First night in the van of dreams

Boat on Mud flat III, Southend on Sea
Originally uploaded by rtw2007.

There really isn’t much to say about our trip to Southend-on-Sea. Having decided that we wanted to test sleeping in the new van, we thought that the coast might make a good overnight trip and Michael suggested Southend, thinking that it would be fairly easy to get to from London. We stupidly decided to set off on Saturday morning and promptly got stuck in horrendous traffic for a couple of hours on the way out of London. Hopefully not a sign of things to come in the new van. And when we got there, it quickly became apparent that for us, Southend doesn’t have much to commend it – a fun fair; a lot of noisy children / pikey teenagers; and a scary campsite at which they topped their resolute unfriendliness, narky signs and expensive prices by barking over the tannoy at their “guests” in the morning, reading out rules and telling them all that the Daily Mail had arrived. Not one to be repeated.

Notwithstanding Southend, we loved the van. It is a dream to drive; unlike Hectar it is (touch wood) wind and water proof; we managed to cook both dinner and breakfast the next day in relative comfort; and having worked out the basics (like how to convert the back seat into a bed / how to fill up with water / how to plug into electricity), we warmed to our new home on wheels straight away.

So, after a wander around Southend; fish and chips on the beach; our first overnight stay in the van; and a drive out to Michael’s former childhood residence in Burnham-on-Crouch just across the water, we headed back into London and started planning a more substantial test trip for the van – Highland Combi Adventure 2006.