Sweet M’Sheen’s First Journey
We did it, we took the leap. We bought our first VW van! Jasmine and I often daydream about traveling around the world in a van, not really calling anywhere our own, but having an awesome T4 to do it in. So we did.
I had an Audi A3 and Jaz drove a little Fiat 500. They both did the job, but every time we wanted to camp it just meant filling up the car with tents, water, and cooking stoves. Not ideal seeing as we have camped 4 or 5 times this year already. I had been tinkering with the idea of getting rid of my car as it was surplus to requirement with me being able to walk to work now, so I thought I'd test the water.
I sent a few messages to eBay sellers asking if they’d be willing to swap an Audi A3 for a T4 panel van (of similar value) and nobody was interested. So I left it for a bit. I then stumbled upon a little beauty down in Plymouth, a 250-mile drive from us. So I sent him a message, and he seemed interested. I got the ball rolling, and asked a friend who lived locally to the van if he could go and have a look for me. He went down and test drove it, kicked the tyres and gave me a call. “Mate, this is the most disgusting van I've ever seen, it has never been washed.” Which, to be honest, kind of excited me a little. He said it was mechanically sound, but gross. So I agreed to make the drive down to pick it up.
The trip down there was horrendous. What should have taken us 3 1/2 hours ended up taking us 6. The rain was on and off torrential and I wondered to myself the whole way, “are we doing the right thing?” Fate seemed to be trying its best to stop us from picking up this van! We plodded on and finally made it to our destination.
There she was, sat at the end of the cul-de-sac with a greenish-yellow tint. Upon closer inspection, we could see that this was just algae, which had accumulated over the last 18 years. Nonetheless, we finally had this opportunity.
We checked around the van with the guy who was selling her, and my old friend who checked it over wasn’t wrong, This van was disgusting. Very last nook and cranny imaginable had green on it. Moss growing out of the vents, a green-orange hue down the sides and black algae spots all over the roof. I felt so sorry for her! This van had been mistreated for many years, so we decided that it was our job to give it a new lease of life. We took her.
It was a short, but interesting drive from Plymouth to Paignton, which is where we had booked a camping spot for the night. En route to the camp site, we stopped to grab some diesel and a bit of grub to cook on the gas stove that we had brought with us. “The people in Devon are so friendly!” I thought when I walked into the service station. I had a little chat with the attendant about our adventure and how we were hungry. He recommended the Rabbit Tikka Masala in the fridge (which was freshly made by the owner) so I took one of those, some rice and a couple of spinach pakoras. I couldn't wait to eat them later!
It was dark by the time we got to the site, so we just parked the van up, inflated the double air mattress and cooked our food… All in the van! I was so happy that we had finally made this choice and I could see from her gleaming smile, that jasmine was too.
The first nights sleep wasn’t too bad at all, for the fact that we were in the back of a dirty panel van on an inflatable bed. I’d definitely slept rougher. Plus it probably helped that it just took as the entire day to drive 250 miles. Knackered wasn't the word. After the long drive, the torrential rain, The late arrival into camp, the terrible 80’s theme club act while we drank beer, and the cold(ish) night in a rickety van, what we woke up to absolutely made up for it all. We kicked open the back doors at 6am and saw this…
It’s almost as if we woke up in the Caribbean. We just lay, watching the sun rise over Torquay. It all seemed worth it. Our adventure had started anti was only going to get better from here.