I have longed for a VW campervan for years. The big dream began many years ago during a trip to the Gower peninsula in south Wales with my good friends G and T. They owned a lovely VW T2 (?) campervan and I fell in the love with the idea of a vehicle that would offer driving and sleeping adventures in the great outdoors.
She’s my VW campervan: Fern!
But I could never quite justify the outlay and I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of VW van I should buy.
Then, my trusty but oh-so-boringly practical Ford Focus Estate began to feel very tired and look rather weary. I knew I was in need of a new car and I wondered whether I might buy a VW van that would be an adventure mobile and also an urban family transporter.
I swithered and wondered and looked on-line and asked for advice and wondered some more and dreamed a bit and thought a bit more. Then, last month, my friend Surfer Al (who converts campervans… see his fab business AV Camper Conversions) spotted a lovely looking campervan for sale in England. He thought it might suit me. I looked and began to dare to believe that the dream van might be mine.
Buying my VW campervan
An exchange of emails and phone calls with the seller revealed that the van was as good as it looked and we made a deal. The only problem was that the van lived on the south coast of England and I was some 500 miles away in Scotland.
So I booked two one-way flights to Southampton, asked my mechanic friend The Boy to come with me and kept my nerves in check for the long trip south. I worried the van would turn out to be “not as described”. I feared the seller might be a hoax. I was anxious about how we would walk away if it was a duff deal.
Thankfully, the seller was genuine and the van was completely as described. The Boy gave his nod on the engine and metalwork and I allowed myself to fall in love with my new vehicle. We exchanged documents and I made the payment.
My new life with a VW campervan
The VW campervan is better than I’d dare to imagine it would be. It is only two years old so it drives smoothly and with far more energy than my tired old Ford. It boasts mod cons such as a sat nav and DVD player. It has swivel passenger seats, a fold down bed and fairy lights (!). It is beautiful and I adore, er, “her”. I am so enthralled that I have named my van: Fern (because she came from Ferndown).
(By strange coincidence, my Scottish grandfather lived the last few decades of his life in Ferndown so the name seems even more fitting.)
Fern the Van was a lot of fun to drive north. I had been worried that the drive of 500 miles north would be long, slow and tedious. But the hours whizzed by as The Boy and I chatted, took it in turns to drive, enjoyed the sunny day and listened to music.
The first adventure in my new VW van was just as I had always imagined it would be. I am, as the young dudes say, totally stoked!