Before we launch into how we chose the base vehicle to use for our campervan conversion, let us tell you why we decided to take on such a crazy project!
Inspiration
It was one fine day in Portrush when the first lockdown of 2020 had been lifted, that we met an Argentinian guy who was travelling with his family in a van that he’d converted himself.
Our new found hobby since returning home from our unfinished cycling tour of Sri Lanka in March 2020, was trawling the internet, and, when permitted, walking the streets of Portrush, searching out camper vans. We had started toying with the idea of investing in a van for our next travel adventure. After getting locked down in Sri Lanka we felt so vulnerable and isolated on the bicycles. It made us think that for our next travel adventure we would be better being in our own self-contained vehicle.
Anyway little did we think that this friendly Argentinian would be the one to dissuade us from buying a ready made campervan, but he would be the one to inspire us to build our own! “It’s easy” he said, “everything you need to know is on YouTube, just watch the Greg Virgoe videos”.
Later that same day, and for many, many days, weeks and months afterwards, we spent an endless amount of hours watching YouTube videos on how to build a campervan. It looked so easy, surely we could try our hand at that!
The inspiration from our Argentinian friend was the impetus we needed to take on this new challenge. Up until this point we had not been able to find a campervan that was designed to meet our specific needs, so designing our own was the obvious choice. Plus with our bed and breakfast business decimated due to the global coronavirus pandemic, we had a lot of time on our hands and needed something to do.
We looked at lots of these types of commercially built campervans, but they didn’t meet our essential criteria.
Essential criteria
Before we could choose the vehicle to use for our self-build camper conversion, we had to consider what design features were important to us, and those that were less important. This would determine the size of vehicle we were going to need.
We were in the lucky position of having experience of living and travelling in a campervan so had a good idea of what we wanted, and what we didn’t want. Our six months driving “Spot” around Australia in 2000/01 had taught us a lot!
Our essential and non-negotiable top three criteria for our van build were:
Fixed bed
Inside storage for our bicycles
On board toilet and shower
In addition we had our list of what we would prefer to have in our base vehicle:
Enough headspace for Dave to be able to stand upright (he’s about 6ft)
A van big enough to be able to live in for extended periods of time (6-12 months) in all seasons
A van small enough to visit family and friends in cities and urban areas
A van less than six metres in length for ease of parking (and it means a cheaper tariff on ferry crossings – the prices go up if your vehicle is longer than six metres!)
A reliable, well-maintained van versatile enough to take us off the beaten track
Plus we had our list of what we knew we didn’t want from our base vehicle:
An old van with high mileage and high maintenance
A van so big that you have to get a special driving licence
A white van!
We saw lots of white panel vans that we didn’t want!
Research, research, research
It didn’t take us long to realise that there is no such thing as the perfect base vehicle for a camper van conversion. But there are definitely some vans that are more suited to converting than others, and that’s where your research is key.
As well as our endless hours of watching “how to build a campervan” YouTube videos, we started looking online at van conversion companies to see what types of van they were using as the base vehicle. The top two contenders at this stage were the Mercedes Sprinter and the Volkswagen Crafter. And that was the route we were going down until we found the very helpful online forum at Self Build Motor Caravanners Club (SBMCC).
This SBMCC forum was undoubtedly our best find during the entire research, and subsequent self-build, process. The £15 annual membership was well worth it for the valuable information and knowledge we gained. The forum was full of people who were doing, or had already done, exactly what we wanted to do.
It was on this forum that we learned that a Sevel van gives you a few extra centimetres width if you’re planning, like us, to have a fixed bed traversing the van. And you all know every inch (or centimetre) counts! We were completely ignorant as to what a Sevel van was and had to ask the question. The answer was a van from the Sevel factory in Italy which makes pretty much identical vans for Fiat, Citroen and Peugeot.
And so our mind was made up, we were going to start shopping for a good second-hand Fiat Ducato, Citroen Relay, or Peugeot Boxer van.
Shopping around
Shopping you think is the fun part, but no, it was far from it! Bearing in mind this was in the midst of the 2020 global lockdowns and the demand for vans, both old and new, was almost outstripping supply. The rise in vans needed by courier and delivery drivers during the pandemic was increasing daily. Combine that with the booming #VanLife phenomenon, and we were left with very slim pickings at very extortionate prices. On top of that we could only view vans located in Northern Ireland.
