The lockdown

Covid 19 has meant Ivan, Jane and Otto, the pup, have been in lockdown for 7 weeks in their motorhome Daphne in the U.K.

Ivan, Jane and Otto at the campsite with Daphne and Ivan’s classic 1958 motorcycle behind.

This blog is an insight into our world as we stay holed up in a tiny campsite at the foot of the South Downs. Everyday is different and everyday is the same! We are lucky to be able to stay at the now closed campsite and as we cannot move Daphne we have unearthed “Raffles”, Ivan’s Matchless motorcycle from our garage for transport as we need it.

We stay at the campsite and have everything we need in the way of electric, water and waste facilities. Unfortunately there is no TV reception and a very limited phone signal. We spend the days enjoying the sunshine, nature, the bird song and beautiful walks. We read books and magazines, play music and surf the internet.  Our pup Otto keeps us amused and we can chat to our neighbours (there are 4 units in a large field) from a distance. We are cooking everyday meals from scratch and we are foraging in the woods and fields.  Virtual quizzes, festivals and games are fun to get involved in. This week we are going to the Virtual Overland festival on Saturday.

Ivan goes shopping for groceries on Raffles, goes to the launderette and checks on his mum and dad weekly. Jane stays in Daphne with Otto and we sometimes go out for a cycle altogether. Life is slow at the moment and despite this the weeks fly by. Most evenings, after our walk we watch a DVD to finish off the day. Thankfully we have been able to borrow from friends and family a good supply to keep us going.

Below are photos showing some of our time in lockdown:

Jane & Ivan on the South downs and Daphne in the valley below

Otto's favourite place in Daphne 

Beautiful walks and bluebells in April 2020

Our attempt at cheese scones: no scales; tiny oven 😄

Views across the downs

Dandelion honey in the making

The finished Dandelion honey, it tastes just like honey, delicious 😍

Otto enjoying the spring cowslips

Jane playing her tongue drum

We play records every day, we love vinyl

Photos from our evening walks. Cissbury ring at sunset is our favourite so far

At our campsite. We are houseless and luckily not homeless.

Thank you to everyone for keeping in touch. In these unprecedented times we are very grateful. Stay safe everyone. Lots of love xx 

The C word

The Coronovirous has come to the UK where we are currently in our home that happens to be on four wheels. Sharing our lives with our pup Otto we have been travelling around seeing new sights and catching up with family and friends. Now, along with the rest if the world, our lives are on hold. On the brink of a pandemic due to "Covid 19" all non essential travel is ill advised and the foreign office has banned overseas travel for at least 30 days.

We have postponed our trip to Germany and over the last week had a fretful time wondering what the right thing was to do and where we can live this virus out. Luckily we have managed to find a small campsite just outside of Worthing and we hope they will stay open, unlike other sites who have closed. Living in a motorhome has set us up to this way of life fairly well as we enjoy each others company and are used to living in a small space. Over the months our pace of life has slowed down and we are used to not having much money to spend on food and going out. That said we have been shocked at the empty shelves and queues in supermarkets as well as individuals panicking.

At times like these we like to concentrate on those who are helping and have been very grateful to receive messages of support and help from friends and family. At the campsite we are staying in people have checked we are ok and offered to go shopping for us. We have joined a "Covid 19 mutual aid" Facebook group and this plus the "Vanlife" community groups are offering unended support for those in need.

Luckily for us we have all we need by buying what we can afford as we need it. We appreciate the simple things in life more and more and we can just roll with the changes. Life moves on and we hope to stay healthy and happy. We wish this to everyone out there too. This C word Coronovirous will no doubt change lives forever and we hope we can stay resilient and survive.

In the meantime if we can do anything to help then please let us know.
Love and best wishes, Jane and Ivan

PS: the sun is out 🌞

The Cornish winter

Living in a van in winter is not everyone’s cup of tea. We have had strong winds, rain, hail, freezing temperatures and bright cold sunny days. Eight weeks exploring Cornwall through December 2019 to January 2020 has been a blast. We have been wild camping on cliff tops, car parks and other random places. We can usually manage for 4 days and nights before we have to fill up with water, empty our facilities and charge up our leisure battery. We love wild camping, however at campsites we can enjoy a hot shower, full electrics for our fridge and heater and a washing machine, if we are lucky. Our budget means we would struggle in England with this lifestyle if we dont mix up our accommodation to have at least three free nights a week. Saying that we enjoy the sense of adventure and don’t feel we are doing without. When our fridge is full, we have fuel for Daphne and gas to use the oven, fridge and heater we feel rich, even though our income has been cut by a fifth to live this lifestyle.

One of the highlights of this lifestyle is getting out on our push bikes. Otto has learnt to sit in the basket on Janes bike so when he gets tired from running alongside he has a warm and cosy place to sit and watch the world go by.  In Cornwall an old disused railway track has been made into a cycle/walkway and it runs alongside the river Camel. It’s called the Camel trail and is 17 miles long from Padstow on the north west coast to Wenfordbridge on Bodmin moor   https://www.visitcornwall.com/things-to-do/cycling/north-coast/padstow/camel-trail. This felt like perfect trail for us.

We picked our days carefully as although Cornish winters are generally milder than most January can be tough in exposed areas. The Camel trail is traffic free and mostly flat gravel or tarmac so an easy ride.  Feeling a bit unfit we broke the trail up into three sections of around six miles each, working out that we also had to cycle back to our motorhome Daphne and so twelve miles there and back is plenty.  Having time to stop and enjoy the landscape, explore the river sights and the towns on the
way is part of the fun.

Bodmin moor has also been a favourite this winter with a mixed variety of landscape including grass, bog and moorland down to rivers and wildlife.

We have been lucky to have friends who are local to Cornwall who have been showing us some warm Cornish hospitality as well as family who live in nearby Somerset and have been able to come to stay.

We are finishing this blog on pictures of Cornish beaches. In winter they are hard to beat. Windy, wild and beautiful they range from sand dunes, tiny coves to small harbours and vast expanses of sandy beaches with a range of rock pools superb for exploring. Our pup Otto has been in his element and has loved every one of the beaches we have visited. Its definitely a dogs life. Although van life is not for everyone it's been a great upbringing for our tiny pup and he loves this life as much as we do.

We are looking forward to exploring North Devon. Stay safe and see you soon 🙂