As well as an online writer, I'm a keen amateur folk musician.I had my first starter / really cheap camper van last year.
It was great using it to go to lots of folk music festivals around the South of England.
During the week, I would go off and write in the laybys of Exmoor with the birds singing all around and wonderful views.
It was / is a 1993 hightop transit van conversion with a 2.5 litre diesel engine with a little gas kitchen and a little room with a portapotti.
Unfortunately, it needs double de clutching to get into second gear after a few miles (well I did say it was cheap) - but maybe the garage could fix that with spending a bit of money.
Making the bed up, which is amidships, is a bit of a pain and takes most of the van because it is a short wheel base vehicle.
I have to say that it hasn't ever let me down except for once when the alternator went mad and cooked the starter battery.
However, it only does 25 miles to the gallon or there abouts and with the cost of fuel now, I've decided to consider passing it on and perhaps looking for something more fuel economic.
So it has been with a dealer for touching up and sale for the last three weeks.
Problem is that I would like to go for a big vehicle with a fixed bed but that's expensive to use as a primary vehicle.
Going for a smaller vehicle means even less room that I currently have which isn't really enough.
To be honest, I don't know whether to stick with what I've got, cash in a load of savings and get something posh and luxurious or get a little sports car and do bed and breakfast which would also mean I could venture abroad more easily.
Today, I drove my wife's posh almost new car and learned how the other half live and it made my old vehicle seem very, well, old.
I wonder if there are any other camper van owners who are also writers or musicians and have used it to change their lives. Or even people who like the idea and would like to discuss the pros and cons.
If so, I would love to hear from you.
For more general discussion about options for escaping to a better life check out my earlier post and the interesting comments here:
Discussion about escaping to a better life
Update - I've got my camper van back and am going to stick with it for a while. If I can run home made bio diesel in it, my costs would really come down. Time to find out more.
Bye for now
Rob
6 comments:
Hi again Rob, I'm not sure I can offer much advise about the camper except perhaps to say, If you buy a bigger newer camper chances are fuel consumption will come down not up.It sounds to me like you enjoy your time pottering around the country, writing,dancing, making and writing music so what the hell enjoy, we do.
Thanks for your thoughts bikerbob.
I reckon you are right about the fuel consumption.
At this time in my life, I wonder sometimes why I should be trying to hang onto what little I have and not just spending it :-)
Perhaps a motorbike would be cheaper and then I could become Biker-Rob ... However, that would probably be far too scary for me.
I love the sense of freedom this kind of vehicle offers. I'm sure you can make up for your carbon emissions some other way, that you will do your utmost to travel as environmentally friendly as possible.
Ellee, happily, my solution to keeping carbon emissions down is not to travel at all.
I think it has been twenty years or so since I have flown on an aeroplane.
I work from home and use my van to travel three miles down the road for my lunchtime constitutional.
We buy local produce to eat where we can and recycle obsessively.
Less than once a week I travel significant distances to attend pub folk music playing sessions and on average once a month I attend a folk festival and stay over to minimise travel.
I would like to put reused vegetable oil in my van and use bio-fuel but the fuel pump is the wrong sort.
Buying a van that is more recent than 1993 would in itself incur carbon costs.
I love the idea of living like this...but it will all have to wait until the children leave home!
I'm not too keen of folk music, actually - will that matter do you think?
Thanks for stopping by chez moi and for your comments...I suppose a barge on the canal would be a sort of watery version of a camper van, wouldn't it?
Gigi, I suspect the limitations of living in a camper van are very similar to those living in a barge.
The width of the barge is about 6', I believe, which is approximately the same as a camper van.
One of the first things you discover when you get a camper van is that everywhere is owned by somebody and they don't usually want you parking there over night. I suspect the same is true for barges.
As for folk music, it's all about people participating in making music together.
Music is just music until you have made it with somebody else ... Then it becomes communication on a very deep and satisfying level.
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