A VW at last and a change in direction

I have wanted a VW-based campervan for as long as I can remember.  I have always warmed to the proportions and the simple style of almost every iteration of the van over the years.  Even though today's variants are larger than their forebears, I have liked the fact that the quiet anonymity of them enables camping in out of the way spots, offering the option to experience open country rather than always being parked next to numerous other vans in a field.  We had tried to wild camp with rented motorhomes in the past, but the big white coachbuilts stick out like a sore thumb in a landscape and I guess draw attention to the local inhabitants that you are there (some of whom will be perfectly OK with that, but some will definitely not).  Apologies to big white motorhome owners who love their vans - I know they are great for touring etc, and we have rented plenty in the past, but stealth campers they're not.

The fact that we were homing in on a possible purchase of a VW camper was an exiting prospect early in 2019 and we had an option to "try before you buy".    Jerba Campervans - https://www.jerbacampervans.co.uk/ - make a few of their Volkswagen conversions available for hire each year and if like us, you plan to buy one, the hire cost of one week is deducted from the sale price.  So in March 2019 we booked one of their Sanna models to determine whether a smaller van was going to suit us before winning the lottery or robbing a bank in order to buy one.

Perth
By Ingo Mehling - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41938269

We chose the Sanna because after our factory visit in January, the layout seemed right - complete with its all important fixed toilet.  This was I guess a compromise for Mrs B who was going along with me on the VW option, but was in reality still thinking in terms of larger van with shower and toilet.  The Sanna is based on a long wheelbase Volkswagen Transporter and has four travel seats that fold into two single beds, plus a kitchen area at the rear and a fixed toilet under a folding cover at the very back of the van.  The rising roof hinges at the front of the van to give headroom when standing in the kitchen and a drop down slatted bed-frame in the roof offers a double bed option.

I have no idea why we had decided that this was the perfect layout after our factory visit, because on the morning that we were picking up our rental we were being shown around the workings of the van by Cath (one of Jerba's co-founders) and it was obvious that Mrs B was having doubts.  A consequence of the design is that there really isn't any room in the middle of the van.  The two rear seats and the two front seats are quite close, so there is no real floor area and no sense of a place to sit and relax of an evening.  If you had a dog (we don't just now but have in the past and plan to again) there would be no floorspace for it at all.  There was a more standard layout (kitchen units on one side and rear bench seat) short wheelbase Jerba Tiree parked just behind our proposed Sanna rental and a quick view inside confirmed that we could definitely forego the luxuries of a fixed toilet in favour of the openness and sense of space that the traditional layout gives you.

Jerba did some juggling, a quick clean and top up of water on the Tiree that we'd been admiring and we were very shortly on our way with a completely different van with a perfectly practical "porta potti" option.  At this rate of minimal luxury acceptance, I might persuade Mrs B that all we really needed was a hammock and tarpaulin - but I am not pushing my luck!  Jerba were amazing and totally understood that it takes time to figure out what works and what doesn't and were able to send us on our way very happy with our hire.

I had planned a bit of a route that for a change took us up the east side of Scotland to explore the Cairngorms, Speyside and the Moray Firth.  I knew quite a few places that I wanted to revisit, having previously lived in Aberdeen and having friends and relatives that lived on the Moray coast.  Our first stop was intended to be Blairgowrie, but as seems to be our habit, we had only just passed Perth and pulled in to the Scone Camping and Caraving Club site instead.  We had in mind that we would be able to park up and then walk back along the river into Perth for something to eat (the delay in changing vans had made us quite late).  Unfortunately there isn't really a "walk along the river" option so we had to drive back into Perth to search for our dinner.  We may just have been tired, but didn't find much to choose from in Perth.  We did eat, but it wasn't the first night feast we had in mind and Perth didn't seem the neat wee city that I had in my mind's eye.

