Quirky Camping

I honestly believe that if you’re thinking about buying a campervan, or converting a van into a camper, you really ought to try one out first. It sounds obvious but over the past twelve months we’ve spoken to numerous salespeople who have all said exactly the same thing. How do you know you’ll like it if you’ve never done it?

With that in mind, John and I decided to hire a campervan from Quirky Campers.

I had a lot of fun poring over the vans for hire, identifying the ones I liked and showing John. We were already keen not to have one of those beds at the end that mean one person has to climb over the other to get out. That would have made for some very disturbed nights because we both get up a couple of times.

For the same reason we wanted something with a loo and, because we would only have four days, something relatively close to where we lived. There wouldn’t have been a great deal of point driving up to Scotland from Devon because we’d only have had to turn around practically straight away.

It also had to be a dog friendly campervan because we wanted the dogs to get a taste of vanlife too!

Eventually we settled on Atlas as he was very close to home and was a lovely looking van.

Atlas was the perfect choice. The end ‘lounge’ converted into a huge double bed that went longways down the van. There was a Porta Potti, hidden discreetly away and there was loads of water, a 95 litre tank’s worth, in fact! It was fully equipped with everything you could possibly need and everything stored away beautifully. Best of all there was a small log burner and, given the time of year we went away, it was wonderful. In the evening it kept the van toasty warm. In the morning, I’d just light it quickly and take the edge off the cold before the sun warmed us up.

We travelled up alllll the way to North Devon. Luckily for us it was early in the season so we weren’t thrown in at the deep end with heavy traffic on narrow lanes which to be honest we were both rather dreading. We stayed on a different site every night (no, we weren’t brave enough to try stealth camping) and as you’d imagine, the sites were of variable quality. Two were great, one was awful, and one was pretty okay. Ish.

John did all the driving. I really badly wanted to drive but for some reason was paralysed with fear. The most I did was reverse it! Fortunately he took to it like a duck to water—he has driven similar sized vehicles in the past, whereas the biggest thing I’ve ever driven is a Citroen Berlingo!

So what did we discover?

Things that didn’t suit us

1. The cab was separated from the main body of Atlas by the bulkhead that’s standard in these vehicles. Fin hated that. HATED! He would not go in the back without us.

   But, the cab only had the three seats. Fin is a big dog and of course we have Betsy. I tried every which way to do this. Fin on the floor, Betsy on the spare seat. Betsy on the floor, Fin on the spare seat. No matter which way I did it, it didn’t really work. He kept wanting to climb on my lap but, seriously!! Fin stressing made us stressed, and he’s far too big to be in the cab anyway, so we all got a bit too warm and fraught. It was much calmer once we’d pulled over for a coffee!

2. Atlas has slightly rounded walls. Sitting in the (otherwise perfectly comfortable lounge area) gave me severe backache.

3. John and I aren’t young. Climbing in and out of either the side or the rear doors was a step too far!

4. I needed more thigh gap between the table and my seating area. I am a larger lady and I need space.

5. We needed to think more carefully about how we stowed away our own things. Yep! Storage. It’s an important factor, and one I had taken for granted. There’s plenty of room in Atlas, it was just that I didn’t organise us very well.

Things that suited us

1. No TV. We really enjoyed listening to music, reading and playing games.

2. Cooking. As I’ve said, Atlas is kitted out with everything you could possibly need. I made some decent meals.

3. All that water. We quickly realised how valuable a commodity water is in a van. We filled up once in four days so we weren’t exactly conserving what we had. I can’t imagine making do with much less.

4. How comfortable we were (bar the backache in my case) and how well we slept.

5. The mood lighting. Silly perhaps, but I really loved it!

6. Adored the log burner.

7. Really loved the colour. We could see Atlas from miles away.

8. How much fresh air we got and how much walking we did. We were constantly ‘stretching our legs’! Haha!

Things that were eye opening

1. I worried about the lack of a shower. It wasn’t too bad. I managed to have one on the third site (the other sites’ facilities were still closed because of the pandemic) and strip washed the rest of the time. I never felt dirty but used more hand gel than I normally would, perhaps.

2. My real problem was my hair. I have thick curly hair. It spent four days tied up in a scruffy bun because I couldn’t deal with it given the facilities at hand.

3. How quickly we filled the little Porta Potti! But also that we as a couple were happy to accommodate the other’s need for privacy or not. That’s an interesting dilemma for any partnership, isn’t it?

4. How dry my skin became. Of course I hadn’t brought along any moisturiser. Lesson learned.

5. How quickly the van filled up with sand. Two dogs. Beach walks. Nuff said, really. I was forever sweeping.

Above all, it was a positive experience. I’m grateful to Atlas, and his owner, for the learning curve. It gave us a lot of food for thought when we returned home and you’ll see how our thinking developed.