Someone asked me the other day what got us into motorhoming, and how we came about buying our first van. This led me into the story of how when Keefy first saw my Dad and Jenny’s old Hymer, having not been in a motorhome before, he was instantly smitten. I can still remember the journey from Newark back to Norfolk- K drove, I was under instruction to “have a look and see what £6000 could buy us”. By the time we were back (2.5hrs later) we’d set up a viewing with a Bill Bailey lookalike near Norwich to view Daisy first thing the next morning. By lunchtime I was calling Dad to say “we’ve just bought a motorhome!”. By the Friday we had picked it up, drove it straight to Newark for a “Dad’s Onceover” and then proceeded up the A1 towards Scotland. We had ten days and boy, were we going to give her a spin. We got as far north as Clachtoll, north of Ullapool, and took in Loch Lomond, Arasaig, Skye, Ullapool, Loch Ness, and Edinburgh, not to mention Eskdale and Wasdale in the Lake District too. We devoured a tank of petrol (yes, petrol) a day and covering nearly 2000 miles! By the time we got back to Newark ten days later, for a family wedding, we were smitten and we’ve never looked back.
We may be on our second van now- unfortunately a run in with a height barrier in Rouen resulted in some hefty leakages in Daisy’s roof, and to be honest there are only SO many tanks of petrol one can afford- but for us there is no looking back from the wonderful world of motorhome travel.
So tell me, cos I’m nosey- what made you buy your 1st?
Hi Lydia, after years of owning a static van in France we sold up and decided to give motorhoming a go – so glad we did and we love it! Having tirelessly researched the styles and layouts we found our dream machine – a 2000 model year Pilote Galaxy 240 A class. We love the A class layout which affords much more space in a shorter van and the driving area becomes part of the living area in a moment. The view from up front when driving is panoramic. It’s a 2.8 diesel, so pretty powerful but not too bad on the juice.
My job affords me a sabbatical next year so we’re planning a 2-3 month trip in Italy and France. Can’t wait although the planning is almost as exciting as the trip itself!
Thanks for sharing your trips – most helpful!
Thanks for your comment! I can see us upgrading to an A class at some point as although we adore our rear lounge, Keith is 6 foot 4 and does find the driving position in our coach built restrictive on the view! My Dad has an a Class rapido and we often comment on the view up front.
Our ideal van would be a newer version of the Hymer A class with rear lounge, but as far as I’m aware they discontinued the rear lounge on the A class! Will keep looking though 🙂
Very jealous about your sabbatical- I’d love to do an extended tour around Europe but being self employed we are nervous about taking a year out as we would probably have to rebuild our clients up on our return, something which has taken us over 4 years to build up- it’s too scary to drop it! Maybe one day though …. Happy and safe travels