We’ve swapped the motorhome for a static caravan…for a week
With the trails and tribulations that come with winter vanlife (and a lockdown to boot), you would be forgiven for thinking that we cracked and moved out of the motorhome permanently.
It certainly hasn’t been easy living in a Motorhome, being sat still during a rather cold and snowy winter. A few of the ‘tricks’ that usually help ease winter in the Motorhome, we are unable to do.
The usual tricks don’t work
Things such as charging your batteries whilst you drive to your next destination, therefore making up for the lack of solar on darker days. Or making the most of Pub stopovers, sitting in a cosy pub next to a warm fire (utilising their heating and electricity whilst spending with their business).
That said, we have been very fortunate to be pitched up for the duration of lockdown on a site in Shropshire with hardstanding, EHU and laundry facilities. We certainly have not faced some of the tougher conditions that others have this winter.
Roaming free Cats!
Even better than that, because we are the only ones on site, we have been able to let the cats out without their harness and leads so they can burn off some energy and explore without us attached to them.
That alone has provided us all with a little release from the now stagnant daily routines that used to keep us ticking over.
New lease of life
Seeing the spark it has given the cats has made us so happy. This last lockdown has been the first time we have felt a pang of guilt for bringing the girls on this full time journey with us. The whole time we were travelling, they used to love watching the new sights out of the windows and exploring with the safety of us by their side on their daily walks. They were still content in the van with us and we knew they had more outside time then they would have had in the house.
Since not moving, however, we could tell they were getting restless because the view out of the window wasn’t changing. Even their harness walks were not fulfilling them because they wanted to break away from their usual route. The girls wanted to go and see what’s new in the little hedgerows and amongst the trees that us humans wouldn’t be able to get to with them.
Get to the point!
But I digress. The real question I’m sure you are all wondering is, why have we moved out of the motorhome?
It’s quite simple and no where near as scandalous as some might think. We put a teaser out on our Instagram of us in a living room and some people thought we had ‘gone rogue’, ‘gone over to the dark side’ or ‘cracked and bought a house’. Those are some actual quotes from our DMs by the way!
It’s simply that our Adria Motorhome is due for its bi-annual service, MOT and annual habitation check. Living in the ‘Van with 3 cats, it is far easier for it to be empty. Besides, it needs to be empty for the hab check.
Spring Clean
It will be a good opportunity for a spring clean and to possibly thin down the stuff we seem to accumulate each year. This was a tense point when we moved back in to this Adria Sonic from the Dethleffs the Pulse last May.
Somehow I got blamed for all the ‘stuff’ we had acquired from our first 12 months of full-time Motorhome living. Funnily enough, I’m not the one who has a whole ‘man drawer’ full of all sorts of kick knacks that no one but Jon is allowed in. Wonder if he’ll be thinning that down on this move?
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