We were trying to find vans that were 2-3 years old with low mileage and the average price was coming in at around £14,000 +VAT. A lot of money for a second-hand vehicle with no guarantees.
A price comparison with brand new vans proved if we could stretch our budget to £16,495 +VAT we could get a brand new, pre-registered van and a clean slate from which to start our build. And that is what we did.
We chose a Citroen Relay 35 L3H2 2.2 Diesel Euro 6 panel van in Cumulus Grey metallic paint from Vans Direct. It was not a buying process we’d want to repeat, but maybe more on that another time!
We took ownership in early December 2020 and the build got underway.
This post is just a quickie to let you know that we have found Spot a good home.
After travelling just under 18,000kms (11,250 miles), we sold him yesterday to a couple from Dublin who are planning to drive around Oz for 3 months. We didn’t get quite as much as we initially had hoped for, but with the time on our visa running out we felt it better to take the cash and move on. We had mixed emotions selling him – Shaz was sad, Dave was more glad.
Meanwhile we have had a lovely couple of weeks in Perth lounging around and catching up with friends. We ate out on St. Valentine’s Day for the first time ever and had one of the very best Chinese meals compliments of Alison and James. We were lucky enough to be able to meet up with John and Carole Bernard (friends of Sue & Ilan) who treated us to a fabulous meal during their stopover in Perth. In fact we have done quite a bit of eating out and now desperately need to do a lot of working out! Mind you we did hire a tandem to ride around Rottnest Island at the weekend so maybe that counts as something.
Anyway we will be on our way out of Perth this Friday, and for the first time in almost six months we will board an aeroplane. We fly to Melbourne where we will catch up with more friends, and take a 10-day trip to Tasmania – a first for both of us.
Here we are back in Perth again having completed our tour of the southwest, and bringing to an end our road trip through Western Australia (staying with the Cottons is becoming our second home these days!).
It is also, sadly, going to be the end of our time with Spot – the next leg of our journey is a flight to Melbourne so he is up for sale, but we will stay in Perth until we make sure he goes to a good home!
Many of you will be glad to know that you are not the only ones experiencing inclement weather. We have had some heavy rain, very strong winds and somewhat cooler days than we have been used to lately – we even had to get our raincoats and long trousers out in Albany! But of course more often than not we have the glorious sunny days of an Australian summer.
The cooler weather was really perfect for exploring the southern forest national parks and the tall tree region – magnificent forests of towering karri trees. We both got our adrenalin going by climbing to the top of two fire lookout trees – one was 51m, and the other 68m, and the birds eye views were fantastic. Climbing the trails in the Stirling Ranges was not as much fun as we both ached for days afterwards.
Apart from the weird weather leaving us ‘Spot bound’ on occasions, the last few weeks have been a little frustrating for another reason. It has been very difficult to find maps and up to date information on the national parks – in one instance we were told the roads were in great condition, but were not told that one of the main access roads was closed, and had been for the last year! It meant we had gone way out of our way just to end up really disappointed, but c’est la vie, you win some, you lose some.
Anyway the disappointment was soon forgotten as a couple of hours later we found a beautiful, secluded camping spot right on the beach in Waychinicup National Park.
Camping area in Waychinicup National Park
We arrived in Esperance on 1 February in the rain, but luckily it was gone the next day and we headed out to Cape Le Grand national park – stunning white sandy beaches with the clearest blue water we have ever seen. When we weren’t snorkelling or walking, Dave spent time polishing Spot in preparation for selling, while Shaz just read and watched the wildlife.
The one time Shaz wished we had a video camera was when a kangaroo decided to fight Dave over a box of food which our neighbour campers had foolishly left outside. The scene was hysterical and like something from a comedy as the roo and Dave tried to stare each other out while each was trying to hold onto the box! Eventually the ranger came and managed to chase the roo away by throwing a bucket at him!
Dave and Skippy having a stand off!
The gold mining town of Kalgoorlie was our next stop, where incidentally it was an Irish man by the name of Paddy Hannan who discovered the gold there. It was a lovely town and it was fascinating to go down the pit to see how all the gold used to be mined, as well as seeing how it is done today. Needless to say our travelling budget did not extend to buying any of the local produce!
