In Other News . . .

Bessie’s Bit

Living in the van has been fun and a real grounding experience. Bessie is pretty comfy but bottom line is two people sharing a 10 x 6 space for a long time. Usually no problem when the sun is shining as we are off out and about or sat outside soaking up rays so her primary purpose is as a kitchen and dormitory. Gets a little small if the weather stays bad for more than a couple of days but we have only had two sessions like that and got through on books and scrabble!

We gave the over-cab bed a try a couple of times and it’s ok, but headroom is limited and it gets a tad warm up there in hot weather. The main bed takes less than 5 minutes to put up or down and is over 6 feet square so we generally go with that option – very comfy.

The little three-ring hob has been great and haven’t really missed having an oven – we did consider getting a slow-cooker but decided not to bother – we’ve prepped and cooked a range of curries, pasta dishes, veggie-burgers, fajitas and loads of other dishes, plus of course we’ve had lots of the compulsory bread and cheese and local fruit and salad. As always in these countries, there is much less ubiquitous consistency of sizes and shapes but MUCH more flavour! We’re pretty much confirmed veggies now – finding so much flavour can’t see the point of going back to meat. The fridge (which had a major overhaul and refit before we left) has been great and has kept stuff cool and fresh on gas and 12 volt for almost the entire trip – we have only hooked up to mains once in ten weeks.

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The bathroom works well – small but perfectly formed – given the fragility of that bit of the van and the repairs we have had to make we’ve opted not to use the shower and go for stand up, all-over washes instead and find showers elsewhere when we can – not a problem in the heat but we’d probably revert to the shower if it got cold!

The solar panel and deep cycle batteries have never run low on juice one despite daily use for lights, water pump and phone and tablet/laptop charging. Same goes for the refillable gas system – we estimate one gas bottle does about three weeks when we don’t need to use the heater. Gas is less available in Spain and Portugal than in France but still enough around so that we have had no problems filling up, but prices of both gas and diesel vary enormously.

Driving is great fun now we’re used to it – the high position gives us great views, the performance means you have no choice but to take it all nice and steady, the left-hand drive makes the road position natural and, almost without exception, drivers in all three countries are much more courteous, patient and less rushed than in Blighty. Probably partly because there’s so much less traffic anyway, but we have seen virtually no assertive driving, much less the aggressive sort – can’t recall the last time I could have said that after a trip in the UK.

As we’ve said in previous posts, Bessie has been a perfect lady throughout the trip so far. She may be slow on hills, but she gets there in the end (well, ok … there was that one time but who’s counting); she may corner like a pregnant duck but…umm … pregnant ducks are cool too; she may be quaint to look at these days, but she’s bloody comfortable to live in and great fun to drive… well…. Most of the time 🙂

Some TLC has been required though and so far we have:

Installed an inverter – fantastic piece of kit – highly recommended

Repaired two blackout blinds

Repaired the upholstery when buttons keep coming adrift

Major repairs to the bathroom when we thought we were going to leave the rear wall in the road!

Repaired a spotlight which Sam head-butted (I may never know why she did, but she did – scary when angry that Sam)

Repaired various cupboard and window latches – we think the plastic has got brittle from age and to much sun (a bit like me really)

Made holders for some stuff to stop it rattling about

Utilised a bespoke trippo reset device (bent paper clip) cos the button is snapped off

Invented a new way to check how full the loo tank is cos the magnetic level gauge broke (open the valve and have a butchers – not subtle but it does work)

Made a new shower bracket out of a pipe clip

Kept her topped up with engine oil

And sorted various other accessories and running repairs courtesy of Heath Robinson, Bob Botch-Job and Jerry Built

Conclusions:

Superglue rules (hammer is a close second)

Corners are best done in straight lines (erm…what?)

Mountains are certainly beautiful, but also definitely steep, at which times …

The value of second gear can not be overrated

(oh and brakes – brakes are good too)

Sites with hot showers are sublime

Bessie is definitely not the swishest van on the road, and

We wouldn’t swap her for anything else we’ve seen

And also ….

In the way of all people when they have something new, we have spotted a few Bessie look-alikes, although almost all of them with a side kitchen rather than a rear one like ours (which is, of course, best). We’ve also seen just about every size, shape and age of van you can imagine. We won’t bother you with lots of pictures of those, but a few that really struck us to finish off this post (just shout if you want to know a bit more about these):