My Essentials for a Camper Van Trip

We got given a copy of The Camper Van Cookbook for our first wedding anniversary (paper, you see) and there's a big section on getting sorted for your trip, with a list of essentials for the storecupboard (aka cupboards built into the hefty back doors).


Here's the list from the book:

• Tea bags, jar of coffee and UHT Milk (ick! Who wants to ever drink UHT! Far better to pick up a fresh pint from a garage on the way)
• Bottle of wine (agreed, and add Gin and Tonic too)
• Sunflower and olive oil
• Tomato puree
• Olives
• Jar of pesto
• Porridge oats (we take bacon, and eggs from our chooks)
• Biscuits
• Jar of peanut butter and jam (our jam's homemade, natch, and we always take some chutney)
• Nuts and dried fruit (we substitute haribos)
• Dried mushrooms (so rarely used at home, let alone whilst camping, so no)
• Pasta, couscous and rice
• Tins of chopped tomatoes, chick peas, beans, sweetcorn, tuna and coconut milk (yes to all except the last one, plus we take some tinned tomato soup)
• Fresh basics - onion, lemons, limes, garlic, ginger and parmesan (or if you're us, just wang in whatever's ripe in the garden)

There's a load of condiments listed too, but I tend to just take a spice box (paprika, cumin, coriander, chilli powder and mixed herbs) plus the essential BROWN sauce for fry ups and bacon sarnies. I also chuck in a loaf of bread and usually a cake. 

For our upcoming trip to Ireland I've whipped up the exceedingly easy and delicious (I know cos I made 2 and ate one already) golden syrup cake from The Pink Whisk. I loved Great British Bake Off and Ruth was my fave baker on the show, everything with a wacky twist and all in a blink of the eye - brilliant.  Here's a wee glimpse of some of the goodies coming with us this time around:

We won't go hungry, that's for sure!

The Lovebus!

We'd managed to get Trevor looking ace for our wedding day (we drove off from the church in Trevor, and spent our first night in the van after our marquee/field wedding...romantical? No, but it was a 3 minute stumble from the marquee so convenience rating was high) - and he then had the honour of being our honeymoon vehicle.  It was nearly 2 years ago that we wed but the honeybops were a watershed Trevor moment, so here's a superquick run through 'em!

The start of our honeymoon was dead posh, spent at the Randolph Hotel in Oxford - don't you think we blend in? (the concierge's face was a picture):

only everso slightly conspicuous

 We then headed down to the south coast to catch the ferry to Swanage, which was our first stop. We were driving along the coast in glorious sunshine and the van was going great, and looking brilliant:

Spot the lovebus!

 We had a great few days at the Swanage carnival, the highlight of which was the wheelbarrow race - absolutely bonkers dash around 9 pubs (downing half pints at each one).  For most of the trip we stayed at lush wee campsites like this one outside Swanage:

Somewhere near Swanage in a field

 ...But for the night of the wheelbarrow race we wanted to be in town, so stayed the night in a car park:

Our car park overnighter, and the hallowed wheelbarrow which was taken home with us...
..that's right, it was carried round for a fortnight in the van...

 Following our lovely time in Swanage, it was off to Paignton and Torquay, where the food varied - we had some awesome champagne BBQs, and an amazing fish dinner at No. 7 in Torquay (I really rate this restaurant, I preferred it to Rick Stein's place) - but then we also had an evening where I cooked up an Argentinian stew from my charity shop purchase, the 1963 edition of the Good Cook's Encyclopedia - this stew involved boiling mince with pears, plums and raisins for about 2 hours....t'weren't good...

lovely job, nice champagne BBQ

And the contrasting 'Argentinian Stew'....we washed it down with a LOT of red wine

Unfortunately towards the end of our Honeybop, Trevor was making some nasty noises, and starting to develop a rattle. By the last day, this had become an all out bone shaking vibration accompanied by a constant drone which meant we couldn't listen to the radio or talk to each other. The gear stick was also decidedly shaky throughout any journey, providing a higher pitched rattle to go with the deep bass drone.  We were glad to reach home without a breakdown ride, even though it meant after 6 hours of driving through the noise and shaking we both had headaches and terrible back pain!

Update from the Husband: Apparently the problem here was the propshaft front CV joint - the bearings had disintegrated, so it was a joint rattling in its housing. Fixed the following day, after getting a new bearing for a tenner...and back on the road without the noise!