Goodbye couch.
You’ve served us well even though you are probably not Danish, vintage or leather the way the eBay ad described you. Even describing you as ‘brown’ was probably a stretch given the faded bits. Continue reading Self Storage Hunters
Yearly Archives: 2016
Two families and a dog – our new tenants
We’ve managed to rent out our house and the whole process has proved surprisingly painless. Continue reading Two families and a dog – our new tenants
Into The Wild (camp shower)
Wild camping will be challenging in our T25 because while our van has many wonderful qualities, an en-suite bathroom is not one of them. Drawing a discreet veil over toilet arrangements, here’s how we propose to keep clean when we are out in the wilderness or staying on a campsite where the facilities are a tad basic. It’s a shower kit we’ve just bought from www.campervanculture.com for about £150. Continue reading Into The Wild (camp shower)
Journey’s End – Planning it Already?
So we booked the start of our journey some time ago, a Brittany Ferries trip from Portsmouth to Bilbao departing in late September. (Less than 90 days to go and counting). And now we have also booked our ferry for the end of the trip (well almost) to take us from Denmark to Iceland and back.
If you’ve seen Trapped, the recent Scandi-noir thriller set in Iceland (very good), then you’ll already be familiar with the MS Norrona as it plays a key role in the drama. It is the only ferry to Iceland and it looks very large and the Icelandic port looks very small. Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (he is very large too) will soon be a household name- well perhaps not.
Randi, our Smyril Line Travel Consultant has been very helpful with suggesting options and pricing so we’ve opted to go for the stop over in the Faroes and the luxury of a cabin with a window. We now have a confirmed booking to depart in August 2017 from Hirtshals at the top of the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark, stopping at Toshavn and spending a week in the Faroes and then on to Seydisfjodur in Iceland for two weeks. Then it’s a direct sail back to Denmark giving us three nights aboard. Plenty of time to reflect on the year of travel that will be almost over by then.
At about 2500 euros plus meals (and perhaps the occasional beverage) this is by far the most expensive part of our trip but we reckon well worth it and the trip will be a great way to end our year. After all, how many people do you know who have campervanned in the Faroes?
Posted by Stuart
CSI Van-style
The beautifying of the van continues….this week’s task was to remove the really skanky carpet in the footwells and around the gear stick and replace it with black rubber. Here’s how:
Step 1
Pull up the carpet from around the gear stick. Stop a moment to admire how smart the footwells look now they’ve been covered. Don’t angst too much over the hole you accidentally poked in the rubber bit around the gear stick with the scissors. Not sure what that does anyway.
Step 2
Lay the carpet over the rubber and draw a rough template in chalk CSI-style. Cut out and glue down.
A triumph. (Vauxhall actually)
The capsule wardrobe challenge is looming
I’ve never quite managed the art of the ‘capsule’ holiday wardrobe – you know the sort of packing advice you get in women’s mags where you are assured that with a few carefully co-ordinated pieces you can glide from beach to poolside cocktail party with one artful twist of a sarong and an accent colour cardi. But the big trip is getting closer and the challenge involved in packing enough clothes for a year on the road with no space is clear. So how do I get this….
..into this?
With all the other stuff we’ve got to carry inside the van, it is looking like my clothes storage is going to consist of one and possibly half of another of these plastic boxes. That ain’t much. Apparently the secret is to squash everything into these Tardis-like Eagle Creek zip up holders. We’ll see.
Irish Road Art
Driving on the N52 to Tullamore in Offaly, we pass these four 25 feet tall figures watching from the hills overlooking the motorway.
They are part of the Irish Per Cent for Art scheme which sees 1% of the cost of every new road in Ireland set aside to fund a piece of art. These figures are by sculptor Maurice Harron and depict the theme Saints and Scholars. One carries a chalice, the others a book, bishop’s staff and flock of birds or souls. Continue reading Irish Road Art
The last mackerel in Connemara?
Over the years, spinning for mackerel from the shore has provided me with either famine or feast. Somehow, fishing near Clifden Eco beach on a rising tide, I managed to catch but a single lonely fish.
Continue reading The last mackerel in Connemara?
Hooley in the House – music or the big match
I like a bit of country music. Nothing too tragic or hardcore – say some Patsy, Dolly or the Man in Black (Johnny not Joaquim). Stuart? Not so much – unless maybe it had a ska beat.
So that’s why at the Hooley in the House music festival in Westport, he was here …behind the main stage, watching Mayo play Dublin in Gaelic football on a big screen.
Continue reading Hooley in the House – music or the big match