The Wandering FamiLee

Just to be clear, I’m not talking about puppy love, romantic encounters, that inexplainable love that you feel for your family or even that fall in and out of love that you experience as a teenager,

I’m talking about the type of love that makes you take 3 flights, 2 shuttle buses, 4 trains, 3 taxis, 2 buses and drive 1,300 kms, all in 4 days for. There is only one thing that will make a person take on all that and that’s for the love of a vintage firetruck!

We bought a 1977 Mercedes 1113 Firetruck to convert to an overland camper.

We love our Hector (a 2006 Mercedes Vario 814) and have enjoyed growing our family and having fun travelling over the last 12 years. But, the more time we spend away full-time, the more we want to go further and with a little more space.

We looked at school busses, lorries and even airstreams but we wanted something that will take us across all terrains – a 4-wheel drive. Cue months of looking at old fire trucks. Those that were for sale, those in the process of being converted and those that are already living their best life adventures all over the world.

While travelling in Morocco, just the right truck peeped into our search and the decision was made within 10 minutes. A 1977 1113 firetruck, recently retired from service in Germany, with a little 15,000 miles on the clock.

We had signed the bill of sale and paid for the truck while in Morocco so while we were having a great time there, we were eager to return back to Europe to finally see this truck we had bought blind. In the meantime, we settled on a name for our soon to be home-on-wheels. The name was Rusty – the same name we had given to a homeless puppy we had fallen in love with.

Excited and a little nervous we researched all the possible ways we could collect the truck from Leer in Germany, have tyres fitted in Frankfurt and then take it to Colchester in the UK for the first phase of work. It turns out that to get anywhere from Bordeaux (our local airport in France) to anywhere in Europe is super expensive so we were going to take a little detour!

Having three dogs at home meant this was going to be a trip for the boys while the girls stayed in France and did the shuttle runs too and from the airport. We sent the boys on their way at 3:30am out of Bordeaux airport.

Day 1 – getting there

The boys landed in Gatwick airport at around 7:3o in the morning. It was actually more cost effective to fly from Bordeaux to Gatwick and then get a connecting flight. They had some time to kill until the next flight so that meant the boys were able to feast on a few favourites they’d missed from their home country including Honest Burgers, Bubble Tea and and an English Breakfast! Plus there was even time to check out the Victoria & Albert Museum which Seb loved as he’s studying ancient history at the moment.

Field trip over they went back to Gatwick airport to catch the evening flight to Amsterdam. Yep, again more cost effective to travel to the Netherlands than Germany by plane. A short flight over to the beautiful city of Amsterdam and they were safely tucked in bed in a hotel for the night ready for the next leg on day two.

Day 2 – meeting Rusty

Day 2 started early with walk in the rain to the bus station where they got a bus to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Once there, they hopped on a train which took three hours to get to Groningen in Germany. From Groningen, they caught a bus for an hour to Leer where they waited in the rain for a lift that never came. They eventually called a taxi to the garage where Rusty our new fire truck had been waiting for us to collect for some months.

Firstly to manoeuvre the truck into position and then to find where on earth you fill it up. Turns out the filler was underneath the passenger seat. Phew, they made out. Now onto the motorway and the 500km drive down to Frankfurt where new wheels and tyres were to be fitted.

An hour and a half north of Frankfurt the boys had had enough and found a rather grotty roadside motel to rest their heads for the evening.

Day 3 – new wheels

Another early start in the van and a tired and hungry drive down to Frankfurt where they left the truck at 7am in the capable hands of Ramin and Eddie who were going to fit the new wheels and tyres. Meanwhile, Jez and Seb went off in the rain (again) to explore the local area and most importantly find some breakfast. Tummy’s full of german sausages, they returned to the tyre place where Eddie explained that he was unable to fit the tyres due to the positioning of the wheel arches. Never mind said Jez, we’ll take them with us. So after a while cutting the metal roof rack off and lifting the tyres on the roof via a forklift, the boys were again away for the gruelling drive north.

They drove 500kms out of Germany and into Belgium where they stayed the night just outside of Brussels.

Day 4 – landing

Jez and Seb woke up in Brussels with one objective in mind; to get the truck delivered to England and return home to France that same day. So they set off towards Calais for the 10am ferry sailing. With no choice on the booking website to select a firetruck, Jez purchased a ticket for a motorhome…as of course some day soon, it would be.

They arrived just in time for the 10am ferry at Calais to Dover which took an hour and half. Just enough to time to have one last English breakfast before docking into Dover.

The hardest part of the drive was the 105 miles from Dover to Colchester. Partly because of being on the left side of the road in a left-hooker but mainly due to the howling rain and pot holes on the UK roads.

By 2:15pm they made it to Colchester where Roy at RL Metalworks was waiting to receive the truck and also where our good friend Jason was waiting to ever so kindly give the boys a lift back to Gatwick Airport in time for the 6pm flight back to Bordeaux. The lift was super helpful as there was a train strike, making it otherwise impossible for the boys to get to the airport on time. Luckily they made it.

Us girls picked up two very excited and tired boys from the airport at 9pm and took them back to base camp in France.

Right now ‘Rusty on Fire’ our new truck is with Roy where it’s under going phase one of the conversion to make this beautiful fire truck our home on wheels. This first important stage is to remove the back and all its fire equipment and extend the chassis slightly ready for phase two – the habitation unit.

We’ll update with how it’s all getting on soon. We hope you’ve enjoyed the ramble.

Love the FamiLee xx