We're Marianne and Chris, in 2018 we quit the 9-5 and bought Trudy our camper van.
We are currently on an adventure to drive the circumference of the World
So another job we want to sort out whilst we're here in the UK
is to put a new fridge into Trudy, we've bought one online
this morning we're going to load the car up and we're heading to Wem to get a new fridge fitted.
Filmied before surgery!
Yes it does fit in the KIA Picanto!
So we've arrived at Caravan and Campers Ltd. Here in Wem
Jason came to our rescue! Yes he did - look he's walking away from the camera!
And he's famous! He's famous - he's on youtube and everything!
And so is John from Life Beyond Bricks.
They've come to our rescue - they're going to fit our fridge,
before we head off to the States.
Finally! We get it done!
Look at this new fridge, it is all shiny!
Oh i can't wait we're actually going to have a fridge that works!
It's the moment of truth, does the fridge come out?
Yes! She's out
who has left the bloody table in!
Got to take the table out! Put it back in to move the table.
Our old 17 year old fridge! It's lasted well!
There it goes !
Good job Jason - well done!
no problems and didn't even sweat Chris!
Well it's a very, very, very cold day!
Oh it's a very cold day, but our lovely friend John and his perfect partner Tash,
has been working really hard to make sure that our fridge is safe and put in.
This is our new fridge - Welcome, and it also has disco lights - Yay
How night clubby is that?
It makes me feel nightclubby! I want to get into the groove!
So we've replaced the old Dometic fridge that was the original that was 17 years old,
with a new version of the same Dometic fridge,
so fingers crossed it lasts another 17 years!
This morning we're heading back to Wem, to get the side vent put on the van,
Marianne's finally driving her Trudy again, i know it's been horrible! Chris has been driving and i don't .....
I don't like sharing Trudy! Although i might drive home just to show you all that I can drive!
Marianne's just parking her up, beautiful parking as always my sweetness! It has been a while!
I've been driving my dad's little car, so i'm not used to this big van anymore!
Morning John, Morning, so this is the last little job you will know that we damaged our vent in Turkey.
Levent very kindly made a cover, actually out of a bit of swimming pool walkway wasn't it? yeah but unfortunately it overheated.
So yeah Jason and John here have managed to order us a new side vent.
Oh it was so much fun catching up with everyone,
oh we're going to miss these guys although we do zoom chat all the time!
Chris is driving, he can drive, he's driving, i don't like letting him drive.
We're not going to be doing a huge amount of filming right now
so I'm letting him drive!
Whilst we're back in England, we thought we'd give you a little a glimpse of our life here.
We're actually from sunny Shropshire, which looks something like this!
Oh it's beautiful isn't it? Yeah it's a lovely sunny day, so it looks particularly gorgeous!
But it's a very very green and pleasant land that we come from.
So another thing we wanted to do whilst we were back home is replace the sticker
on the front of Trudy, you may remember that somebody tried to peel it off her,
so we've actually come down to Yowser Signs and graphics, here in Milton Keynes.
Steve and Lyndsay, where is she? She's behind me hiding over there look!
Steve and Lyndsey from the Roaming Radfords invited us down to put a sticker on Trudy,
which is exactly what we're going to do!
Tread the Globe stickers! How cool is that!
Thanks guys that's amazing!
You are welcome.
All right, are you going to stick your sticker here? - I'm honoured!
Look at this, look at that! Roaming Radfords sticker in Trudy - I'm honoured, here we are guys!
The wall of fame ! We won't judge you if it's not straight! ha ha
There you go - you joined Trudy's - the wall of fame, thank you very much!
We're honoured aren't we. No, no thank you!
You probably recognise this top from past videos, it's made by a British company called Craghoppers
who specialise in outdoorsy wear like this, which is perfect for our lifestyle.
So how happy were we when the lovely people at Craghoppers sent us some goodies!!
Oh wow, oh this one must be for you!
This super soft fleece is from their corey range
and like many of their range it's made partially from recycled plastic bottles.
Don't you just love that?!
