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This months travelogues come from Dougie and his family during 2008 and from around Scotland, during testing and shakedown processes carried out on his T4 White Noise, during Surf-Bus > family camper proceedings were taking place.
Vehicle 200O series 2.5Tdi swb 2 berth C-M-C conversion
We seached high and low to find our T4 and after months of looking, and months of knocking back different models for different reasons, we finally fell in love with the T4 we currently own and call our mobile home, from home, we had been for teh past few weeks been fine tuning this van to suit our exact needs being a surf-bus it came without 240v power or any extra 12v power sockets or lighting which we had installed, we also fitted roofbars and a roofbox along with a better Hi-Fi and some other bits and pieces ready for our first trip out, after checking, double checking, filling all fluids, and stocking up on food stuffs, sleeping bags and a full compliment of accessories including Nintendo Ds, cards, our I-pod we were ready to go!!
May 08 Loch Lubnaig Strathyre Scotland
Our first shake down took place only a few miles, around 20 to be exact from our home at Loch lubnaig @ Strathyre with-in only a few weeks of purchasing our T4 in March, we had been so desperate to get away, that we did all we could to make our van as "Us" friendly as possible and off we went, on a lovely May afternoon, sun splitting the skies, pefect wild-camping weather, the nearest place we knew of at that time was at this loch, apart from around about Loch Lomond which is where we live so the area doesn't hold much excitment for us now, having been everywhere and seen it all so many times.
We set up camp alongside another van at about 4pm on that afternoon, still very unusually warm for this time of year, first things, first and we had to try to make our first ever cup of tea onboard, kettle out, tea bags out ect, and swivel front seats turned and table up, all was going well untill we realised that in our wisdom all our cutlery was in the back, requiring me to go out, around the back open the tailgate and
After our cup of tea, we set off for a walk up the banks of the loch, and a beautiful area it is, and a lovely walk we had to, more details of what you can do an see in this area are available at www.incallander.co.uk or indeed in our own Wild-Camping Spots Feature.
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After a lovely night spent watching the stars through our rear sunroof, convieniently placed over our heads whilst on our rock-n-roll bed, and playing "Brain Teaser" on our Nintendo DS, and a nice quite night was had by all, the only real problem we found with our van was over where to put certain things in it so as to be useable from anywhere in the van, and duly spent about half of the follwing day resorting where duvets, pillows and cups and plates would be stored, having now done this from a practical point of view with dishes, cutlery and tea making utensils etc under the sink area and bedding in the side tall cupboard making far more sense out of the, "what is best where" equation, it's a great game to play whilst away on a remote lochside incidentally to pull the entire contents out of your van resort them and put them all back, it certainly gets the neighbours talking, i personally think it should be made into a national sport for campervan owners a kind of "It's a Knock out" type of sense test, you shoul honestly try it, the looks we were getting made it all worthwhile.
Having now found to our great joy and of course relief that we were able to make full use of our van in the way we had always hoped to whilst planning and buyer it, that most importantly, i was able to both drive, and park it in tight spots, that the fridge does keep your milk cold overnight, and that with the rear seat cushions turned over so the back is facing outwards it is far more comfortable in a button backed cushion design such as ours, and my favorite as after many disagreements over the placing of 12v lights in our van that my led lights at both sides at the rear on the side walls at just above head height is ideal to supply reading and background lighting as i said it would of, [women i don't know], all in all it was a great trip all be it for only the one night but it seved it's purpose in showing us everything worked and could be used by ourselfs who were at the end of the day the only persons in the equation who mattered anyway, it's all about personal choices we have made ours, set our van up the way we feel we will get the best use from it, and would strongly suggest that you do likewise, if you are reading this before purchase, when you do finally purchase fill your van with everything you beleive you could ever need and then try it all out and i gaurentee you will ends up like us unloading about half of the total, you first packed and never take it with you again, but still a very worthwhile excercise all the same.
Our van was now set to take us where ever we wanted to go our next stop would be a long weekend in The lake District more of which later....
[As night fell over the loch]
Our Members travelogues from their personal travels around the UK and Europe, been anywhere really exciting recently it could be your story next, send yours to us now at t4club@live.co.uk
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T4 - T5 Club UK
"We Simply Try Harder"
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