Friday 14 September 2012

Fifty Shades of Dub #5


A few days late, but I've not forgotten it's time to feature another of your lovely dubs.  Last week it was all about Freebird ii  and this week we have another very lovely latebay...

 Bessie, a Type 2, 2ltr, RHD, 1979 Viking Conversion



Owned by

Rowena, Tim, Matt & Ellie Selwood

Resting in the shade after a long drive to Genoa.  (Rowena, Matt, Tim & Ellie Selwood)
Tell me more about Bessie...how did she get her name?

She's now called Bessie as this is what the children started to call her when we first got her – she was formally called Florence!   

How long have you owned Bessie?

We bought Bessie in 2009 just at the start of the summer holidays.  We had been looking round for one for a while, as we had done years of camping in a tent and decided we would like to ‘upgrade’ to a van.  The trouble we had was, as soon as one came on the market, it would be sold before we had a chance to go and look at it.  Then this one came up for sale only ½ hour from where we lived so we went to see it straight away.  




So Bessie is a Viking, what appealed about this particular conversion?

I don’t think we had appreciated all the different types of conversions that you could get, but we are so glad we went for a Viking. Our children, Matt & Ellie were 11 and 13 when we bought it and as they’ve grown they can still sleep ‘up the top’!  Matt who is now 14, generally chooses to sleep out in the awning if it’s for more than one night, but can still fit in if necessary.



Have you done anything to Bessie since you've owned her?

We have not changed anything inside or out except for the curtains, since we got her.  She is in really good condition and all in all, I think we got a bargain!


Tell us about your first trip away in Bessie?

As we already had a holiday planned that year in Yorkshire and the Lake District, we decided to drive  the van instead of the car, although we would not be sleeping in it.  We only had one slight problem – a fuel pipe split and we were being followed by a trail of fuel around Ambleside by the time we realised why we had such a strong smell of petrol!





The friendly local garage had us on the move again within an hour and for only £10!  Can’t complain at that!! 

Phew, that sounds like you had a very lucky escape, as fuel leaks are a major cause of fires in the engine bay!!

What have used Bessie for since then?


My husband, Tim, was using the van for travelling to and from work, but we have since cut down on the small local journeys to avoid too much wear and tear!  We have a great local garage that has a VW expert that has always managed to repair it so far. 

So in 2010, we decided to embark on a ‘European Tour’, taking in 9 countries – France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland & Lichtenstein!  Tim planned the route and we booked the campsites ahead before we went.  There was a worrying moment when the clutch went the Friday before we were leaving on the Monday – but our lovely garage friends came to the rescue and had it fixed and ready to go.


We took several spare parts and a tool kit to cover all eventuality of breakdown,  packed up and off we went for almost 4 weeks.  It was brilliant fun.  We don’t have a satnav – Tim won’t have one of them – being a true Cub Scout Leader, we do it all by maps….which is fine when he is navigating, not quite so fine when I am.  The Prague Ring Road was definitely my undoing – we must have travelled out and back along every possible road (in torrential rain), which reduced me to tears at one point before we found the campsite – ironically called ‘Sunny Camp’!!!  The only 2 places we got lost were Poland and the Czech Republic – OK, so I may have been navigating both times – but it was their signposting honest!!  It was also to Tim’s utmost glee, that the only time we were stopped by the police was when I was driving.  They do a lot of ‘spot checks’ in Europe which can be quite comical with the language differences.  The German police wanted to see the ‘Papers of the Woman’!!!!

Tucked away in the campsite at Potsdam near Berlin.
We had one ‘mechanical failure’ after we had stopped at Calais on the way home.  When we came to start up again – nothing happened.  After several minutes of stunned silence, deep thought and rising panic, Tim was inspired to whack the starter motor with a hammer, which did the trick!
2011 saw us camping at Treveague Farm in Cornwall – a lovely campsite where you can walk to the beach (a good 20 minutes!) and in the evening they have a hide where you can watch a badger set.





This year, as we failed to get Olympic tickets, we decided to do another ‘European Tour’, this time going to Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Italy, and France.  We booked most of the campsites ahead this time, but not all of them as this allowed us to be more flexible.  We could probably have got into most of them by just turning up without a booking.  The exception was Florence, as there only seemed to be one campsite within walking distance of the city and we are definitely glad we had booked as it was really full.  We try and pick campsites that are either within walking distance of the places we are visiting, or have easy access to public transport links.  It just saves having to keep packing everything away & the hassle of trying to find a car park without a height restriction!
We spent the majority of the time in Italy, driving as far south as Rome.  We were meant to go to Sorrento too, but it was so hot (high 30s and up into the 40s at times), we decided to stay put and visit Pompeii by train from Rome.  This worked well even though it was a long day.  The electrics on the van also started behaving strangely – no headlights, only side lights and the wipers only worked if you held it on main beam and neither the horn or the hazzard lights worked.  But, we had no mechanical problems despite the heat and driving 2590 miles!   Not bad for an old girl!



Thank you very much for sharing Bessie with us, she is very lovely.  I'm incredibly impressed by the amount of travelling you've done in her, our campers all get a bit homesick if they leave Blighty but you never know, one day!

You can follow Rowena on twitter, @rowenaselwood 



If you'd like to appear with your dub just shout  Custard Campers, vw campervan hire Essex.  We'd love to hear from you.

Kerry x

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