I was 6 years old when my father decided the little Fiat Multipla with only six seats and not much luggage space was too small and it was time to upgrade.

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Having seen an advert from Wilson’s Motorcaravans we travelled down to their Brixton showroom and my father was instantly drawn to the red and white deluxe samba on a revolving platform in the centre of the dealership. Although it was not the vehicle we had come to see and was outside his budget, a deal must have been struck and it became ours. That was at the end of August 1965, the van was less than two years old and was originally purchased by a lady who used it for a tour of Europe. It was still fitted with the durable plastic cushion covers which stayed in place for several years until they finally hardened and split.

It became the family vehicle as there were now six children for my parents to move around which became seven very soon afterwards. The most memorable of these journeys were summer holidays taken all over Europe, in these my parents would look for a hotel or B&B for themselves and all us small ones would sleep in the camper.

In 1969 my father bought my mother a new Ford Capri in fern green and he decided that the camper looked a bit dated in red and white so had it re-painted in the same Ford metallic fern green and metallic bronze, very trendy colours of the day.

In the early seventies my parents went back to their roots and bought an old stone cottage in County Cork which became our regular holiday destination for the next few years. Because my father could not take time off for the whole of our six week summer holiday he would take a few days to drive us to Ireland and get us settled in and then would fly back England to work leaving my mother to fend for herself with the seven of us. It was during the first of these abandonments that my mother realised that she had never driven the camper van! For me however this was not not a problem as I had been practising in the driveway at home for some time, so at 12 years of age I was able to come to the rescue and became the primary driver. During that time I passed many local drivers of a similar age, it was the done thing.

Getting to and from Ireland was never a boring event, on one trip we were late leaving and it looked as though we were going to miss our ferry from Swansea, my father drove hell for leather not even stopping to refuel, the result was that we ran out as we drove through the ferry port and coasted down the ramp and onto the boat. On one return trip the throttle cable snapped, my father and I rigged up a length of string from the carburettor to just inside the back of the van. It then became my job to control the throttle whilst lying on the luggage area at the back of the van while my father did the rest up front. The following year we were not so fortunate when the engine blew and we had to leave the camper at a VW dealership in Berkshire and return to collect it later after a new engine was installed.

For a short while in the early eighties the camper became my daily vehicle, which made me very popular with one particular friend who would insist that I drive him, his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s friend around all evening with the double bed set up and the curtains drawn. Stupidly I thought that at some point we would stop somewhere quiet and all have some fun but no, I just had to drive and listen.

After aquiring an more sporty car the camper got consigned to my parents garage only to come out each year for the MOT with the intention of selling it. But all that would happen is that it would get cleaned up, put back in the garage and forgotten about until the next year. Eventuallt even the MOTs got ignored and it was only when my parents sold the house in 1987 that the van got dragged out with seized brakes and a seized engine. I sorted out the brakes and towed it down to a local VW specialist who dropped the engine out and fitted new rings, honed the bores and ran it up on his workshop floor. Due to the fact that the fuel tank had rotted at the bottom the mechanic left the engine inside the van while I went to source a new tank (the engine only got re-fitted in 2010, those tanks are hard to find!).

It did have some issues with body rot in all the usual places particularly around the roof but was not too bad overall. I decided to get the mechanics up to speed and gave it to another specialist to have MOT work done but this time it needed new brake drums as well as the tank along with other bits. It was there for quite some time and I thought it was safely in their workshop. It was only when I went to see how it was progressing that I discovered that it had been stored in the owners front garden over what had been one of the wettest periods for some time. As well as adding to the decay of the metalwork the lovely oak Devon interior suffered, causing the veneer to separate and the original devon awning had rotted beyond repair. I got the van back without an MOT and stored it at home