It all started sometime in autumn 2015, when we decided to step off the edge, in to the abyss, give up all traditional security, the stability of a fixed address and jobs and begin plans to go travelling. I say it all started then but as with all things in life, it was actually more of a constantly evolving process, slowly forming through years of conversations, experiences, dreams, aspiration and inspiration. At first we weren’t sure if we wanted to go backpacking, hitchhiking and couch surfing our way around Europe, or if we wanted to live out of a camper van. Then the question was for how long do we want to go travelling? And where exactly? And what will happen when we come back? Some said we were being foolish. Apparently we weren’t thinking about our future and when we come back it will be like starting all over again. There were many questions to be answered. Too many in fact and ultimately we decided to not answer them. We don’t know exactly where we want to travel or for how long but then why do we have to know that in advance? And as for not thinking about the future….well that’s kind of the point. We want to live in the now. It is after all, all that we really have, all that we can really count on. We are brought up to always be planning for the future and therefore to believe that the good times are always still to come. It would seem in our society at least, we’ve come to accept that we can’t really live how we may like to right now but one day we will be able to retire and if we’re lucky, we’ll get a few years of freedom. We all know though that the future is not guaranteed. Illness, an accident, financial crisis or any other disaster could be just around the corner bringing our little lives to a sudden and cold end, or at least throwing them in to chaos with no compassion or sympathy for our plans. We all are fully aware that our death is guaranteed, and in the grand scale of the history of the universe, imminent. Yet nevertheless, we seem in denial of our mortality, until, some would say, it is too late. Indeed one could say the grim reaper is always waiting for us patiently in front of the door, it’s simply a matter of when he will knock. This second is the only thing we have, and as soon as you’ve begun to contemplate it, it has already passed. With this fact firmly positioned in the front of our minds, we set out in the final months of 2015, the days falling shorter, the air growing colder, to live in the here and now, our travels being the first dramatic realisation of this.

We were always excited by the idea of converting a van in to a camper from scratch, despite neither of us having any previous experience as builders, mechanics, carpenters etc but the more we looked in to it the more we began to move away from this idea, mainly due to the belief that it would be easier and make more sense to buy something already finished. This however, quickly turned out be completely wrong. We spent months researching and looking for the right vehicle but with a small budget we had no real chance and everything we test drove was a big disappointment. They were either complete rust buckets, or the ‘living area’ was dated and partly broken…sometimes the vehicles we looked at even offered both miserable qualities. So on a cold day in January, after having travelled 7 hours across Germany just to find out the first van we wanted to test drive was already sold and the second wasn’t at all as nice as shown in the pictures, feeling deflated and tired, we decided maybe we were wrong in the beginning…surely this wasn’t the easier option. Maybe we could find a big, empty van and convert it ourselves. It would certainly mean more time and a whole lot more work would need to be invested but at least it would be how we want it. At least we would know everything is in good condition and we would even get the chance to learn something about carpentry and using tools. The search for a van was still not easy and there were plenty of days spent frustratedly test driving vehicles, going through the motions, knowing that it wasn’t for us. At one point we even bought a vehicle, scared that it might be the best we can get, just to end up bringing it back the very next day after a mechanic told us the chassis was in places so corroded, it was literally crumbling away and falling apart. To cut a long and stressful story just a little bit shorter though, I will jump to the part where, in February 2016 in a small village about an hour from Berlin, we bought a 2003 Citroen Jumper. It was far from perfect but we felt the price was fair and it looked nice inside and out. Not too worn out like most of the vehicles we’d seen. And there we have it, finally we were the happy owners of our own long-wheel-base lump of steel on wheels, our future home. We took a days break to completely relax and switch off from everything van related and then when the alarm clock rang the next morning, with a stretch, a yawn, a cup of coffee and an overarching sense of ‘what have we got ourselves in to’, we set on the journey to conversion. And this is where the fun really starts…

As you can see from the pictures above...it's quite a challenge we set for ourselves turning this van in to a cosy living space. Challenge accepted!

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