The Van

15th May 2019

After two full weeks of exploring London, it was finally the day we pick up our van.

Over the past few weeks, we had bought or been gifted things for our van. At first, we were pretty optimistic that we could catch public transport from Trev & Scott’s to pick up the van in Wraysbury (near the airport) but as we continued to pile our belongings onto Trev & Scott’s front porch it became apparent very quickly that there was no hope in hell we would manage! We had our massive suitcases, 2 foldable bikes, a camp stove, our carry on AND our backpacks to lug onto the tube! We stood back and laughed at the fact that we had been telling Trev “no no, we can do this!” for the past few days!! So we declared defeat and ordered probably the most expensive Uber we will ever order. I have to say, it was definitely the worth the £50.

We arrived at Spaceships HQ and took over the keys for what will be our new home for the next 5 1/2 months! We loaded the van with all our stuff and hit the ground running to get out of London and headed straight to Dover. We hadn’t bothered unpacking, that was the last thing on our list to do. Instead, we wanted to get a big food shop done.

Once we had a few miles under our belts, we took the time to go through the van and it became apparent that all we had been given were the bare essentials. This may have been ok if we were in the van for a few weeks but given that this is home for 5 1/2 months, we needed to have a bit more than the “bare essentials”. We spent a few extra pennies sorting out the van so it now feels like home!

We rolled into Dover at about 9 pm and had our first experience free camping. It really wasn’t anything flash, we were in a car park but after a manic day, we felt utterly exhausted and pretty overwhelmed so all we wanted to do was to climb into bed.

The next morning we still had that feeling of being totally overwhelmed with what we were about to embark on. We really had that “what the hell are we doing?” moment!! We decided we needed an extra day to find our feet in this new motor home lifestyle so we opted to spend the day in Dover to sort and organize the van.

We spent most of the morning finding a home for all of our belongings & learning the ins & outs of how the van works – the power, hot water, the gas (turns out, we are still learning!)

We had a beautiful afternoon at the white cliffs of Dover where we had that first glimmer of hope of “we can do this!”. Morgan put the coffee grinder to work and made us a lovely cup of coffee while I made lunch. We sat outside & enjoyed the sunshine and breathed a sigh of relief.

We returned to our car park for our second night of free camping. That evening, we booked the tickets for our crossing into Europe. No turning back now!

Safe to say, we definitely slept better that night.

About the Van

We rented our van through Spaceships UK. We were originally going to go for the smaller van option but because we were going to be traveling in this for nearly six months we decided to go for a larger campervan style. The additional size has given us some more comfort with all the features listed below.

Features of the Van: