The Unusual World of Van Living

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Van life in Greece leonidio was just stunning. Sleeping to the sounds of the waves crashing by the beach at night

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Found some beautiful spots in Slovenia and Croatia for parking. People warned us it’s illegal to park but we had no problem as we never parked in really obvious places next to the road or next to people’s houses.

We used the park4night app and also just parked near the crags we were climbing at.

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Camping at Lac de Clairtemps down in Les Bossons in Chamonix. A pretty little fishing lake that’s far enough from the road that it is peaceful

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Parking up in the forest in Chamonix and making the most of my solar shower

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A quiet spot in the forest of Fontainebleau. A great place for bouldering and remote working. St Jerome

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Another modification to the van. Although it doesn’t look pretty it’s dam useful. Its a handle so that the back door can be opened from within the vehicle. It’s hard to access the lever as the bed has been built so high. This new modification means a higher standard of safety in case of a fire.

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A beautiful campsite with a lake side view this Autumn in North Wales at Gwynant

Ideal location for people hiking up the Watkins Path to Snowdon

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Parking the van in Pembroke North after climbing last week gave us beautiful view for dinner and some shooting stars for bedtime

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Van is now officially a motor caravan on DVLA

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Bike rack fitted.

Sausage dog covers on.

New clothes cabinet next to the bed.

Shelf above the kitchen unit.

Side panel on sliding door painted.

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Some new van developments. Flush handles on my drawers in my kitchen unit. A fridge connected to replace the bin light. A pizza oven. Moved the bin into where the gas goes under the kitchen unit. Added a new water container in the back as extra water supply.

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Clearing the van of snow in January is becoming part of a daily routine

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Clearing the snow off the solar panel in Chamonix

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Day 37 of van conversion It’s snowing and the van is now in Chamonix! Got the heater connected but can’t test it as don’t have any gas yet in the gas tank. Waiting on a connector so we can fill up in France as only have the UK refiller cap. Cut a hole in the floor for the waste from the sink to run out of.

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Day 36 of van conversion And it’s time to go home to France. Although it’s not finished I thought I would take some nice pictures of how it looks in it’s current state. We won’t be working on the van for many more full days but will do bits and bobs where we can throughout the season and then do a couple more weeks on it in April.

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Day 35 of van conversion Put some elastic bands around the mirror cabinet so it doesn’t rattle as much when I drive. Got the slider unit in with a beautiful picture of Chamonix on it. Credit to Josh Willet and his beautiful photography. It took a bit of tweaking to make it work as I had to put a couple of small wooden blocks beneath it so the handle fitted above the kitchen unit nicely. Put some autocarpet behind the kitchen unit to protect the canvas photo sliding up as well. Starting cutting the cladding to fit with the thermostat and the solar remote controller unit. Will fix that on tomorrow and hook it up with the rest of the electrics

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Day 34 of van conversion Got the blue material side panels in the van. The van is really starting to feel like a home now!