This Is Our Story

We’re Nick and Janette Webber, we retired in June 2023 and bought a motor home we've named Lionel. We've recently purchased a 4x4 truck and christened it 'Rocky'. Now that we’re fancy free, our children are grown up, we’re heading off together with our two ageless spaniels Millie and Pip, to see the world. We’ll be posting news from our travels and we hope you’ll enjoy hearing of our adventures and you never know, maybe we’ll inspire you to seek adventures of your own!

our story

The Travel Bug!

We’ve always enjoyed travel and love to get off the beaten track, meet local people and learn about other ways of life. Over the years we’ve made over 200 overseas trips to 66 different countries all over the world - Nick with his job as a video maker, together on holidays and as a family; Nick once travelled in an overland truck through 9 countries in Africa and didn’t wash his sleeping bag for three months (he was in his 20s so we’ll let him off)! We’re starting modestly this time and plan to explore Europe, Turkey and Morocco this year and into next, coming home in between to see our girls. Our longer term plan is to go away for longer periods into central Asia sub-Saharan Africa and beyond! It will be strange to be away from home and we’ll miss our family and friends but we are looking forward to a new chapter in our lives.

Preparing For Our Adventures

Janette isn't one for planning things online, she likes paper maps, books and a good old fashioned notebook to write stuff down in. Vicarious Media is a great resource, they sell Michelin maps in the ideal scale for planning as well as various other publications. Janette had the maps laid out on the dining room table with all her books - it looked like a WW2 war room. Nick is more keen on technology and gizmos and we’ve got Garmin and Google Maps for satnav and an assortment of apps to identify places we can stay. We’ve also got a Tolltickets electronic tag for some countries so that we don’t have to stop at tolls. It just charges our nominated card. We also both have Revolut bank cards and Janette has a Halifax Clarity credit card as it doesn’t make foreign transaction charges.

Introducing 'Rocky' - The 4x4 Truck!

Following some of our adventures in Lionel, we have realised that there are some roads, mountain passes and tracks that are just not possible to explore safely in a larger-sized motorhome. Whilst we really enjoy the comfort and space provided in Lionel, we want to be a little more adventurous while we're fit and able and visit some of these more remote places!

our story

Life On The Road In Rocky

Nick has enjoyed many hours in his 'man-cave' tinkering and adapting the truck for off-grid living and some serious off-road adventures. The truck has been lifted for higher ground clearance and for wading through rivers. The suspension has been upgraded and underbody armour has been fitted to protect the underside of the car from rock damage. A winch, larger wheels and powerful spotlights have also been added.

A pop-up roof tent and awning provide accomodation and shelter - and there's a rather clever kichen with a fold down double gas burner. Nick's fitted a watertank, solar panel for charging a secondary battery that's used for powering a fridge freezer and charging all the other various gadgets

Our Motorhome - 'Lionel'

Our priority when choosing a motorhome was comfort. We spent a lot of time researching different makes and models; looking online is a good starting point but it’s essential to see the motorhomes in the ‘flesh’. We went to various used vehicle dealers in our local area and decided that a rear lounge with a drop down bed over the cab best suited our requirements. The Carthago Liner for Two was the perfect solution for us. So far we’ve been delighted with our motorhome which Nick has christened Lionel. The rear lounge is a really comfortable place to relax - in the day the windows on three sides give great visibility and in the evenings we can be cosy and watch TV. We wanted to be comfortable in a variety of climates and the air conditioning, solar panels, insulation and underfloor heating make this possible. There is also really good storage which accommodates all our clobber.

Life On The Road In Lionel

We’ve said we’re really happy with Lionel and that’s true but we also made some adaptations to suit us, as we're also travelling with our two furry friends - Millie and Pip. Nick has made a hatch through to the ‘garage’ and raised the dog bed so that they can sleep there and be with us but not under our feet. He's built in a DVD player so that we can watch films when we’re abroad without having to use our data. Nick has also added security cameras, reversing sensors and tyre pressure sensors. The motorhome has 4 x solar panels and 3 x domestic batteries, so is capable of off-grid living for several days. We have a WiFi router fitted and have installed a Popit SIM card which provides 100gb per month, so we can stream TV, music and make WhatsApp calls.