards the coast for a well deserved swim and sunbathe.

A change is gonna come

Each day begins to drag more than the last, the excitement of leaving our little world to travel has now turned into frustration. The naivety of disappearing and escaping responsibility is slowly being enveloped by doubtful what ifs and what after questions.

Leave me alone conscience, you know that life has been grey and unfulfilling for a long time.

So that haunting question rears its ugly head, what is going to happen when you attempt real life again? 

The realisation of our return is already impending onto our future journey and we haven’t even left yet

But this is the price you pay when planning to travel and leave everything other than your better half behind.

So with 59 days till departure, I go to work each day, feeling resentment for loosing yet more precious time to a stuffy office with nothing but a desire to suck the life out of me.

Our approaching escape is almost in sight, yet the uncertainty of what it means scares the life out of me, I have wanted nothing more than to travel since I was 10 years old, watching my father leave for adventures to every corner of the world on business, how exciting it all seemed.

Venturing across Europe in a campervan may differ hugely to visiting China on a business trip, but it still feeds my soul, makes me know that I can do what I want to be happy and follow my dreams.

If I could just visit a new place for every time that someone has told me that part of life is to hate your job and accept it then maybe I will have travelled enough to satisfy this hunger.

Regardless of the worry in my mind, I know that leaving the country that’s opportunities and economy has failed me, is the right thing to do.

People say that if you don’t do it now you never will, but I want to do it now and forever if all that life has to offer is a meaningless job, minimal stolen moments of doing what you truly want and waiting for retirement.

The Van - Part 2

Part 2 of our series about how awesome our van is, talks about the building of the internal structure and how I guessed most of it.  As we saw in the previous post the interior of the van was big and empty (albeit very well insulated, by me) so now using the 3D diagram I set about building the inside.  As I am not a wood work person at all, I decided to build the framework of the intended structures and nail wood on to them.

Wood frame.

(Above) Wood nailed/screwed on.

(below) Once the box had been finished then the addition of some automotive fabric called Veltrim and some high temp impact adhesive finished off the box amazingly.  Also it covered up any problems in the wood or my (it'll do) building skills.

Once I had the recipe for a good finish I set to the van like a man possessed, creating the walls and cupboards wherever I felt like it. Again I used long straight wooden batons and fixed them in place.  Nailing/screwing the large panels on afterwards.   

(above) three batons for the bathroom and main cabin walls.

(below)  wood on said batons.  We will get to the dishwasher carcass and wheely bin in the Water/Shower section.    

You would think in this day and age of mighty technology that I would have used some great invention to make sure that the poles were straight and true.  In a word no. I didn't even use a plumb rule.   Because of this they were not exactly parallel, at the time I thought nothing of it I just shrugged it off with the, by now, legendary statement.  "That'll do"  Luckly enough the problem was not major and the batons could be moved when the walls were attached.  but I could have saved my self a week of madness by doing it right first time.

I would like to think that the ordeal bettered me and I never made that mistake again.  But it didn't and I did.    

So by now most of the inside was built and covered with the Veltrim and ready to go.  But I still lacked a cooker and therefore I could not build the kitchen.  30 seconds on ebay and we had bought an entire unit.  Its not a very good photo as I cant find the older ones but you get the idea.  

By now the van is a real motorhome not just a collection of bad fitted wood and nails.  Next issue we buy and fit my favourite part.  The electrical system.  That's right its time to get our geek on.  

Lloyd out.  

Counting down

Countdown to launch people.  The ferry is booked. Boom.

The Van - Part 1

I have been asked (told) to write something about the van as I am the one that built the thing and therefore understand it. 
So here goes.
The original idea for this trip was to stay traveling as long as humanly possible.  My basic thinking was that if we use campsites then this is £20-£50 per night, more, with electricity. Then I found out that most local councils in the EU put aside places where you can camp for free in the hope you will use and pay for the local amenities. So I hatched an idea to build a van that is as self-sufficient as possible.
Choosing the van.
Basically i wanted big and simple.  We settled on an LDV convoy, long wheel base and high roof with loads of room, so we would not go crazy.  The addition of a roof rack from ebay doubled the space.

