Torquay Retirement: One Man and his Motorcaravan!
Are you coming up to retirement or ever wondered what you might get up to when you leave full-time employment? Well how about taking up Alan’s hobby…build your own motor caravan!
Alan and his motorcaravan
Alan, a resident of Shiphay with the Willows and an active member of the community as an Executive of the Willows Community Association, has spent his holidays driving across the country from Sennen Cove in Cornwall up to Luss in Scotland. He’s done about 30-35,000 miles since he built his travelling second home in just three months in 2006.
Some of his family and friends from out of Torbay can’t understand why anyone would want to leave the beautiful English Riviera and holiday somewhere else…
Alan said: “The best thing about it is the freedom to roam, it’s a reasonably cheap holiday and encourages me to use public transport at all my stop offs to get out and about easily.
“I had been struggling with back trouble through work for some time and decided I would retire early so I could improve my quality of life.” And he’s never looked back…
A former long distance lorry driver for over 20 years, and a dab hand at home improvement it seemed a natural step to convert a van into a mobile home.
The sleek fitted kitchen
One of the unique aspects of Alan’s motorcaravan is that he used traditional kitchen units that he cut to size and save hundreds of pounds in the process, rather than the expensive custom made types. It has all the necessary mod cons including DVD/TV, fully fitted kitchen and a fridge.
A proud and happy Alan
I know I’ll be in touch with Alan for advice and guidance in the future, how about you? I’ve included a photograph of the handy manual that you might want to get too that Alan has found extremely useful.
The Motorcaravan Manual by John Wickersham
Interestingly, when asked what he loved about Shiphay he said the closeness to the countryside and some of the lovely rural views (we were sat at Styles Garden Centre at the time!). His one thought for improvement was to get the South Devon Link road built so it doesn’t take an age to get out of Torbay to travel.
Point taken Alan and thanks so much for your time, it was a pleasure.
