So, we finally got Shaun! A surprisingly long wait, but well worth it.

We had sold our last motorhome, a very comfortable Burstner Aviano i728g, expecting Shaun to be ready a lot sooner than it was (over a year late!). We filled our time exploring through doing house / pet sits throughout the UK. This was a great experience. We looked after some great pets, in wonderful of England, so carrying on being happiest whilst exploring. We also got to spend precious time with family and friends, including buying a cheap old caravan so we could have a planned family holiday in wet Southern Ireland! It was so wet, on the last the day the bottom started to fall off the caravan, aargh!!

Finally, on 9/5, we collected Shaun from Motorcraft, it was a bit touch and go with the MOT, but worked out ok in the end.  We had stored some of our belongings there and our first big task was to find places to stash everything!! We left Doncaster at 7 pm and had a long drive back to North Wales!

Then we drove to our base in North Wales, to another huge load of stuff, and spent many hours finding homes for yet more stuff. This process continued for weeks (and continues to this day), as Mark made shelves and various storage solutions. We are genuinely surprised how much we have stashed around our new home. The challenge will to be remember where everything is. 

Mark also spent some time with a great mechanic called Steve who did a mechanical engine check on Shaun, with Mark watching closely to learn more about how the truck worked.

We started our journey around the UK to show Shaun to friends and family.

Firstly, we drove to South Wales, and spent time with Julie’s family and seeing old friends. The first response when people see Shaun is usually WOW, it’s so big!!! Then, when people see the interior, they tell us they love it.

Not only do people we know admire our home. People driving along, people in the street or campsites stop and look and we have had numerous conversations about our home and planned adventures. Overwhelmingly the response is positive. Shaun is  definitely a conversation starter.

One of the first challenges we had to deal with was a leak in the roof around the skylight. It had rained heavily all day in Cardiff. We had been out to a concert, Kelly Jones, and heard him play his brilliant new album. When we return home, we opened the door we saw and heard water leaking, and our new seating area and table were soaked. Motorcraft were great, told us to get back to them asap, and they were able to fix it and deal with some other small snagging issues too. We were really glad we had got the best fabric available for our sofa as there was no sign of water damage!

Then, off to Northern Ireland to see Mark’s old school friends and family and parked on Steph and Glen’s (Marks sister and husband) drive for a couple of weeks, while Mark did more jobs on Shaun. Our first proper time exploring in Shaun was in Cushendall, Antrim Coast and Glens -a wonderful old historical village. We had a great spot, 10m from the sea, thanks to Steph for booking and her and the family’s company for helping us make a great start to our explorations in Shaun.

We called into Mercedes Benz MBNI in Mallusk, Northern Ireland to pick up some parts. I think nearly all the staff came out to have a look, and were incredibly helpful to us, thanks guys!

A good start to our travels, whats’ next – Vanlife festival from 31/5, see June 2024 blog to see how we got on.

• Motorcraft for some more snagging, they have been really helpful with this
• Then Scotland to see more friends and exploring
• Then, the big one – shipping Shaun to Novia Scotia on 23/6, yippee!