Kalgoorlie Mine
Our last official night ‘on the road’ was spent at a campsite at Southern Cross, about halfway between Kalgoorlie and Perth and it felt really fitting to finish our road trip on a relatively long drive.
We will now stay in Perth until Spot is sold, but hopefully it won’t take too long as we would like to spend some time in Melbourne and Tasmania – we have about 5 weeks left on our visa. Where have the last 5 months gone??
Here is the first instalment of this year and no doubt there will be more. Happy New Year to you all!
We had a really lovely Christmas with Al and James (and Debbie a friend of theirs from Stamford) – typical Aussie style with a visit to the beach followed by a BBQ. Dave did not let the Schindler family tradition go amiss and did his bit by making the champagne cocktails.
We then spent a few days around the Perth area catching up with friends. We brought in the New Year at the Trots (pony and trap racing) with Shaz having the most successful bet of the night (her only one) – great celebrations with a fantastic firework display to finish the evening.
We had one very stressful day trying to work out the motor vehicle regulations in WA – Spot’s registration was due, but as we bought him in New South Wales the regulations were different. Anyway we eventually persuaded NSW to allow us to re-register by post as at one stage we thought we might have to drive back to Sydney!
We even had one evening apart (the first in 3 ½ months) in Perth, which was something of a novelty if not rather strange. Shaz went on a girls night out with Al and Debbie, and Dave went to watch Tottenham v Ipswich at a friend’s house.
We started heading south from Perth on 3rd January and quickly got back into our ‘on the road’ routine. Al and James joined us for a great camping weekend at a lovely place called Peppermint Beach – we even managed to find an Indian restaurant to finish the weekend off in. The Chapman family who we also know from Perth just happened to be in the campsite next to us!
Our next stop was the Margaret River wine region where we took daily turns at driving so that we could both sample the local wines. We stayed in and around the region for five days and enjoyed watching the massive waves (apparently some of the best surf in the world, but we didn’t give it a go) and we also went ‘down under’ into a couple of limestone caves.
It has been rather strange the last couple of weeks for three reasons.
Firstly the climate has changed dramatically from the heat of the north – we are now enjoying much cooler weather (average 25 degrees) and even have to sleep under the duvet at night.
Secondly the distances we have to travel between places is so short – we have been used to planning food, petrol, etc for 400-600km trips and now we pass a town every 50kms.
And finally it is school holiday time here and most everywhere is very busy – something we are not at all used to, having often had campsites to ourselves. But saying that we are still meeting some lovely people. Only last Saturday night in beautiful Hamelin Bay the Aussie family next to us invited Dave out fishing (and he did catch one this time!), and had us both over to dinner – abalone, cray fish, steak, sausage and kebabs all washed down with some local wine! The Aussie people are on the whole very friendly and hospitable, not unlike the Irish!
We are now in Manjimup, the starting point for our next leg of the journey – exploring the Southern Forests area and getting back into the National Parks which we both love.
That’s all for now folks, please keep your news updates coming, we love hearing from you.
First of all Seasons Greetings to one and all. Belated Chanukah Greetings to our Jewish contingent and to you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year – we will be thinking of you.
We arrived safely in Perth yesterday and it is just lovely to be staying with friends again; we have not been in a home since we stayed with Wally in Sydney back in October!
As usual we have covered a lot of miles since we last wrote and again been lucky enough to see some fantastic sights – Western Australia is such a huge state with some stunning and varied landscapes, but with vast distances between towns. We have also been managing to stay ahead of the wet season weather and thankfully missed the tropical cyclone ‘Sam’ by 4 days when it hit the north west coast!
Western Australia Highlights
It was very difficult to drag ourselves away from the beautiful Cable Beach, but after a 6 hour drive when we found ourselves camped up at Eighty Mile Beach the hardship was soon forgotten. It was turtle nesting season so at 2am we were on the beach trying to spot the female turtles, but unfortunately saw only hundreds of crabs – it was the next morning when we found out that we were only about 50 yards from where the turtles had laid their eggs. Oh well, maybe there will be a next time!
