Filed under: van
The unthinkable has happened, someone has bought our van!!
Jose from the Democratic Republic of Congo has completed an agriculture course in Reading and is buying up machinery to work on his farm in central Africa, he required a Mercedes van and so is taking Nevil… Yes that’s right, someone has bought our van and is shipping it to the Congo, paintwork and all! Not satisfied with conquering Europe Nevil has set Africa in his sites, I’ve got an email address so watch this space…
Our characterful van aside, it brings our adventure to an ultimate close, a little saddening but looking back it couldn’t have been more exciting. Can’t wait till next time!
Will & Ben
Ok, well, we’ve been back a while – myself (Ben) since early December and Will since the middle of December. We parted ways in mid-November in Paris as Will wanted to head to Spain to do a voluntary project near Barcelona and I wanted to spend some time in Paris with my girlfriend studying French. Since then we’ve both had a fun time living apart for the first time since August with other people, but now after some time to rest and recuperate we’re both occasionally missing van life!
We (I) have been a bit lazy in finishing off this blog (it was supposed to be my job!), but I feel it’s a bit late now to describe the end of the trip in detail after our last post. After Berlin we basically meandered along the North coast of Germany to Amsterdam, then took in Belgium, Luxembourg and some Champagne before returning to Paris. A bit of time in one place with a focus (french for me, making stuff out of trash for Will) was really welcome as we both felt we had sucumbed to “travelitis” by the last week or so. There are only so many sites, beautiful places and interesting people you can take in in one go. Fact!
We have now had a Christmas to reflect and remember and still seem to be talking; it must have been good! In the New Year we hope to get together for a party (any excuse) and perhaps put up a slideshow (non compulsory viewing:) for anyone who’s interested. There, its on the blog, we’ve got to do it…
We now plan to sell Nevil the van and move on… So VAN FOR SALE!! A Mercedes 308d with excellent paint work is available to anyone who fancies a camper/oddjob van on the cheap – its ready to leave on that road trip right now! England, Scotland, France, the world! I reckon it would be much nicer to go in the summer, but we want to sell it now as we have no further use for it and it’s just taking up space on Will’s parents driveway (Mum pressure). We wouldn’t be selling if we didn’t think it would make it a lot further – it’s got many more miles on it yet! A few hundred quid would be nice for it, make us an offer!!
Use my website to get in touch if you’re interested, all the photos of the van can be found on this blog so I’m not going to say any more other than if you’re thinking of doing a roadtrip sometime in 2008 THIS IS THE VAN FOR YOU!! 
Filed under: van
Word has it that both Northern and Southern mum’s are concerned about our diet so I’ve written an eating schedule to reassure all those who might be worried, and enlighten those who are interested as to how many interesting ingredients you can add to curry.
Breakfast – usually starts with someone getting an arm out of their sleeping bag and putting the kettle on. After that the question is coffee or tea? This should be a given however Ben bought a coffee grinder in Mostar (Bosnia) and Will is struggling to find decent milk. After this we discuss what type of tea to have, then when everyone has woken up we have a fairly fast and nutritious meal of either muesli and yogurt and honey, or bread and jam and honey. When its cold and we can be arsed we have porridge. There is a compulsory Serbian apple before lunch is allowed.
Lunch – often bread, cheese and an apple followed by bread, jam and an apple. In the more eastern part of our trip we are becoming quite partial to stopping at truck stops where there is cheap and good grub if you can decipher the menu. Its usually meat.
Dinner – to quote Nick, our most recent guest, “this is the healthiest I’ve ever eaten.” Some regular favourites are:
- Risotto – established after Balthazar and Josie showed us the way in Switzerland, we stocked up with 5kg of aborio rice in Italy. You can add anything to risotto, the best yet was Cauliflower and Parsley with parmesan.
- Curry – mummysouth curry powder + Harissa from Bosnia + one or more of the following: Potato, marrow liberated from wildish romanian fields, any tinned ready meal from Carrefour, any root vegetable, tinned beans or lentils, cream, any type of sausage, peanuts, raisins etc.
- Pasta – the emergency is with pesto but this is less popular now we can’t find good cheese. Mostly tomato based sauces with seasonable vegetables, you can get 2kg of red peppers for 70p in serbia, or an aubergine for 10p in Romania. The flavouring varies from mixed herbs to balsamic and chilli.
- Casserole – well we’ve only done this once, in Croatia, but it was bloody good and lasted two meals! Still not quite sure what the meat was as we couldn’t read the lable, it was quite tender and had little fat and definitely wasn’t pork.
- Couscous – see pasta and add chilli or Harissa.
- Eating out – this is becoming better and cheaper and better the further we go! The menu is always fun so we usually request local recommendations. Buffets or where you can see what you are choosing are safer but less exciting.
Supper – the day is finished off with tea or wine or beer and occasionally some chocolate then we forget to fill the kettle and fall asleep. How civilised!
Filed under: van
with three days to go until departure I think the van is about as close to readiness as it will ever be – apart from all our stuff of course! We’ve both put quite a lot of work into it with a little (lotta) help from our friends and there has been a real transformation. From plylined dirty box to luxurious apartment in two weeks…
Thank you to Mr. A. Kharamed of Lockleaze garage, Bristol, who has seen us through the first stage of the journey… the MOT!!!
After a spot of welding on the front chassis member and a little attention to the brakes and steering linkage we got our piece of green paper for the hefty sum of £308.64. Whilst I was checking what had been done I spotted a rather large crack on one of the front spring hangers, another thing to be added to our list of “jobs.” Obviously this is passable for an MOT! Lucky I caught it here and prevented a potential nose dive into a ferry terminal.
The next step is to give it a good service and get a few spare parts, then start offering our “man-with-van” services in time for house moving season. First deadline is seats in the back for Glastonbury…
