Category: Self build camper van

Hot

On By MashleyIn Europe, france, Self build camper van, travelLeave a comment

That’s the average temperature in the van in Sanguinet, scorchio.

Thankfully we put aircon in which gets it down to about 20 in the evening which is comfortable enough to sleep in.

We stayed at camping Sandaya which is a five star campsite on the shore of the lake, a far cry from when we first stayed here about ten years ago in our old van bumblebee. We stayed at an aire which is about 500 meters from this campsite, took a picture for nostalgia.

Don’t remember it being this hot last time around to be honest.

Our pitch was pretty much in the blazing sun most of the day so I made a sun shade out of a back drop which is actually a bed sheet Lauren tie dyed for her mums 60th.

Looks a bit ghetto but it worked as intended.

The campsite itself is quite nice, reasonable facilities, great waterpark for the kids which is hectic at the best of times, there is access to a pool at the site next door which is far more chilled even when it’s busy.

Our days were spent searching for sun loungers at the waterpark, staying there till about fiveish and then heading to the lake at much protest from the kids only for them to have a whale of time trying to catch small fish.

We stayed for three nights and on the last night ventured out to try and eat at one of the lakeside restaurants or snack bars, they were all closed and the kids were hungry so they weren’t on their best behaviour.

The sunset however was beautiful.

There was also a full moon which I was advised by my mother in law is called the sturgeon moon, it was massive and came out for two nights.

On our last night we packed up most of what we’d got out so we could get an early getaway, mainly to avoid driving about in the heat of the following day, we left on the Monday morning.

We are now at Ideal camping which is near St George de didonne, marginally cooler weather.

This is a two star resort, it’s right by the beach and they pack them in here.

Despite that Lauren and I both prefer this to the last place, you very much feel like you’re in a forest and it’s much less hectic although the pool is pretty mad after lunch. There is a well stocked shop and the facilities are in better condition than the 5 star one aside from none of the toilets having toilet roll, if you’re a bloke it’s pretty obvious what you’re up to first thing in the morning!

The beach is lovely and quiet up until about 3pm, then it gets rammed, below is before it gets rammed.

The kids went rock pooling and found hermit crabs, I made a sandcastle when Arielle came back for a bit and got burnt despite putting my usual all day sunblock on, either it’s losing its potency or the sun was just bloody hot, combination of the both I reckon.

Tonight is our last night here, tomorrow we’re off to another 5 star campsite for two nights and then home, would rather stay here as it’s quite nice but going on to the other pace will knock a couple of hours drive off the final leg home.

Whilst we were here I did get to try out my new acquisition, the latest camping shower from decathlon.

My old one after 7 or 8 years faithful service died, the pump handle snapped. I think this is the third revision of this shower and the improvements include being able to see how much water is actually in it instead of guessing, a secure connection to the tank and it being black. I filled it with cold water and left it out in the sun for a few hours, came back and had a lovely hot shower to wash all the sand off my body before a late lunch, can highly recommend, game changer for camping!

A lovely crossing

On By MashleyIn Europe, france, Self build camper van, travelLeave a comment

The crossing from Newhaven to Dieppe is four hours and for young children it’s a great deal more interesting than sitting in a van in a tunnel or a short plane journey. They can run about and there are plenty of things to do, especially if you have an Uncle Ben with you who loves Lego and inventing dungeons and dragons games, the also do a good kids meal with a bag of colouring thrown in.

As our crossing was at 17.00 UK time we got a lovely sunset out a sea which was magical!

We also took a quick ferry crossing crew picture

Once we hit land we drove about an hour or so south to an aire that Ian and Lindi know, the aire itself was full but there are some car parking spaces you can pull up on as long as you head off at a reasonable time in the morning, ,it’s nice and quiet and there is a river just opposite.

