Pete and Nina on Tour: A welcome break in Suffolk

Summer is here and thankfully the start of a return to a normal (ish) life

Double jabbed and with a full tank of diesel we take the four hour drive down to Suffolk to stay on the site near Emilja and Richard for the next six weeks

Safely settled in and with the use of Emilja's car for the duration we start to make some radical plans about our future touring

Early on in our stay good friends Pat & Jane come to stay in the motorhome and a Suffolk itinery is planned to make the most of their stay

Obviously this was on the list!

Southwold too

An evening pigging out at The Four Horseshoes in Thornham Magna

Keith (Richard's Brother) runs a very nice cafe in Stowmarket so we take our chums to sample the delights of his establishment

After saying our farewells our next few days are spent soaking up the sun visiting the local parks and nature reserves to help with Nina's rehab

Nice to get out and about in the car as well after having made and executed a tough decision

So here's the thing.....

After much soul searching and facing up to the reality that Nina just isn't going to be comfortable riding the bike here or in Europe I ride to the dealership one saturday morning to discuss them selling the bike for me in their showroom

Totally top of the range bike with low mileage (thanks Covid) and kitted out with the very best it sells that first weekend and we are left feeling gutted...

Nina's ability to walk any real distance has been cruely taken from her and we have stumbled across an idea to return to touring both the UK and Europe effectively in the near future

Keeping us going throughout those long winter months with the bike tucked up in the garage was viewing many bike touring vids on Youtube

One particular guy (Richy Vida) and his mates put out several touring vids of Norway and we noticed in most of his stills of bikes lined up there were campervans (Ducato Van conversions) parked up in the background at various viewpoints and stopovers...

An epic light bulb moment for us both!

A life changing injury and Brexit restrictions have really stuffed us so some creative thinking was required

Why not buy a van conversion, do three month tours of Europe in that and return for effectively six months in the RV set up in different UK locations?

Use the van as daily transport here in the UK and indeed discover the far flung areas of our own Isles as well as six months overseas

Two vans! Well why not?

Viewing suitable campervans in the UK at the moment is almost a non event as most available have been sold including the demonstrators leaving dealers with nothing to take to shows or have available on forecourts for prospective purchasers to view

With a mere 24hrs to spare we managed recently to secure the last available build spot for a Dreamer van conversion for 2022 so now have a very long wait until next spring/summer to take delivery

We feel its an excellent way forward for us to rekindle our love of travel and visit the places we could not get to even with our first motorhome

The possibilities for us are endless and it will enable Nina to make the best of the situation having had the freedom to walk all day where she wanted taken away so cruelly