First big outing

[miller]

With the Delica due for some future big trips i have been slowly prepping it to how we want it, So we used the Easter Break to take us south to Cornwall and Devon to take in the sights and more importantly to check how we faired with the new modifications and if we needed any more. I suppose this thread could be in either forum of Modifications and or member trips

I like the Delica as it is and didnt want a ful blown camper, money dictates a full blown camper is best bought as one realy!! though i did want the Van to be semi self sufficient, this called for a leisure battery system. so to hide the battery i had this unit made up.



it proved not too overwhelming of the interior and added loads of usefull cubby holes! My idea of this was to enabling our portable two ring gas cooker to be safely used inside the van and also for two people to sit comfortably in the captains chairs and have this as a desk / table jobby, the laptop fits perfectly behind the drivers seat if/when it rains etc etc etc. Once the bed is down the cupboards are easily accesible as like us im sure many of you sleep with the feet to the rear thus enabling the captains chairs to spring up easily giving access to the unit.


i have now hooked the radio and the rear interior lights off the leisure battery and not the van batteries themselves, the rear cig socket also is now solely off the leisure battery. All the cab electrics are still as they were enabling normal use of the front when driving and hours of 'free' power to the rear. You can see ive loads of extra spurs off the fuse board enabling future additions such as TV / PC etc

Ive also recently added a rear access ladder plus a funky retro Jap wooden steerung wheel



Anyways our road trip consisted of 7 nights away, touring the south west in a clockwise direction from Exeter onwards, 5 of the seven nights were spent wildcamping with only two spent in designated campsites, so all in all our 'accomodation' cost us £20 for seven nights

We totalled 1080 miles roundtrip, filling four times using 195litres of diesel approx. this works out to be 25miles per gallon is this good or bad?

Anyways heres the scenic shots

Wildcamping on Bolberry Head near Salcombe in Devon

View from between our toes

Tintagel (birth place of king arthur)

Watching sunset over Wollacoombe bay eating fish and chips...


The view we woke up to at Wollacoombe Bay

North Devon coastline through Exmouth National Park

Delica on a ledge


Enjoy!!!!! we certainly did and got a bonus of brilliant weather which is rare in the UK Easter Break....

Mike

[konadog]

Awesome! Thanks for the great collection of shots. Glad you had a fun trip. And 25miles per gallon is pretty standard

[FalcoColumbarius]

Wow, thanks for the memories.

[marsgal42]

Thanks for the pictures!

This reminds me of my last U.K. roadtrip, London to Land's End, via (among other places) Tintagel and Stonehenge. I had a hire car (a nice Ford Focus, courtesy Avis in London) so I stayed in various hotels, from a pleasant B&B in Penzance to the Travelodge at the Leigh Delamere service area on the M4. My view on hotels is that once you have a comfortable bed and coffee in the morning, little else matters.

My longest RHD road trip is still Melbourne to Sydney, April 2002, via the great Ocean Road and the Newell Highway, looping around Victoria and NSW and coming in to Sydney from the north (yes, so I would have an excuse to drive across the Harbour Bridge). This is longer than my Kootenays trip last year...

...laura