How it all began

Over the last twenty years or so, we've camped in a variety of places and with some different camping equipment…

• Our first ever camping trip together, was in an old fishing bivvy. We were over confident and under-prepared!  It was the Lake District in April. The mummy-style sleeping bags didn't allow us to wriggle to get our feet warm, instead making us feel like we were trapped… We woke with ice inside the tent as well as outside BUT the views were stunning. We walked and explored and fell in love with the experience. The next two nights, we wrapped up warm. It's easier to take off clothing (and store it in the sleeping bag or under your pillow), than trying to find it when you are so cold. 

• Undeterred, we upgraded to a 4 man tent - an Outwell Minnesota 4, with all the extras…groundsheet, carpet and extension. We researched equipment and bought what we could afford, and got more equipment as we found it, birthdays and Christmas presents were sorted for a while!  We took that tent with us on a lot of trips, mainly back to the Lake District, the Peak District, Scotland and the Inner and Outer Hebrides.

• Next, in preparation for our Coast to Coast walk across England, we bought a lightweight 3 man Vango Banshee tent.  We also took it with us on other trips, when we wanted a quick pitch up. The 3 man option gave us a little extra room (without a lot of excess weight) for our rucksacks and the dog!

• In 2012, we upgraded to a campervan… we bought a black VW Transporter T5 and had it converted by Bilbo's to their Celex model. We had been admiring campervans whilst pitched up on campsites and our last trip in the Outwell Minnesota, in Scotland had resulted in some damage, due to the high winds which had suddenly arrived, whilst we were out. We explored our options and with a change in employer - offering a car allowance rather than a company car and some inheritance, we realised our dream… and our travels went further afield. We went to Slovenia, via Austria and Germany, had numerous trips to France, returned to Scotland and the Lake District explored Cornwall, Devon and the South-West and completed the Wild Atlantic Way, along the Irish West Coast.

• Our next dream was for something bigger - a motorhome… We had begun to think about retirement (Ric) and a career break for me and whether we could go travelling…the stars aligned when, in return for blogging about their motorhome and life on the road, we2019, we were loaned an Etrusco T7400 QBC motorhome, by the lovely people at Erwin Hymer Group UK.  We travelled across a lot of Europe - up to Nordkapp, in Norway through Scandinavia and the Baltics down to Croatia, returning to England for an early Christmas before heading to Spain, just before COVID closed Europe.

We subsequently bought it in 2020… and our adventures continued… As restrictions were lifted, we set off again, across England, Wales and Scotland, before heading back to Europe and adding more countries to our list!

• In 2025, we bought another campervan, another Bilbo's Celex VW T6 Transporter AND we part exchanged the Etrusco Motorhome for a Swift Caravan.So far, we've explored France and Monaco in the campervan and taken the caravan to some more local sites. 

We've got more plans for 2026 and new places to discover…