01 - From idea to realisation

How it all began!

It all began, I suppose, with the travels of recent years. These became increasingly personalised and adventurous. My “travel highlight” culminated in a round-the-world trip in 2015/2016, which also took me to Australia, where I had my first experience of travelling in a campervan.

The divorce, a life-changing experience for me that literally turned my life upside down, forced me to rethink everything. During this difficult time, I stumbled across a video on Facebook by chance. In it, a couple described converting their car into a campervan. This interesting video was soon followed by numerous others.

A new, fixed - and perhaps completely mad - idea was born!

The Idea!

After watching a few videos, I didn't just rush out, buy a car and start the conversion. I'm not quite that mad, after all.

First, I clicked my way through seemingly endless blogs and forums and spent days watching YouTube videos. It all looked so simple. You take a few planks and saw them to size, then screw them together or alternatively glue them, and voilà, a new camper is born.

Well, luckily I'm a realist.
There's actually a bit more work involved. But I also managed to build a cage for my rabbits. Admittedly, there were detailed instructions with measurements. But you had to do the sawing, drilling and screwing yourself. And what can I say, the cage turned out great and has survived two moves involving partial dismantling and an attack by rodents gone wild, all whilst I was travelling the world.

I also don't know much about cars. I can probably name a few parts in and around a vehicle, and I'd trust myself to change a tire. But when I look under the hood, I just stare at it like a deer in headlights. Still, nobody is born a master-everyone has to start somewhere. Damn, another one 😉.

The idea was born and took root in my mind. What if? Can I do it? Should I do it? These and similar questions occupied my thoughts more and more. Eventually, I took the words of friends and colleagues regarding the break-up to heart. “Who knows what good it might do?” “You only live once.” “Look ahead.”

Yes, it's crazy! What am I going to do with a campervan? I haven't even owned a car since mid-2015. Yet, or perhaps precisely because my life had been completely thrown into disarray back then, I needed a fresh start. Besides, the project would keep me occupied and distract me.

But before I could really get started, there were a few things that needed sorting out:

• What should the campervan be designed for?
• What do I absolutely need in the camper?
• How will I handle the electrical setup?
• What budget am I looking at?
• How do I even go about it?

The last two questions in particular kept me occupied in the time that followed. When you've never done anything like this before, aren't very handy and know nothing about cars, you simply don't know where to start. So, back to checking blogs and forums and watching videos on YouTube. But gradually, a picture began to emerge. And when it comes to the budget, there's actually a surprising amount of very detailed information online.

I don't want to bore you with the budget planning here, and I'll try to avoid giving specific figures wherever possible. Suffice to say, my budget planning already fell apart when I bought the base vehicle.