And the kiwi cargo pants that they sent have Nosi defence in them, which means that the fabric is so dense that those pesky mosquitoes can't bite me!
Which is great especially when we park up next to lakes and rivers,
or go jungle trekking!
And i was given by the lovely people at Craghoppers this beautiful women's dynamic jacket,
and approximately 60 bottles were used to make it!
So to check out their full range and do your bit for the environment. We will pop a link to their website in the description below
The time has come to pack Trudy up ready for her next big shipping adventure,
we've come down to Marianne's sister's Sue's house - it is freezing this morning!
Let me just show you ....
look how cold that is !
Whilst we were at Marianne's dad's house we unpacked the van we put everything into Trudy,
so we could sort her out ready for the shipping we left some stuff in the attic,
let's just show you around the van,
it is a little bit of a disaster!
We've got stuff piled up everywhere,
we've got stuff all in the cupboards,
in the bathroom!
So today we're going to give her a good sort out and get her ready.
Okay we've emptied the boot,
and now we're going to try and clear the bed so that anything else that's got to go under the bed we could pass through this way.
Unfortunately Marianne has to do all of the lifting,
because i can't lift anything due to my hernia surgery,
which i'm still recovering from - sorry love
You got it !
we've got a couple of new additions for this trip we have a transformer,
because the voltage is different in the States so we need to plug in the van we need that,
and we're super excited because Jackery has sent us this very small power bank,
which means it's easy to move around and lift,
and now we have our new battery setup we don't need as much power - but we can still go and hang out on the beach or in a wood and work remotely!
Okay the tarp is empty,
the back is absolutely rammed!
We're not going to get anything else in there!
So that is all good, and just a little touch up inside the van.
It looks ...... don't look at that bit,
yeah it looks worse than it is, but it's not that bad!
It's not that bad ..... don't look at that bit!
One problem we have in the van is the mattress can get really dusty and grubby when we're parked up by beaches and on beautiful locations that are a little bit dusty.
So whilst we're staying at my sister Sue who has a sewing machine,
she is very kindly going to help me make a mattress sheet cover,
to keep it lovely and clean.
Hi Sue ! Hello, Hiya how you doing?
and then this is the duvet cover that i've bought and Sue is helping me hem it and get it ready for Trudy's mattress.
Somebody's working hard, thanks Sue !
You're welcome! it's just it's a very, very strange mattress shape.
It's all hand-stitched, look ,we've got a lovely little mattress cover now, it looks like new! it does!
Thanks Sue!
You're welcome my darling.
Okay we're nearly there the van is nearly packed up!
Good job love, I feel bad because i couldn't really lift anything!
Later that week !
So today is a very special day,
we are on the way to Southampton docks to put Trudy on a ship.
For her next adventure, Marianne's driving her sister's car behind,
so that we can get back. I am super excited and we will see you at the port.
Okay berth 35,
We're down at the port and just got to work out where we are going!
Oh berth 35 ted!
All right it says berth 35, I think it's there!
Okay i'll move!
So it's the building behind us, but we just got told we can't park here, so we're just moving!
Okay let's try again!
Yeah i think this is the place,
Okay we are parked up inside the port,
there is a massive ship behind us, so she will stay here until the final paperwork comes.
So for those of you that are curious to know about the shipping,
we used a company called Ship Cars Ltd
And we spoke to Nikki, thanks Nikki!
So they've arranged the UK side of getting our van to the States,
they put us in touch with an American shipping agent who does all the paperwork.
There's quite a lot to fill out and it's taking about three weeks once they get the completed forms for the approval to come back from the US authorities,
the total cost of the shipping was around £2,300 pounds I think,
it was yeah depending on the length and which boat she goes on,
but Nikki will help you sort that all out.
Exactly, so we've dropped her off today she's going to take two weeks once she goes on a boat,
so our adventures are going to continue without Trudy,
until we find her and reunite with her and I can't wait - Yay!
The adventure will continue.
So if you want to catch up on all the work and the stuff that we've been doing on Trudy whilst we're back in the UK,
you're going to want to check out this video, and we will see you next time!