We had a couple more nights on the coast before it was time to go back inland to visit a highly recommended national park – Karijini (Hamersley Ranges) – we were not to be disappointed and this was yet another highlight of our trip. It was just spectacular – sheer red rocky gorges which we walked, swam and climbed through. We met a couple of rock climbing Aussies who let us tag along with them for a day and we climbed and abseiled through some fantastic gorges.
Karijini National Park, Western Australia
It was this same hot day when we got back to our campsite and met some Aboriginal guys who shared their beer with us and more importantly gave us their ice before they left so we could have cold drinks in the evening – such a luxury! We spent 4 nights in Karijini at which stage Shaz’s hair was at the dreadlock stage – it was good to get showers (and a steak treat – it was Mrs Brunt’s birthday) at the campsite in the mining town of Tom Price.
Spot next to a mining truck in the town of Tom Price
We decided to camp a night at a sheep station (Giralia), but found out when we arrived that we had missed the shearing by a week – again maybe there will be a next time! Still we had a lovely evening with one of the stationhands and again were given cold beer – the luck of the Irish was back in force!!
Our next national park was also fantastic – Cape Range National Park on the Ningaloo Reef – we camped on the beach and spent our days snorkelling and reading (oh Dave did take breaks to watch the Australia v West Indies test match). The coral and marine life that we saw was something else – even in knee deep water we saw reef sharks, rays and millions of little fish. The colours were just stunning. Neither of us have been to the Great Barrier Reef on the east coast of Australia, but the Ningaloo Reef and Coral Bay were super impressive and not at all crowded – it is a must for any of you who ever get out this way.
Coral Bay, Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia
We then visited the World Heritage site of Shark Bay and viewed the stromatolites – apparently the oldest living creatures (3.5 billion years! as visited by Bill Bryson in his ‘Down Under’ book).
Shark Bay
Monkey Mia is also in Shark Bay and famous for it’s dolphins that swim to shore everyday, well that is except for the day that we were there (that Irish luck had run out again). It was really, really windy so when the dolphins didn’t show we didn’t hang around, plus we were really keen now to get to Perth. So it was one more stop at the Pinnacles Desert – thousands of limestone pillars standing in the sand – and now here we are in Perth.
At the Pinnacles Desert, Western Australia
Christmas Day will be spent with Alison and James and some of their friends, time on the beach and then a BBQ on their balcony – life is hard!!
We’ll post again next year. Thank you all for your Christmas Greetings and have a great festive season.
(We apologise in advance for the length of this post, but there seems to be a lot to tell)
Hot, hot, hot is the way it has been over the past few weeks. We have had a period of about 14 consecutive days where the temperature reached at least 40 degrees Celsius, and that was in the shade!
And of course Spot does not have the modern luxury of air conditioning. So our days (and some of the nights) have revolved around water – if we are not drinking it by the gallon, we try and submerge ourselves in it. Our hottest night so far was in Wyndham, the northernmost town of the Kimberley region of Western Australia, where at 42 degrees we could not sleep a wink so at 4.30am Shaz was up and in the swimming pool!
Amazingly though we are coping with the heat rather well, it is the mosquitoes and bugs that drive us to drink.
Dave hoisting our solar shower, a lifesaver in these hot conditions.
National Parks
We have been to some of the most amazing places over the past few weeks. After our refreshing stop in Darwin (which was a fairly non-descript place) we headed to Litchfield National Park and camped by some beautiful waterfalls for a few nights.
We even had guests over for after dinner drinks one evening – an English couple we had met in Kakadu – and managed to polish off our supply of gin and bacardi. We also were lucky enough to witness a full moon rising – just spectacular.
On to Katherine Gorge and our first domestic of the trip (not bad considering the conditions of 24 hours a day, 7 days a week together). We rented a canoe for the day to go through Katherine Gorge, neither of us having canoed before, an argument was on the horizon, especially as Shaz was particularly tense having seen the crocodile traps in the river (only freshwater crocs which apparently are not aggressive unless you are unlucky enough to disturb them). It all blew up at the first set of rapids when we did not have a clue what we were doing, but we got through them, and the next three sets and got into the swing of things. By the end of the day we were knackered, but had enjoyed ourselves after all.
Our next national park in the Northern Territory was Keep River, which we practically had to ourselves. Unfortunately it was not at its best as a local drunk had decided to light fires while on a walkabout and the landscape was now rather lunar looking. Still it was lovely and peaceful.
