Our latest post comes from Ruth & Alan, who we’ve been in contact with for the last 3 or 4 years. In 2017, they set off to travel, cook & eat Europe and are thoroughly enjoying their trip.  Their website is brilliant with a slight twist on food, so not only do they inspire you with their travel but they get you dribbling at their delights!

1. Tell us a little about yourself, like what is your name and where do you come from.

Hi there, we are Alan and Ruth, a married couple from NZ.  After living the last few years in Perth, Australia we sent all of our furniture back to NZ and sent ourselves on a one-way flight to Rome in June 2017.  When are we returning?  Maybe never.  It’s way too much fun exploring.

2. What sort of motorhome traveller are you? Full time / part time / short breaks / long stay

We full time in our Motorhome, Betsy and expect to do so for another few years, until we either run out of money, run out of places to explore, or for some reason we get tired of living a free life.  It is too far to go back to NZ for the winters, and anyway there are other people living in our house back there. We reckon the birds have the right idea, so we head south for the winters, then north to avoid the heat of the European summers. That has worked well for us so far.

We avoid campsite wherever possible and have had no problems free camping nearly everywhere we have travelled.  This is mostly an economic decision but we far prefer to stay where we want, have our space and privacy, and arrive and leave according to our own schedule.  

3. When did you first start motorhoming and what inspired you to start?

We hired a motorhome briefly for a trial run around Uluru (Ayers Rock) in the outback of Australia in 2017.  That was just three months before leaving for Europe to pick up our new motorhome in June of that year.  

The experience was important as it helped to clarify what was most important in a vehicle that was going to be our home for several years.  Our many years of yachting experience was a huge benefit in working out how to organise a small space most efficiently.

We were inspired by the idea of having control of our schedule, our destinations, our transport, our food, and our costs.  We saw motorhoming as the only way to give us that level of freedom, and it has proven to be accurate.

4. Tell us about your current motorhome like make, model, name, age and why you chose it?

Betsy is an Italian made, French registered and Kiwi owned Motorhome.  Even though she has New Zealand decals all over her, she still confuses many people who look straight at the number plate and ask if we are French.

Betsy is a Bluecamp Sky 25S – basically a rebadged Rimor Katamarino 109P and is built on a Renault chassis.  She is 7.4m long, sometimes feels much longer (especially in the narrow roads of Italy and Greece), and she has just celebrated her first birthday in June 2018.  We chose Betsy because we wanted a comfortable island bed and an oven, however finding this in a good second-hand motorhome in Europe was like looking for hen’s teeth.  Therefore we were directed towards a new motorhome within our budget.  Buying new enabled us to spec all of the extras we wanted to make Betsy a wonderful moho for full timing and wild camping – plus no MOT (in France) for four years!

As Kiwis, we cannot simply come to Europe and buy and register a motorhome.  The Blucamp dealer we purchased her from provides a special ownership structure that works well for Kiwi’s and Aussies.  This let us buy, register and insure a motorhome in France.  Whilst we didn’t appreciate the full benefits at the time, we are grateful that we avoided purchasing a motorhome from England due to the MOT and insurance issues that fellow travellers seem to have.

5. Where is the best place you have ever been and why?

In our year of traveling we have visited and experienced so many places that it’s hard to pinpoint just one.  However, if put on the spot our month in Istanbul is a stand out.  The people were friendly, the number of places to visit were endless, the food is outstanding, the city is alive and vibrant and particularly as Kiwis we were warmly welcomed.

6. Where is the worst place you have ever been and why?

This is a really difficult question to answer.  Every country we have been to has had its good points and often our experience of an area is affected by the weather.  The most awesome view looks average on a wet, dreary day. We had a dreadful experience driving around Mostar in heavy rain, getting directed down a street which got progressively narrower until we had to reverse back.  However, the next day we took a bus into the same town and with the sun shining we had a great day.  

Our worst places are really those where a 7.4m motorhome should not be driving and one of these was in the Peloponnese region of Greece, following our GPS to a parking spot on Park4Night.  This first took us down a narrow road which then became a track too narrow to drive down and required about 200m of reversing before we could turn around.  We then tried another route and got stuck in a maze of narrow streets and intersections with trees growing over the roads, making them even more narrow.  We had to do multiple 10 point turns to finally get out of that motorhome death trap and we were all, Betsy included, a little scarred by that experience.  

7. What 3 places are on your bucket / wish list?

1. Saint Petersburg – Russia seems so big and scary but it’s always been on my bucket list since I was a kid as I saw photos that made Saint Petersburg look like a land of fairy-tales. 
2. Norway for the Northern Lights – again been on my bucket list forever!  
3. Morocco for the food and warm winter.  We love to cook and have been learning local food secrets throughout Europe.  We already cook Moroccan food and now can learn to do it the right way.

Hopefully, we expect to be ticking off the first two bucket list locations within the next month or two.

8. What things (apart from the obvious) do you always travel with?

1. Our electric bikes – whilst this may be obvious, it’s amazing how often we voice our gratitude that we have these (especially when it’s difficult to park a 7.4m moho in small towns).
2. Omnia Stove Top Oven.  As mentioned above, we love to cook and although we had ordered Betsy with an oven, this was never delivered (that’s a story for another time) and the Omnia has been a practical replacement.  The Omnia has enabled us to cook a much wider range of really tasty food and as we perfect new recipes we love to share them on our website.
3. Kiwi and CC – our two pet birds, CC is a Tui with a beautiful birdsong and whenever I think of home I can just press her tummy to hear her sing.  Kiwi has a rugby ball under her wing and the silver fern on her top, all icon Kiwi symbols.

9. If you could share one handy motorhome hint or tip, what would it be?

There is no such thing as too much planning (in our humble opinion).  We feel grateful for the planning that went into Betsy to ensure she was set up perfectly for the way we intended to travel.  This was a combination of attending motoring and camping shows, our short stint hiring a motorhome in Oz, plus the time spent yachting.  

We have met people who bought first and thought about things later, often costing them more money in the long run and heartache in the interim.   

So our tip is to ‘take the time to think about the type of traveling expected, then spend the time to find a Motorhome that ticks the important boxes for you’.

10. Any finally, what’s your funniest motorhome moment?

Some of the funniest moments are not so funny at the time but looking back at them always brings a smile and laugh.  One such moment was when we decided to visit Ancient Noto in Sicily, which had been flattened in the massive earthquake of 1695 and devastated south east Sicily leading to the area being rebuilt in the beautiful Baroque style that makes it one of the world’s top tourist attractions today. 

A German couple whom Alan met said that we could park and sleep beside the ruined walls and Norman castle so this seemed like a cool thing to do. Unfortunately, the road in was a single lane and as we approached some picnicking Sicilians had parked along one side.  With a loosely parked Fiat on one side, and a stone wall on the other side, it didn’t leave much room for Betsy.  I videoed our progress through the bottlenecks.  Look in the wing mirror to see how close we were and make sure you watch to the end for a local’s priceless reaction as we finally slipped through unscathed. 

If you would like to check out Ruth & Alan’s website then click here or bob on over to Travel Cook Eat Facebook Page. Have a read and say hi, they would love to meet you all one day!

Thanks to Ruth & Alan for their interview and here’s hoping the Finnish rains stops and sunshine continues for a little bit longer. Enjoy guys xxx

If you would like to join in the fun and share your story then drop is an email at ourbumble@icloud.com