This is Misty, our lovely T2 Bay. We (probably rather naively) brought her on a whim in June last year, thus realising our dream of owning a VW Camper. She was the first van we looked at and it was love at first sight! She’s a grey, RHD, T2 late Bay, but was originally a pastel white colour, which we discovered on checking her M plate. The M plate was seriously exciting for us; like getting her birth certificate, detailing her original paint and interior colour and her destination (Germany). The expense, then and now, is justified by us every time we look at our overdraft, as not only being an investment for future years, but also the opportunity to meet like-minded people and hit the open road at short notice for breaks and adventures. The start of her journey with us perhaps wasn’t the best; we had to call recovery out within an hour of owning her! Unfortunately, in all our excitement of realising a dream and owning a classic VW, she was filled up with diesel and not petrol! She has required some ongoing mechanical work since then and we have learnt that the old lady needs to be driven and cared for totally differently to modern vehicles. We’ve always owned cars and motorbikes so this was a new experience for Paul and I and we are learning to expect the unexpected; Including her accelerator pedal falling off and windscreen wipers failing in extraordinarily heavy rain on the way back from our first camping trip to the Witterings. As a result, Paul thought it would be invaluable to attend a mechanics workshop with the view to doing services and any easy roadside repairs as they occur!

We are currently trying to restore all her original interior back to her 1973 glory. Misty is a Westfalia Continental and we have spent a good deal of time scouring sales, sites and eBay to restore and replace the sink unit, fold down cooker, front seats, cupboards, buddy seat and fabrics etc. Luckily the original rock n roll bed was in her already. Since Misty joined us, we have enjoyed the M25 charity Run the Ring, not only raising money but having a giggle and trying to keep up with those speedy T4s and 5s (no chance)! We attended Brighton Breeze in torrential rain and camped at Plumpton overnight. We have also stayed at Retrofest (more rain I seem to remember) and Misty was also decorated in full Caribbean style to take Paul’s daughter and a friend to the airport for their summer holiday. That’s been it so far, but its early days for us and we certainly plan to do much more this year

One of her last trips out last year was, poignantly, to Southampton to takes Paul’s father out who longed for drive and trip down memory lane as he too owned a Bay many years ago and was so excited when we got one. Sadly Patrick passed away shortly after, but Paul was so pleased that he was able to do that one last thing for his father. Good to see you are getting some good use and we hope to see you both at an event sometime this year, why not come along to the AGM for some Royal Wedding fun or the FA Cup Final, or maybe see you at the Summer Solstice or Just Kampers Open Day?