200 days away in last 12 mths... (1 Viewer)

[activecampers]

And I mean in the van - not in prison

The year seems to have gone rather quickly - starting with Holland, North Germany; then Spain and Portugal; then Scotland, Switzerland and Italy, followed by our last trip in France. From the sun in the med and the Algarve, to snowboarding in Spain and France, and a huge amount inbetween. 17,000 miles and 200 days, and spent a lot less than we imagined....

All in our 4.8m panel van with most of the latter trips being wild camping and/or aires.

Home now for 6 weeks or so due to certain projects that require us to be at home, but after that we'll be back out and about.

Info on our web site (in sig) along with more hints & tips gathered in the last year; wild-camping and aire locaitons on the last trips; and of course a route and diary which is essential as we've almost forgotten!

Oh - and if you want to see how good these little cavarno vans are, we're both going to be helping out on their stand at NEC next week....

 

[Judge Mental]

you lucky things!

what interests me is how you manage with your power requirements while wild camping...Have yo a solar panel?

 

[activecampers]

No solar.
2 x 100AH batteries. All lights LED.

Thats it! Laptop, stereo and all gizmos run off batteries. Never ever been at or below "mid green" on our battery meter....

We don't tend to "stay put" - maybe 3-4 days tops, so just driving has been enough to top them up. We may also have a night on a site every 2-3 weeks or so which I guess brims the batteries. (ACSI/CC type just to do the washing and hang it out!)

We're normally out n about rather than watching TV all day which I guess helps as TV/laptop are the 2 most energy sucking gadgets. I'd also say though we consider our usage of the van to be "no compromise" so we're not overly tight on energy usage - if we want it on we put it on....

If you want more info let us know

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[Judge Mental]

I have 2 batteries already and will probably change to LED lights soon