So the mid life crisis has final struck!! Defying all sanity and common sense, Howard and I have made the crazy decision to pack up work for a year and travel around Europe in our lovely new VW camper van ‘Oscar’!! The plan is to set off early in January 2018, and so this ‘Gap Year’ is very much in the planning stages just now. The idea is to try to visit as many countries as possible in Europe before the UK leaves the EU, but we also hope to cover Scandinavia and perhaps Iceland in our year long adventure.
We plan to visit the warmer countries in the cooler weather, and the cooler climates in the summer months. So with that in mind, we will probably start off visiting Spain and Portugal in January and February, moving on down through Italy to Sicily, before heading northwards. We aim to cover Iceland, Sweden and Norway in late spring / summer, before heading down through the Baltic states and Eastern Europe as autumn approaches. Well, that’s our initial thoughts, but it is all pretty fluid just now. Maybe after a week in the van we’ll be ready to murder each other or head home! We’re very much going to play it by ear, and see how the whole trip evolves.
Reactions to our idea have ranged from incredulity, disbelief, stifled laughter, ‘really???’, half-hearted encouragement and very occasional genuine excitement. Very few are envious of our great adventure, and many of my female friends just offer me a pitiful look – ‘a year, in a van … with no loo?’ – definitely not most people’s bag!
However, having reached a stage in our lives when most of our friends are starting to wind down, we have taken the view that you only live once, and that it’s better to grab every opportunity with both hands while we can. You never know what’s around the corner, or when infirmity may set in. So, with considerable trepidation, we have decided to embark on this trip of a lifetime. Time will tell if it’s wise or complete madness, but whatever it turns out to be, our aim is to have fun, visit lots of new and interesting places, and hopefully live to tell the tale!
The adventure begins ……
Campervan Adventure 