This time last week we were on our way to North Berwick to collect our new campervan from Jerba.
The last time we were in Jerba’s workshop we were busy checking out what vans they were building, last Monday it was to see our own campervan for the first time. We were both blown away, it was everything we had hoped for, and more.
We spent the next three hours with David going through each element of the campervan, inside and out, how everything worked, and what not to do! As with each part of the ordering process, this was such an enjoyable experience for us both. If you have still to experience David’s handover, enjoy yourselves.
Finally on our way in our new elevated driving position, we made our way back across Scotland and straight to Ikea. A couple of storage boxes later and we were home to begin packing the campervan ahead of its maiden adventure in the morning. It would be fair to say that whilst everything made it into the van, the following day once we arrived in the Cairngorms there was a much needed unpack and repack. The next morning we set sail, making our way North via Inverness to pick up a couple of last minute items for the camper and for the fridge!
Our first mini-trip would comprise of a night in Hopeman, two nights at Sandend and a final night at Findhorn… staying at small, independently-run campsites and parking spots in beautiful locations with direct access to wonderful sandy beaches.
Over the next four days we began to get into a routine for setting up the bed in the evening and putting it away in the morning (we slept in the roof), cooking with the Wallas hob, and ensuring we had ice for the evening G&T. We’ve yet to break anything, if anything, the van’s breaking us in rather than the other way around!
Whilst many prefer to wildcamp, and that is something we will do, spending our first couple of nights on campsites allowed us to get familiar with the van knowing that we would have access to electricity and facilities to hand. This let us focus on enjoying ourselves and getting used to how the essentials work.
We are now back in the Cairngorms for a couple of nights, making some little adjustments to our setup, before we set off on another mini-trip towards the south of the national park.
Euan Ross is an artist based in Glasgow in the West of Scotland.
His focus is capturing the landscape we live in as stand-alone images, bodies of work, and creating narratives as artists’ books.
Recent and ongoing work can be found here.