After sone coffee and croissants from the local boulangerie it’s a further 6 hours drive to Argentat, Lauren scoped out a nice lake we could stay at in Chateaurox called Lac de Belle-Isle. There is a nice aire there along with a municipal camp site which also looked pretty decent.

After some car park dining Lauren, Lindi and the kids went to the lake for a splash about.

Ian and Ben had a kip, I fixed the van stereo and did the washing up, very exciting!

Soon again we were in the road, next stop Argentat!

We arrived at about 11 PM, the house hasn’t been opened for a few months so you never know what you might find, thankfully only one dead mouse and no damp!

I parked up the van and after the excitement of arriving and grabbing a well earned beer or three we got our heads down for the night in the van which is parked up just by the bat house, they’ve got more room than we have!

And we’re off!

On By MashleyIn Europe, france, road trip, Self build camper van, travelLeave a comment

For those of you that check in on this blog you’d be forgiven for thinking we’d disappeared of the face of the planet, sold our van and settled down to a life more static. The truth is we spent two years selling our house, didn’t go to France as a family and had a handful of mini adventures.

Thankfully that is all behind us and family holidays have resumed We are heading off from Newhaven en route to Dieppe, an overnight stay in an Aire somewhere south of Rouen and then on to the in-laws in Argentat.

We’ll be hanging around in France for three weeks slowly making our way back up the Atlantic coast and I’ll be recounting our adventures here for those that are interested.

Salut as they say and Bon Voyage!

The Fiamma Privacy Room From EBay

On By MashleyIn awning, Fiamma, Self build camper van, Volksweald2 Comments

There have been a number of occasions when we’ve been away that it has chucked it down with rain. I used to have a Coleman event shelter that we could all shelter and cook under however attached to the van is an awning, if I added a privacy room to it then I wouldn’t have to run from the van to the event shelter, I could just step out the door into my rain free space.

Fiamma privacy rooms are not cheap, usually upwards of £1000 new, looking on eBay there were a good few available all for F45 awnings, ours is an F65s.

The difference between the two is the F45 awnings mount directly to the side wall of a motorhome whereas the F65 awnings are designed to mount on a roof using brackets, in our van these sit in the roof rail so the awning casing sits back from the side of the van.

I figured this wouldn’t matter too much and was delighted when I picked up a whole privacy room for £150, bargain !

It came with the fast clip 2.0 system which costs more than £150.00 on it’s own.

You have to buy a couple of brackets which fix to your awning casing which were abut £20.00 so the fast clip rafters have something to attach to on the awning, I put those on and offered them up, they fitted, result.

That was in 2022 and I’d not had a chance to put the side and front panels on until the weekend of Volksweald when the good old British weather promised to belt down with rain.

We arrived and I hastily put together the privacy room in about 30 mins before the downpour.

As you can see it’s not the greatest fit!, part of this was due to my hasty assembly.

For starters the front panel should only require the addition of a door panel to fit the length of the awning, it doesn’t, you have put an extra infill panel in which then makes it 10cms too long.

Moving inside you can see why this is designed for an awning that mounts directly to the side of a motorhome and not an awning that is set back from the side of the van.

Moving to the sliding door side, if you have the supporting side bar installed vertically not only does it leave a gap as above, it also fouls the sliding door so you have to put the pole at an angle which then leaves a gap at the top and the bottom.

Despite these gaps when the rain did come it actually kept most of our stuff dry but it’s clearly not a good fit overall.

Fiamma do make a privacy room specifically for a sprinter, from what I can see there is extra material on the side panels to fill that gap at the top and guess what, its over a grand and there aren’t any second hand ones, you don’t seem to be able to buy the side panels on their own either.

I’m still undecided as to whether I’m going to keep it or not, I’ll use it again at Bug Jam and hopefully have a bit more time to play about with it and make it fit, it’s going to rain when we get to BugJam so I’ll need to use it, then make a decision about it’s future when we get home.

