What Happens After a Lifetime of Responsibility?

For most of our adult lives, we worked hard, not reluctantly, but deliberately. Alarm clocks before sunrise. Emails before coffee. Calendars that left no white space.

I’m an accountant, moving from junior roles in large corporations to senior positions in smaller, growing businesses. My work took me to Brazil, America, Spain and across the UK. I loved the structure, the responsibility, the problem-solving, the sense of progression. I stayed as long as I was adding value. When I felt I wasn’t, I moved on.

Craig began as a bricklayer before retraining as a graphic designer when his back insisted on a career adjustment. On latter years, he worked part-time and became the steady force at home while I worked long weeks supporting businesses through periods of growth and change. Between us, we found a rhythm that worked, practical, imperfect, balanced.

Then early retirement arrived. Slightly earlier than our knees would have preferred.

We retired once before, back in 2014, and set off in a motorhome to circle Europe with the optimism of people who think they’ve worked out the system. Then Covid arrived, along with a few family matters, and somehow we found ourselves back at work.

The first time we retired, we thought we were escaping work.

This time, we’re trying to understand what comes after it.

That feels different.

Retirement, we’re learning, isn’t an ending. It’s an adjustment of pace and sometimes an unexpected beginning.

This is our second attempt.

Instead of roaming Europe without end, we now spend 3–5 months each year in warmer climates — Southeast Asia for now where the air feels thicker, the mornings louder, and time seems less competitive. Then we head home for a while before returning to Europe for our annual three months in the motorhome.

We go slower than gap-year travellers. We notice more. We sit longer. We watch. We listen. We bumble.

I’m easy-going, optimistic, and inclined to keep finances and paperwork in order. I like food but not drink, and I’m not particularly tight with money. Physical competence, however, is not my strength — I get a sweat walking along pavements.

Craig is practical, dry, occasionally gruff, entirely unconvinced by at least 80% of my ideas and the reason we rarely end up stranded. He can fix almost anything with quiet determination. Nothing gives him more pleasure than finding a hotel room with a fault he can repair using chopsticks and a shoelace. I am the dreamer and big-picture thinker  “Let’s go there.” Craig is the detail  “We can’t. It’s not on this planet.”

Somewhere along the way, I realised I was looking forward to the bus journeys as much as the destinations because they meant uninterrupted writing time.

I didn’t expect writing to matter as much as it does. Work used to hold my thoughts in place, and before that my mum was the one who listened to my rambling stories. She died two years ago. The conversations didn’t.

Now, on long bus journeys, I write them down instead.

Everyone needs time out, a space that belongs only to them, something that steadies the mind and makes sense of things. Writing is slowly and naturally becoming mine.

We worked hard for decades. Now we’re trying to use our good years wisely.

We’re not reinventing ourselves.

We’re simply choosing differently and paying attention to what grows from it.

If you’d like to follow along as we work out what this next chapter looks like  slower, warmer, and slightly creakier — you’re very welcome.

Our Motorhomes

In 2013, we purchased our first motorhome, a 2007 Hymer 694SL, a handsome chap and named him Homer.  In April 2014, we set off and that year we travelled around Italy, Sicily and a little bit of Austria.  We had a great time but the challenges of living in a poorly built Motorhome combined with an newly acquired itchy skin condition took its toll and within 6 months we were back in the UK. If anything could go wrong with the motorhome, it did.

Back in the comfort of our home, we questioned what we wanted out of life and still came up with the same answer, so with that we sold the 694SL and bought a 12 month old Hymer B590.  With fighting spirit, we said let’s give it another go!

By early December 2014, we were back on the road.  The B590 named Vin, is completely different to the first motorhome and we love him.  Firstly, it feels more stable and nothing falls apart when you touch it. The built quality is good and with a Mercedes 3L V6 we can get to most places that we want to.  For us, the size is right with enough room to feel comfortable but small enough to get in most parking spaces. We’ve installed solar panels, gas and adapted the Motorhome (all ourselves) so we can wild camp where ever we like.

For our 2016 trip we did a few minor alterations like additional heater vents on the dash to prevent side windows from steaming up, LED strip light in the front cab area, changed batteries and just minor tweaks.

Under our Equipment, Tips & Money Matters sections we provide lots of useful and practical tips for living in a motorhome.

The Origins of Our Bumble

We call our travel tales ‘Our Bumble’ and up until now we have never really thought about how ‘Our Bumble’ came about.  It just sort of happened?…back in April 2014, when we started our journey, I kept a diary of what we did and where we went. I would telephone my mum every week to tell her about our adventures and she would tell me about hers. We would often use the phrase ‘bumbling’ because I never quite knew where I was going and mum never knew where she’d been.  Sadly, mum was diagnosed with dementia in 2013 and her short term memory was not quite what it used to be. However, the term ‘Our Bumble’ provided common ground for us to laugh, chat and occasional cry but most all, we had endless hours of laughter trying to figure out what the heck was going on in our world.

To help mum with her dementia, I started to put together a weekly update of the places we visited with plenty photo’s. I would always try and write the update as if I was talking to mum, so I kept it real with plenty high’s and the odd ‘keep it real’ low points, so she got a real true taste of our van life.  Most of all I tried to fill with humour, so she could have a good laugh and enjoy our journey as much as we did.

Each week we would add more people to our circulation list and the list just grew. At the end of our first trip (2014) we had around 300 followers and come the end of the second trip (2015) we topped a 1,000+ followers and decided it was time to listen to our travel buddies and build our own website.

Building Our Website

In December 2015 we looked at how we could build the website ourselves and how we could achieve this. Neither of us had any experience in this, so plenty head scratching moments but come the New Year we were ready to roll.  In January 2016, we registered our domain name and started building the website. After picking a theme we compiled our blog by loading and back dating all our travel journals from our 2014, 2015, and 2016 trip….and the rest is history, so they say.

If you have ever thought of packing everything in, changing your lifestyle and driving towards the sunset…or do you fancy a holiday in the motorhome and need some inspiration for that unique journey…or do you want to have a good giggle at our ups and downs. Our website is aimed at anyone with a sense of adventure and a desire to explore.  We will share information on our hidden gems, our wild camping spots as well as stuff on how to travel cheaper, handy hints on living in a motorhome and tips to keep your on the move.

We hope you enjoy the website and if you do, please share with others.  If you would like to receive updates on the site, just scroll to the bottom of the page & subscribe to the blog (we don’t send any spam & any details you provide are confidential.)

Contact Us

We reply to all our emails but if we are traveling in remote areas then the internet access will be limited and it may be a few days before we get back to you.

Our aim is our followers to help us build a website with the information that you like and want to see, so please send us your feedback.