Gibbs Gap Year

Visiting The Vets in Spain Bailey, the cheeky little monkey, has been snouting around in bushes, on beaches, and by bins the entire time we've been away. Occasionally she decides to eat something from one of these areas, and it is of course a game to her where we have to chase her to retrieve the unidentified object. We took a gamble by not buying any pet insurance to cover her, so it was only a matter of time until we discovered if that was the right choice. The three of us have been struggling with the heat for a fair while now, as the south of Spain in June is an awful lot hotter than we anticipated. It was apparent that she wasn't feeling herself, but we weren't too worried, as we were regularly wetting her ears and paws to cool her down, and trying to make sure there was shade available for her to go and pant under. Then she got the poops. We weren't too worried at first, thinking it could be a result of her food changing, as we couldn't alwa...

We recently agreed that meeting other interesting people is perhaps the best part of travelling, even more so than the beautiful places we visit. With such positive experiences under our belt, we were not prepared for the day ahead... We were on an unmarked, long and windy dirt road around a cliff. It was a little slopey, and there was only shade where another car had parked, so we sat, lopsided and sweltering for the afternoon, hoping the car would move. As the sun began to set, we figured it wasn't going anywhere, so we set up the bed for the night and began making dinner. It was at this point a young chap appeared from down the cliff side, sweating profusely and taking a break in the shade. Bailey barked at him a little, but then spotted the piece of bamboo he was using as a walking stick. She wouldn't leave him alone, but he seemed ok with having a very tired play with her. Not too long afterwards, a woman and child came by and they were happy to see each other. She ...

5 Storage Solutions For A Campervan Downsizing to a van and finding a way to store everything you need to live is challenging, so every bit of space counts. Here are some of the ways that we saved space or created extra storage in our van. Hanging Tea/Coffee/Sugar Containers Save kitchen counter or cupboard space by hanging them from a high cupboard. The lid is screwed to the bottom of the cupboard so that you unscrew the bottom rather than taking the lid off. I had seen a photo of something like this when we were researching, but we struggled to find the right type of containers. We were adamant that they needed to be plastic just in case they fell, and obviously they need to be screw-top, but finding something suitable wasn't easy. Luckily, on our last day of shopping we came across these rose gold disco balls that are actually drink flasks, which is even better because they have a straw hole in the top where we put the washer and screw, p...

While we were parked up at the beautiful beach of our Huelva stopover, we encountered many interesting things. The first, a man from another camper, wearing nothing but underpants and then proceeding to undress and wash for all to see. The second, three gorgeous stray dogs who can’t have been more than 2 years old, one girl (who looked like she had been weaning) and two boys. Once we confirmed they were timid, we welcomed them with some of Baileys’ biscuits and a copious amount of water, whereas we caught captain underpants throwing huge rocks at them to keep them away from their picnic. I stared him down so that he didn't do it again! The third, was our neighbours who pulled up on the second night we stayed. They were both from Spain, had lived in London for a number of years, and were driving an Italian converted camper.  We spoke with them about their journey, and what they did for a living on the road. The man was a website technician, and as long as the places they pa...

We'd only known that we wanted to visit Gibraltar for a week or so, and were really intrigued to see what the little country (about 2 square miles) had to offer us. We did a little research first, as we weren't sure if it was so English that we would be driving on the left hand side of the road again or not! We only knew that they used the British Pound. It also looked like we might have a problem parking the van there, as there were only 3 stops signposted on Park4Night .  We prepared ourselves for the fact that it might just be a day trip into the centre and back into Spain for the night if the spots weren't suitable, and off we set, ready to cross the border.  We got all three of our passports out, and started on the relatively short drive. It was the first time on our entire trip that someone actually wanted to look at Bailey's passport, and, like at the French border for the Eurotunnel, Bailey actually liked the guard who spoke to us. Once we’d cross...