Fiamma Awning Rafter

On By MashleyIn awning, Fiamma, Self build camper vanLeave a comment

If you have a wind out awning like we do you might find at night when you are trying to sleep it flaps about.

Not only can the noise keep you awake if you are a light sleeper but it can also have you worrying the whole thing is going to blow away when it probably isn’t.

Instead of supplying one as standard, as an optional extra you can buy a Fiamma awning rafter. If you have a Fiamma awning like our F65s then the hooks this thing attaches to are already installed.

Basically you wind out your awning, stretch the bar across, wind the awning back in to tension the awning fabric and then do up the rafter bar hand screw.

Once this is done the awning fabric flaps no more!

As I mentioned earlier, I think this should come as standard as it really makes a world of difference!

Le Trip to The Lake

On By MashleyIn Europe, france, road trip, Self build camper van, travelLeave a comment

After a good few days in Argentat we set off to Lac De Parloup via a friend who we hadn’t seen for a few years. We mentioned we wouldn’t mind a stopover and he said he knew just the place for a picnic and a sleepover and that it was beautiful, he wasn’t wrong.

After meeting up we took a short drive to Najac and followed a dusty track and parked up next to the river.

It was absolutely stunning, we had a lovely picnic and there was a little beach with calm water so the girls could splash about, they loved it.

We were the only people there and had an undisturbed night, the Maxxair fan I put in the van kept us all cool as in the evening it was about 25 degrees.

The following morning I stripped off and a had a wash in the river, something I haven’t done in years! Shortly after 4 canoes came past and had they been a bit earlier they’d have had an unexpected sight!

Before we left we took the opportunity to take a family photo.

Lauren notice fairly quickly that Arielle doll she was holding looked like she’d popped out of her dress!

We hit the road again and in a few hours arrived in Lac De Parloup and setup our pitch.

The site is mainly French and Dutch, a mixture of static caravans and pitches for motor homes and tents. There is a huge play area for the kids which they love, particularly the bouncy castle.

Also there is a nice pool with a restaurant adjacent.

The following day we headed to the beach by the lake, it’s a man made beach and a bit rough but the kids enjoyed it, the temperature of the lake is bearable and as it’s proper hot a nice way to cool down.

Lind and Ian joined us for three nights and secured a pitch right next door which Stella is very happy about.

Day two was spent in the pool.

At the time of writing we are back at the van about to have lunch, we have one more night here and then we’re off to Cap D’Agde for the remainder of our holiday, the beach there is the best we’ve come across on our travels in France and I’m assured none of the sites we’re staying at are naked which is a huge relief for me!

Le Tourondel

On By MashleyIn Europe, france, Self build camper van, travelLeave a comment

Since arriving in France we’ve been staying at Lindi and Ian’s place in Le Tourondel. We haven’t got up to loads as it’s nice to just chill.

A few of Lindi and Ian’s friends have stopped by including the owner of a tractor which Arielle enjoyed.

We’ve gone for a few wanders, in the local woods and down to Argentat to check out the market and dip our feet in the river, it’s a really beautiful spot.

There is so much wildlife on your doorstep here, so far we have seen massive hornets who continually try to break into the house of an evening, an Owl, birds of prey, a dead snake, edible door mice, field mice and loads of lizards,

Today (Saturday) we visited Tour De Merle which is a settlement from about the 1300’s if memory serves me right, it looks like a castle but is in fact a load of individual dwellings.

Accidentally I found a really good spot to park the van, you could see it from literally every part of Tour De Merle

We also came across a live snake hanging about at the entrance, I chucked it over a hedge so it didn’t bite anyone.

The kids had a great time at the castle, especially when we saw some bats and one of them pooed on Lauren, Stella is sitting here in the room just before we saw the bats.

It’s a load of walking up and down and by the end of the day the kids were ruined!

Tomorrow is Ian’s birthday, we’re taking the kids to the pool, getting some supplies from Aldi and then doing something in the evening to mark Ian’s birthday. Monday we are on the road starting our journey down to Cap D’Agde and hopefully some proper sun.

