We bought a camper van, but are we 'camper van people'? Camper Van Escapades 2026 - Pt I
A daily diary of our travels in Denmark, Germany, Belgium, (France), and mostly the UK, in May and June 2026 to bore everyone rigid! Well, hopefully not...
As some of you know we bought 8on a whim) a two year old motorhome back in the spring of 2025. I know, I know, I keep referring to a camper van when in reality it’s a seven metre long motorhome. I just like the term camper van better and to me it says everything about what it is… If you’re a motorhome aficionado then perhaps it would be advisable to stop reading now before I offend you further!
To date i.e. May 2026 we’ve taken a few short trips to various harbours around Denmark. And we’ve done a two week trip over to the UK to celebrate Mums 90th birthday, but that involved a lot of driving, a couple of nights each way in the van, and the rest of the time we had the luxury of a real bed and bathroom at Mums. The van then came into its own at home when it served us well as an extra bedroom for us at Christmas.
But… we’re still not convinced that we’re really ‘camper van people’. When we bought the van we first discussed it on a Friday night - yes, there was definitely alcohol involved - and by Monday we were driving three hours to the other side of Denmark to see one that Kim had found online.
It seemed like such a good idea. The biggest plus was that Evie (dog) could travel with us instead of going to kennels. We could explore Denmark properly - all but one holiday in the past 20 years has been to other countries. Then there was all of Europe and beyond. To travel we could just jump in the drivers seat and there was no need to get on a plane (I’ve done enough business travel in the past to last me a lifetime, or two!) or have the hassle of getting through airports or renting cars. We could drive over to the UK to visit Mum and see more of places we love like Scotland. It would serve as an extra spare bedroom on the drive when we ran out of guest space in the house. We might even rent it out for friends to enjoy.
Plus since I came so close to dying, three and a half years ago, we’ve been much more focused on getting out there and LIVING life. A camper van seemed like the perfect vehicle to do exactly that.
But did we think about the practicalities of living in a van or have an idea of what we were letting ourselves in for? The simple answer is most definitely… no!
Whether we’d thought it through or not the van was delivered to our drive just a couple of weeks later.
A little over a year on we’re still in testing mode and trying to acclimatize to van life. We oscillate almost daily from ‘sell the damn thing’ - first uttered after an incident with a low bridge when I was driving, the less said about that the better - to talking about all the trips we could do in it. Luckily, so far, we haven’t both said ‘sell it’ at the same time!
This year spring was (very) late in Denmark, and life too busy, for us to get away before now. So we’ve gone straight into another big van escapade to the UK - very different though to last year as we’ll be spending the majority of our time living and sleeping in the van. Which means I’ll have a lot of bruises - more on that in a later post.
Somehow getting tickets to see Matt Haig on his The Midnight Train book tour triggered us to plan a three week trip, with two of those in the UK - including Wheathampstead (St Albans), St. Ives (Cambridgeshire not Cornwall), Ely, Bedale (Yorkshire), Druridge Bay (Northumberland), Bamburgh Castle (also Northumberland), York, back to Wheathampstead, down to Folkestone (and a final stay at a pub for Sunday roast dinner), and then back onto Europe for (weather allowing) a little diddle up the west coast of Denmark, before heading home. Maybe we’ve been a little over enthusiastic in our planning?!
We’re already a week into our travels and I’m posting a note a day with pictures. But for those of you who don’t tend to look at ‘notes’ here on Substack I thought that I could bring them together for easy reading in a weekly post.
Below you’ll find an outline of each day and a link to each of the original notes that outlines what we’ve been up to. I’d love it if you’d be kind enough to add a like and a comment on the notes themselves - as well as on this post of course!
So here goes nothing - hope you enjoy!
Please note - all the photos are my own. And apologies to those who are weird kind enough to enjoy my voiceovers as logistics mean that I can’t include one today - perhaps I can add it when we get home in a couple of weeks.
Day 1 - May 22, 2026 - Home (Copenhagen) to Flensburg, Germany (315km)
Day 2 - May 23, 2026 - Flensburg to Bremen, Germany (282km)
Day 3 - May 24, 2026 - Bremen, Germany to Gistel, Belgium (575km)
Day 4 - May 25, 2026 - Gistel, Germany to Wheathampstead, UK via LeShuttle (268km excl. tunnel)
Day 5 - May 26, 2026 - Wheathampstead, UK (0km)
Day 6 - May 27, 2026 - Wheathampstead, UK + Matt Haig on The Midnight Train book tour, Rickmansworth (69km)
Day 7 - May 28, 2026 - Wheathampstead, UK (0km)
I’ll be back next week with the second installment of our camper van escapades.
Thank you for reading along. If you liked this post then I’d love it if you would click on the heart and add a comment about what resonated for you – it means a lot to me to hear from each and every one of you.
In case you missed it, I published my book - Hold My Hand: A Journey Back to Life - for FREE here on Substack last year. If you’d like to read it then you can find each chapter by clicking HERE and you’ll go directly to the webpage dedicated to the book.
If you would also be kind enough to share it I would be eternally grateful as it will help more people learn about these deadly infections. Maybe one day that knowledge will save a life.
Thank you!
Looks like a great trip. I love how tickets for a show resulted in an epic holiday. Excellent.
Wonderful, Jacqui. Looks liberating.
Fond memories of my parents owning a camper van years ago. They’d park up on my doorstep. Very handy, them bringing their own accommodation.