Our beloved Rosabella had failed the MOT with four pages of faults, mainly to do with rust, and we'd decided that she'd come to the end of the road.
We hastily rearranged our October holiday and while we sat on the beach in France we started to plan her successor -
"I think we should try to get an old minibus - it'll have a high top and loads of windows, and would be fun to convert".
"Yeah, not too big though, and we don't need a shower or a loo or anything like that - we've never had them before and its been OK"
"Right, and we'll take our time, we've got all winter"
"Good, that's settled then"
So, we arrived home to my house in the early hours of Saturday and at about 10.30 set off for hers to feed the cat and sort out cars. On the way, we passed a van showing a 'For Sale' notice, in a front garden. When we stopped at the traffic lights for the roadworks I got out and asked her if she'd seen it. She hadn't, but she suggested we went and had a look - "might get some ideas," was what she said.
That's how, a couple of hours later, we were the owners of a five berth, left hand drive, 1989 FFB Europa on a Fiat Ducato, with a loo, shower, kitchen and a ladder on the back (I'd always wanted a ladder on the back - you could almost jump up to reach the roof of the old Rosabella!)
And we've just had our first weekend away in The Rosabella II. I managed to blow the fuses a couple of times, I still haven't worked out what all the switches do (we've never had a control board before and the instructions are all in German!), and we haven't tried the loo yet.
We can't get her in to the little nooks and crannies that we used to use on wild camping trips, and she's a bit more than our 'tent on wheels' principle used to allow - but I can't wait to get out again!!
The Rosabella II is go!
We hastily rearranged our October holiday and while we sat on the beach in France we started to plan her successor -
"I think we should try to get an old minibus - it'll have a high top and loads of windows, and would be fun to convert".
"Yeah, not too big though, and we don't need a shower or a loo or anything like that - we've never had them before and its been OK"
"Right, and we'll take our time, we've got all winter"
"Good, that's settled then"
So, we arrived home to my house in the early hours of Saturday and at about 10.30 set off for hers to feed the cat and sort out cars. On the way, we passed a van showing a 'For Sale' notice, in a front garden. When we stopped at the traffic lights for the roadworks I got out and asked her if she'd seen it. She hadn't, but she suggested we went and had a look - "might get some ideas," was what she said.
That's how, a couple of hours later, we were the owners of a five berth, left hand drive, 1989 FFB Europa on a Fiat Ducato, with a loo, shower, kitchen and a ladder on the back (I'd always wanted a ladder on the back - you could almost jump up to reach the roof of the old Rosabella!)
And we've just had our first weekend away in The Rosabella II. I managed to blow the fuses a couple of times, I still haven't worked out what all the switches do (we've never had a control board before and the instructions are all in German!), and we haven't tried the loo yet.
We can't get her in to the little nooks and crannies that we used to use on wild camping trips, and she's a bit more than our 'tent on wheels' principle used to allow - but I can't wait to get out again!!
The Rosabella II is go!
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