Le start

On By MashleyIn Europe, france, road trip, Self build camper van, travelLeave a comment

After a couple of years of lock downs, travel bans and any travel made so laborious it would put you off the world has opened up again and for us that means a long overdue trip to France.

I’m driving the van and lolly and the kids leave a day later catching a flight from stanstead to Brive. As always we head to Lolly’s parents which is about 10 hours drive including stops for fuel which would be no fun for the kids, planes are much more fun.

Once I hit Calais my overnight was in a place called Chatres, there is a nice cathedral to visit however by the time I got there all I wanted was some food, a beer and to chill out. Our Aires book is well out of date and according to them there are no aires in Chatres. I have an app called park4night which lists places you can stop that’s added by its community members, it came up trumps, a nice little spot by a quiet road and free for the night, rue de launay for anyone interested.

Just round the corner is a car park with a supermarket, washing machines, car wash, gym and a pizza kiosk.

There was a slight bit of confusion with my order but ended up with two free beers, the pizza I ordered and 10 euros in cash, the universe had my back. It was pretty quiet and I got a decent nights sleep.

The following morning I was up at 6am to drive do Brive to pick up Lolly and the kids, it’s about a 4 hour drive so I left at 7am and with a few stops arrived at midday.

Once they arrive it’s an hour to Lauren’s parents place and our holiday together begins 🙂

Outwell Fallcrest Side Panel Set

On By MashleyIn Self build camper van, Sprinter Camper Van, WalesLeave a comment

Camping in the UK means at some point you will encounter rain, especially if you choose to holiday in Wales which we did for a weekend recently. Elsewhere in the UK sunshine was abundant but in Wales it chucked it down for pretty much the whole weekend, sun came out as we were leaving, standard.

The only plus point of this scenario was that I got to use the side panel set I bought. They are made specifically for wind out awnings, each side zips round the awning arms and then you tether the panel to the ground using supplied pegs and you end up with something like this.

The Fiamma equivalent is about £170.00 per side whereas this was £110.00 for both sides. They were easy to deploy and held the rain off admirably, the only downside is that they aren’t so good if one end of the awning is lower than the other to allow rain to run off and not pool in the awning fabric, you have to repel the lower end. There is also a bit of a gap between the panel and the van so a bit of rain does come through.

Once dry the pack down nicely into their own little bag along with the pegs.


They are a good alternative to the Fiamma sides and will do the job for the odd occasion I take the family camping and it rains which hopefully isn’t too often…

Fiamma 200 DJ bike rack

On By MashleyIn Self build camper van, Sprinter Camper VanLeave a comment

After initially buying the incorrect one second hand and finding the bits that would make it fit my van would cost almost as much as buying a new one and watching eBay for almost a year for a secondhand one i’ve bitten the bullet and bought one new.

Just Kampers had a deal on their eBay shop which meant I picked it up for £345.00 instead of £405.00, a considerable saving but still lumpy!

There are only a few options on the cycle rack front for Sprinters so the manufacturers can charge what they like, that being said the Fiamma ones are very well made, we had one on our T4 and was very pleased with it.

The rack arrived next day and there is a small amount of assembly before you try and get the rack attached to your van, instructions that come with it are very easy to follow. If you don’t want to scratch your rear door i would suggest two of you fit it, my door has a few bangs and marks on it so I wasn’t that worried and fitted it on my own.

Fiamma recommend you drill through your door and fit some anti theft bolts, I took the panelling off my rear door and forgot there was more panelling underneath!

You have to remove (if you have it) the lower grey panel as when you drill through that’s where the holes are!

All in all on my own the job took about 90 mins and now I can take either my bikes or electric scooters away without shoving them in the back of the van

I’ve left some bits off rack as where I live some people thing it’s OK to help themselves to your stuff, the joy of living in London!