Early start to Skye - apologies again to Scone Campsite

Our second major change of mind for that day happened as we were having dinner and far from heading northeast (we were already well on our way), we decided that the call of the western highlands was just too strong and that in the morning we would head west instead.  My second apology of this blog is to the good folk of the Scone Caravan Club site, because having not really read the blurb that they gave me I didn't realise that there should be no movement on the site between 11pm and 7am.  We had woken at 5am and were determined to get heading west as soon as possible and didn't understand why the barrier wouldn't open for us about 45 minutes later.  The onsite warden let us know very clearly why it was locked shut when I called him to let us out, but to be fair, he did open the barrier and let us free.  I don't think we covered ourselves in glory and repeat my apology for being a newbie campervanner who couldn't be bothered to read the site guide.

Our hire van with a little shelter from the rocks at Ord.  Not enough as it turned out.

Our first stop was the Isle of Skye and after a short explore we settled on a place for the night, parked beside the shore at Ord on the west coast.  It was a beautiful spot, but was already pretty windy, as winter storm "Freya" was starting to blow.  We decide that given the conditions, we would certainly sleep on the lower bed and not even attempt to raise the roof.  I also parked so that we were facing the wind in the hope that the van's natural aerodynamics might help soften the blow of the storm at our fairly exposed site.  This may have been my second newbie mistake in as many days, because had I watched the weather forecast I would have seen that the wind direction was due to swing round in the night, causing the full force of Freya to batter us broadsides.  And it did indeed batter us.  It felt like a team of people were shaking the van from side to side all night, the wind noise was deafening and the rain sounded like someone was throwing bucket after bucket of stones at the van.  Slightly delirious through lack of any sleep at all, we were up early with all our wet weather gear on determined to be "outside" on our campervan adventure.  Freya was still doing her best to flatten everything and the rain was biblical, but we did get a walk, leaning in to the wind, before retreating to the warmth of our Tiree and a welcome bowl of porridge.

Loch Slapin and a sign?

The weather on Skye was kinder over the next few days and we had an amazing time reacquainting ourselves with the island.  We camped at the head of Loch Slapin for a couple of days, with a magnificent view over a snow-sprinkled Blà Bheinn.  We attempted to climb the peak on one day, but the snow and ice near the summit top really looked like we needed better footwear, so one for another day.  We also revisited our camping spot at Ord for our last night on Skye and the conditions were so different - a wonderful night's sleep beside a calm sea on a benign early spring night.

We only had the van for a week, but managed to fit in a quick hop over to the Isle of Arran as a final fling before handing it back to Jerba in North Berwick.  We stopped down at Seal Shore Campsite in Kildonan - https://www.campingarran.com/ - a favourite spot and conveniently next to a hotel.  So it was beer on tap and someone else doing the cooking for the last night - excellent.  Arran has been a family favourite for many years and always brings a smile to our faces when we visit.  I have no recollection of what we did on this short stop, even though it was relatively recently.  Trips to Arran tend to blend into each other in my memory.  I do remember that my faithful walking boots gave up on me on that visit by shedding the sole of my left boot.  It was a fitting place for them to tread their last, as they had plodded around most of the island for many years.

A victim of this trip - laying my walking boots to rest on Arran after their terminal sole failure.

This seems to have been a blog post about our predilection for changing our minds, about apologising to the Caravan Club, the people of Perth, Motorhome owners and I guess apologies to northeast Scotland for favouring the west coast in the end.  I meant it to be about our first experience in a VW campervan, but I can summarise that really easily.  We absolutely loved it.  It drove like a car and despite it's diminutive size, had a real sense of space inside.  Flinging the side door open meant that you had a fabulous view of the outside world and everything in the van was well designed, fitted and worked.  Lack of a shower or toilet proved no problem at all.  The "porta potti" perfectly fine when needed and stowed away when not and the occasional campsite visit is fine for a shower.  It is I know a cliché used to describe boat cabin design as well, but it really IS "clever how the space is utilised".  We handed the keys back, having had an excellent time in the Tiree and now discussing ways in which we could make ownership of one of these fantastic vans a reality.