Throw a few ideas around concerning the inside and what it was going to look like, whip up something on Google’s basic 3D designer program to get an idea, and suddenly we had a plan. 

I wanted to be able to use the van in all weathers as at this point we didn’t know how long we were staying out for. To this end I thought insulation and because it was cheap in B&Q I bought a roll of Rock wool.  If it’s good enough for a house, its good enough for the van. I pulled off all the panelling and inserted as much Wool as I could, wrapped it in insulation foil for even more heat retention, then rammed them back on. 

More panneling then some Sealant and sealing tape, and we were ready to make a motorhome.

The next instalment sees us starting to build up the insides and start buying all the awesome parts.
Tune in tomorrow folks.

Must see places on our route

Today I decided that a European road trip would not be complete without a visit to the Giger museum and bar based in the small Swiss town of Gruyères.

What could be more fun than a town famous for cheese and Alien?

130 Days till departure day

OK so we have an unofficial countdown, today is 130 days until July and that is when all hands are on deck to quit our jobs and finalise the plans for our European adventure.



We aim to set off on the 15th July with just each other, our motorhome, a minimal amount of clothes and a rough guide of which towns, festivals and beeches to visit.



There is still so much to do in just four months. We currently have a half completed van conversion that seems to throw new challenges our way every day, our most recent worry is that Tron, our LDV, had decided not to turn on.






We are a bit stressed to say the least, with things not running as smoothly as planned, but the thought of having nothing to worry about apart from which beech to wake up next to, makes me so happy.

Andy is such a trooper, his latest task is 'project electrics' which seems to be consuming most of his thoughts, although if he electrocutes himself one more time he may not have any braincells left.



I am ICO travel arrangements and cleaning, so to keep myself busy I decided to burden myself with the important task of testing the strength of the roof rack... by sunbathing on it.

13 Countries, 6 months, 2 people, 1 Epic Journey

The European motorhome conversion adventure of an amateur photographer and a newly qualified journalist is almost in sight.

I have just turned 26 and last year after realising that settling down and working 9-5 for the rest of my life would drive me and my partner, Andy, crazy, he made a spur of the moment plan that I honestly did not believe would ever come true.

That is, until I got a call a week later from him, he said: “Guess what? We have a van.”

And that was it, we had a van, this was no longer a dream but the start of a journey that soon would be, with lots of hard work, the best thing we had ever done.

He went ahead and secretly bought a beautiful and full of character, LDV Convoy, which had been in a small accident and needed a bit of work, but after a few weeks at the local garage, Tron, was ready to come home.

This is when the conversion began.

I won’t lie, I’m a typical girl who has no idea whatsoever about electrics, solar power or insulation, so these were Andy’s departments.

I was head of cleaning, painting and décor, how predictable, but it works.

We bought the van back in June 2011 and since then it has been fitted with a roof rack, had a new coat of paint, insulation, a full electrical system, kitchen unit, an almost completed sofa/bed and a surprising amount of storage.

The original idea for the van was to create a stealth camper that would not look obviously like a motorhome and also be as self-sufficient as possible, so we ambitiously decided to use solar panels to source all our power.

In technical terms, we have a pair of 100W 12V Monocrystalline solar panels, feeding into a 230 amp hour, heavy duty leisure battery, which is regulated by a 30 amp charge controller to stop us blowing up.

Through the use of a 12V inverter, we can basically power any standard home electrical item with a plug, meaning that I will always have chilled wine and a hair dryer, what more could a girl need?

The techniques to complete all of this were mainly found on the internet and in motorhome conversion forums, where there is an abundance of enthusiasts, all showing off their masterpieces.

While Andy was busy doing the manual labour, occasionally electrocuting himself, I painted the dash board and floor, de rusted the wheels, made them shiny and tried my hand at carpentry.

So with our van, Tron, in the final few stages of its conversion into our new home, only missing a shower and the superficial needs, such as a carpet and general fettling, also known as girly finishes, we are now, if all goes to plan, 4 months from the start of our big adventure.