Getting Started Part 2

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Part 1 of starting vanlife. I am now with the van, and things are progressing. Slowly.

Day 4

08:00

After spending the night in the van (which it turns out I wasn’t meant to do in the storage place. But in my defence I had looked for a hostel, and the nearest place was over in the city, 2hrs by public transport.) I was pretty cold. I didn’t have a blanket, so that made its way to the top of my shopping list!

The mould cleaning continued. I’ve been using vinegar in addition to the baby wipes to clean the mould. And cat litter rolled into little bags using dried baby wipes, to help dry out the van. I’m not sure how much good the cat litter is doing. But I got some with air freshener in it (it was the same price as the regular stuff) so at least the van smells ‘meadow fresh’. The weather had been gloriously hot and sunny and so I’d left all the doors which worked open all day the day before. I left the side doors and the driver’s door open again today. Though I still can’t unlock the passenger door and I can’t open the rear doors. They are unlocked, the mechanism is just very stiff and won’t move.

10:00

The nice gentleman from the RV next door showed up again. He’s redecorating the inside of his RV, plastering the ceilings, removing the wasp nest, giving everything a lick of paint. He leant me a bottle of mould killer, which I was able to use to great effect on the kitchen units. He also leant me some tools. And so, after about 4 hrs of doing battle with a very stubborn bolt; I managed to get the old battery out.

14:00

Fitting the new battery was a doddle. I took the opportunity to change the way the stubborn bolt fitted. It was at a funny angle before and the whole length of it had been forced in cross-threaded. I put it in the correct way. It isn’t done up all the way but it’s solid enough to hold the battery securely. Which is all that I need it to do.

The engine started on the very first try with the new battery! I cheered! Neighbour Gentleman cheered! I turned the engine off and went back to cleaning the mould.

I managed to get the bed lifted up into a bench. Which allowed me access to some of the stuff stored underneath it. This confirmed that lots of my things were missing. Up until this point, I had been optimistically thinking that surely my friends had just managed to fit everything under the bed, and if only I can get to it, it’ll all be okay.

It’s not okay. The cooler, the inverter, the camping chairs, the bedding, the kitchen equipment, it was all gone. There were some half-full bottles of different fluids for the van, an old car vacuum cleaner, a battery booster pack with no charging cable, and an assortment of other items which due to their size I won’t be able to retrieve until I can get the door open.

20:00

There was a petrol station at the end of the road. I was able to use the ladies’ room there and they were kind enough to let me charge my phone since the battery had died along the way. I had ice cream for dinner while waiting for the phone to charge.

Later that night I tried to start the engine again. The engine would not start. Not even a little.

I went to bed. It’s too late to deal with this.

Link to part 3