#van couple

Not every day on the road can be an adventure. We need rest days, van repair days, life admin days.⁣

Days where we just chill, where we sleep in late and sip coffee gazing out of the back doors. Days where we clean the van from top to bottom or catch up on our work. Rainy days spent cosied up under blankets trying to catch the various leaks in our roof.⁣

Contrary to our little highlight reel on here it’s not all epic roadtrips and new discoveries; for every day of exploring there’s a down day closely following behind (or two, or three...). Constant motion is exhausting; travel sometimes overstimulating. We need time to process and digest just as much as we crave new experiences and changing scenery.⁣

When we converted our van, one part we were always disappointed in was the back doors. We’d tried to cover them up with curtains and tapestries, hide them from view, but we were at a loss for how to make them look like a part of our van. They were just this big ugly expanse of metal and paint that leaked in cold air and made us shiver at night.⁣

Finally, last summer, we decided to do something about it. We drew up a plan, a vision for how we wanted them to look, then spent months trying to bring that vision to life. We have almost no carpentry skills, very basic DIY knowledge, and tended to cover up any unsightly areas in our van rather than address them. This was going to be a big challenge.⁣

But bit by bit we worked it out, pieced things together like one great puzzle, and gradually the final unfinished piece of our van fell into place. First the door cards, insulated and made of out plywood, then the cladding, cut into shape and fitted together like dozens of misshapen puzzle pieces. We charred the wood, added in windows made of Perspex, gave them a lick of blue paint and some adorable curtains to match our van, and finally we could stand back and admire our work.⁣

Our van felt warm and homely, but most importantly it felt finished. After four years of living in it, making constant changes and improvements, finally we were happy to call our tiny home on wheels complete.⁣

Over the years we’ve travelled our humble van’s back doors have framed a thousand views. They’ve shown us mountains, they’ve shown us shores; they’ve housed sunsets and sunrises, put on lightning shows and been blanketed in snow.⁣

Hundreds of views, bordered by those strips of metal and wood, have passed beyond these doors like projector slides, temporary homes, our van the only constant as we go.⁣

The view is our reward at the end of the day’s adventure; the more effort, the greater the prize. Adrift from civilisation, at the end of some nowhere dirt track, is where we can find the peace and solitude that we crave.⁣⠀

We can become so overwhelmed by the vastness and beauty of what we’re seeing sometimes that our eyes become blind to it, but sitting from the comfort of our bed gazing out across the horizon has a way of grounding us and reminding us of where we are and how far we’ve come.⁣

We knew nothing about converting a van when we started, not a single thing.⁣

There was no guide, no manual for what we wanted to do; just an idea between us of travelling around the world in a camper van.⁣⠀

We couldn’t afford one outright, certainly not the dreamy classic VW camper everyone imagines themselves driving off into the sunset in, so we built our own.⁣

We bought a cheap van halfway up the country and drove it home through the night; we didn’t care that it was rusty and covered in tie-dye spray paint, we were just excited to see this tin can sitting in the driveway and the whispers of freedom she promised.⁣

It was a long, arduous 10 months converting it over the winter, with many trials and errors and the bad weather against us. We faced many setbacks; leaks, holes in the metal floor, a saggy roof, but we had so much still to learn back then.⁣

Summer came around and with it our first break for freedom; we thought it would last forever. But all too soon it was over, we returned home to save some more pennies and set about rebuilding our van with newfound confidence. This happened once more before we ended up with the van we have today and we do love it.⁣⠀

It’s got character and charm, a few dents and scrapes but a lot of stories to tell. But most of all it’s the product of skills learned and perseverance, and the tenacity to follow our dreams even in the face of challenges.⁣

If you want to learn more about how we built our van then pop over to our YouTube channel to watch our van tour 🙌

We felt truly privileged to be here, soaking in our second hot spring in just as many days. There were very few in North Macedonia, but we’d managed to sniff them out, and it wasn’t hard when they smelled as pungent as this one.⁣

Along with the sulphurous fumes a noxious gas was spurting from the pipeline that fed the pool; enough to make you light-headed. The water erupted with a deep gurgling sound as the earth spewed hot water at just the perfect temperature for bathing.⁣

We’d camped on the river nearby, watching boys herd their cows across the water and a local man who came to dig up soil and load it into his vintage tractor as the sun went down. We were somewhere in the rural lands of North Macedonia, a landscape interspersed with hills and agricultural land untouched by the mountains that imposed over the rest of the country. We’d taken a series of confusing dirt tracks and arrived at this hidden spot just before sunset, and as the dawn broke through the clouds we were ready and eager for an early morning soak.⁣