4 Wheel Driving in Western Australia
From Keep River we drove on to Kununurra in Western Australia where we started our 4 wheel drive adventure – Spot took a rest while we hired a Toyota Land cruiser and packed the tent for a week to drive the Gibb River Road which had been recommended by quite a few people.
One of the many river crossings on the Gibb River Road.
Our first night of bush camping and those storms we had been hoping to see while in the comfort of Spot now came crashing down around us in our little two-man tent!
Needless to say we were up with the sun at 4.30am and on the road again. The scenery was not as good as we had hoped and due to the lateness of the season many of the cattle stations normally open to tourists were now closed. We did manage to visit one station, which was fascinating – a million acres with just one guy living there – he sees his cattle about once a year! In the wet season these stations are often cut off for up to 4 months, and rely on supplies being flown in. The rains had not arrived just yet, so the rivers we had to cross were not too deep.
The road did get more scenic and we camped at a few lovely gorges – Dave under the stars and Shaz in the tent – and often had the places to ourselves. Dave has become quite a master at lighting and cooking on fire and we have had some excellent campfire meals.
The Bungle Bungles
The Bungle Bungle Range, the Kimberley region, Western Australia
The highlight of this 4WD adventure was the Bungle Bungle National Park – it was just surreal, and the 55km road into it was a true 4WD track. Shaz decided that this should be the testing ground for sports bra manufacturers – her Berlei shock absorber didn’t quite live up to it’s name – an over the shoulder boulder holder may have been more useful! We had another storm (7 hours of rain) while staying here (Dave tried to sleep in the back of the Land cruiser) and woke up to the loudest frog chorus we’d ever heard! The sights of this trip have only been a part of it, it is the sounds and smells that make it such an adventure. We really are living a dream.
It was good to get back to Spot and all his comforts, and to get back to the luxury of running water and public conveniences (it was hard work digging holes in 40+ degree heat).
Van camping in Western Australia
The prince and the frog
After one and two night stops over the last few weeks we decided to camp up for a week to relax and not drive. We are in Broome camping at Cable Beach, probably one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and where the sea breeze feels just fantastic.
The only problem here is it is not just the two of us sleeping in Spot – Dave awoke the other night to find a jolly green frog on his tummy and threw him out of the van, only for him to return two hours later. Thank heavens it was not on Shaz or the entire campsite would have known about it! When the campsite manager said to Dave you should have kissed it as it may have turned into a beautiful princess, he replied “yeah, but I don’t think the wife would be too happy”. We’re both quite happy with what we’ve got so we will leave the frog kissing to the Aussies!
Our over-friendly frog!
We will continue south down the coast and hopefully get to Perth in time to spend Christmas with our friends Al and James.
A word from Dave
After a recent conversation with Danny (my brother) it seems that we have been a bit remiss with our basic information.
His first question was regarding where we were staying. This can basically be divided into two categories – National Park campsites and town caravan parks. The standard, and cost of these both vary. The NP sites vary the most, with facilities going from pit toilet only to full facilities with fresh water, hot showers, electricity and bbqs. The price goes from $5.50 to $20 per night. The quality seems mainly to depend on the amount of visitors. All have been clean and well maintained.
Dave having a shave in one of the National Park campsites!
The town sites (a town being a group of dwellings with a population of more than a hundred) all have the basic amenities, the difference mainly being how well maintained they are. Some have the added bonus of a pool. In fact all the sites up North have had pools. The cost for these sites are from $15 to $25 per night depending on how touristy the area is. The Blue Mountains were the most expensive so far.
The next question involved water, Spot has a 40litre water tank so we just make sure that this is full when ever we get the opportunity. We also carry about 12 litres extra for drinking.
Food is bought in varying quantities and quality depending on whether we are going to be camping on a powered site. A powered site means we can use the fridge more effectively. It is supposed to be able to run on Gas but this doesn’t happen when the temp is 40+ outside.
Any other questions let us know.
Spot complete with awning in a town campsite Western Austraila
Hi, we're Sharon & Dave an active and adventurous Irish & English couple who've been travelling together for more than 20 years. These posts are our travel stories and personal journeys. Follow our adventures to see where we've been and where we're going next!
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