2016 was the year in which our dream of travelling around Europe in a motorhome turned into a reality. At the beginning of the year our plan was for me to quit my job and head off in June 2017, but my mid-2016 our thinking changed and we decided to bring that forward.
We had been to the motorhome show at the NEC in 2015 and seen all the different types of motorhomes and the interior layouts. With this, and having followed many blogs and Facebook groups, we had decided on the sort of motorhome layout which we thought would work for us, and so we rented one out for a week in September with a view to buying a motorhome shortly afterwards to “try before we buy”.
We spent a fab week travelling around Norfolk in the rented motorhome, and this confirmed that the layout did indeed work for us. One week later we had put a deposit down on our motorhome, and the following week I handed in my notice at work.
Since then the time has flown by. Carol’s been very busy clearing the house out, getting rid of loads of ‘stuff’ that we won’t be keeping (it’s amazing the number of things we’ve bought over the years which we didn’t really need, and the amount of stuff that should have been thrown out, but we kept ‘just in case’); some of the local charity shops have done quite well, and the bin men have been kept busy. We’ve done some decorating where needed before we can rent the house out, and also had the loft re-boarded so that we store some of the things that we want to keep.
We’ve had a few weekends away in the van up at Colchester, and we’ve gradually filled it with all the equipment we’ll need whilst we’re travelling.
I’m just finishing working my three months notice, and our house is now on the rental market. As soon as we have a tenant signed up then we will be off, driving our way down to Andalucía, and from there, who knows? So exciting – bring it on!!
In the meantime we’ll be seeing the New Year in at the van – we might as well start getting used to it. Happy 2017 everyone!
Mike