Our relaxation was short-lived however; as we left the warmth of the hot springs, not an hour down the road our van came to a sudden stop in a cloud of smoke.⁣

It took us three days, five mechanics and many headaches to figure out what was wrong. It wasn’t a question of our van’s reliability, despite being 18 years old and having done over 150,000 miles; no, what it came down to was 10 litres of dodgy fuel, laced with water from a dodgy garage.⁣

Thankfully we had the help of some extremely kind Macedonian men, who felt so bad that this had happened in their country they didn’t even want paying for the work, not even after one of them siphoned the contaminated fuel out of our tank with his mouth.⁣

It was our last night here in Bucegi National Park. We’d left the crowded valley below for the heights of the Bucegi mountains, up a winding series of rough but incredible roads to arrive at a golden grass-covered plateau.⁣

It seemed impossible that we could not get the chance to see a bear in this area so famous for them, where they were so commonplace that people were forced to lock their bins in cages and build fences around the forest for protection.⁣

It seemed like the ideal place to spot a bear, although admittedly we knew very little about the habits of bears being from Cornwall where the most dangerous thing you’d encounter was a badger.⁣

We chose a quiet corner of the forest, tucked between a winding stream and some marshy grass that we nearly got our van stuck in, nearby to some holes in the cliff that looked suspiciously like bear caves.⁣

We were all set up for a stake out, and we were just serving up dinner when someone started honking their horn at us from the road. We knew as soon as we saw the blue flashing lights that we were in trouble with the police, as although Romanians tended to flout the rules when it came to just about anything this was in fact a No Camping area. Thankfully they didn’t fine us, but they did tell us we had to move up to the fenced-in camping area so we would be safe from the bears.

Obviously, this was the exact opposite of what we wanted, and so after dinner we grabbed our torch and set off on a nighttime safari in a last ditch attempt to see a bear. Our nerves were strung high as we wove through the forest of a gravelly dirt track, imagining every time we rounded a corner that we would see a huge bundle of fur blocking the road. We were both excited and terrified, but gradually our terror was replaced by frustration and a little disappointment as we made it back to the main road with no sightings.⁣

Needless to say we panicked, being the only people around in this whole area and knowing that our slow old van would never be able to outrun the police, and sure enough they’d caught us up in a matter of minutes. We pulled over, expecting a lecture on the danger of bears and the illegality of wild camping, but to our surprise they drove right past us and sped away into the distance.⁣

When we arrived in Albania on an unseasonably warm January day our hearts were fraught with a mixture of emotions: comfort, familiarity, but also a degree of hesitation. We had fond memories of our time in this country, but were they simply painted bright by nostalgia, and would our second visit live up to expectation?⁣

Our answers to these questions came on just our second day here.⁣

We’d spent the day basking in sunshine, washing our van and dipping our bodies into the icy waters of Lake Prespa, and were just beginning to enjoy one of those spectacular Albanian sunsets which painted the mountains the particular shade of purple that was so ingrained into our memories. We went to fire up the engine but our van refused to start; the batteries were too flat, the air too cold. The engine got slower and slower until it had no juice left to give. We were now faced with the prospect of a night here with no power, no heating and no light; we’d seen approximately three cars all day and the light outside was rapidly fading.

Yet somehow, whether by miracle or fate or pure coincidence, a car approached just two minutes later. We waved them down, explained as best we could what had happened, and the man along with all six members of his family came over to help us. We had no jump leads but this didn’t deter him, and in the most Balkan display of ingenuity and problem solving he had our van running in no time by swapping our battery with the one from his car, starting the engine then swapping them back around while it was still running. He even fixed the loose positive terminal with a screw.⁣

Feeling like we’d been a burden we offered him a shot of rakia as a thank you and his face lit up; they then immediately invited us to join them for their son’s birthday party at a nearby restaurant. Instead of spending a cold, dark night in our van we spent the evening drinking, sampling local cuisine, having conversations via Google Translate, eating homemade baklava and birthday cake and toasting each member of the table with a hearty, “𝘎ë𝘻𝘢𝘶𝘳!”⁣

Want to take a peek inside this gorgeous van conversion? Well now you can, as we’ve just released a tour of @nellys_adventures’ van over on our Youtube channel!

Gelly and Lydia have been travelling all over Europe in their LDV Maxus van, which they have lovingly kitted out inside with a whole range of reclaimed materials.

Their kitchen is made of an old garden shed, their storage cupboards are made of upcycled apple crates, and their recently installed Glastonbury woodburner sits on an old ship’s step repurposed into the most beautiful wood storage box.

Their van is a huge inspiration, and we’ve been getting some ideas for our new build too. Head on over to our Youtube channel now to check it out! Link below