Video: Caravan Life

In August this year I decided to buy caravan. I wanted to save some money and make life easier whilst travelling around to so many different places to ride bikes. It has been something I have thought about for a long long time. Sometimes when I have time to really relax (I have that like all the time), I sit down and look for caravans, motor homes and buses. It would be so rad to have a motorhome to live in for the season. But motor homes are freakin’ expensive so I got the next best thing, a caravan.

I found this bad boy for around 1100 Euros which was quite a catch. It has beds/couch in both ends, a small kitchen in the middle and bathroom with shower. Everything you really need for simple living.


I bought the caravan one week before going on a 3 week trip to Pila and Meribel. I was quite an impulse buy actually. I had never ever driven a car with a trailer so getting a caravan on for the first time was quite a change, but actually not that bad. Some might say it was a bit hasty, but it was all good for me, I always like something new and out of my comfort zone. Living in a caravan for the racing season is actually pretty ideal. You don’t need to book apartments or anything. You can live a lot more free as you can just drive were ever you want. In Pila I paid to stay in the race area and get some electricity so the caravan worked properly.

I had tested the electricity in the van from home, but I had not checked if the shower worked, and it did not. But after a some time with a screw driver and my amateur skills in electricity and whatever, I got the water pump to work. I still had to heat my water in the pot, but that was fine. As I am pretty tall (195cm), I made good use of the small rooftop windows, as they were my stand up points inside the caravan. In Pila I had electricity which was super nice, but I still missed my WiFi to keep updated. I ended up going into a hotel and just asked the first guest for the WiFi code and then sat down to get my daily dose of Instagram, Facebook and Pinkbike. In Meribel I spent a fair amount of time trying to get a space in the race area to get some electricity, but no luck. So I ended up staying in a parking lot outside some houses.


I guess they are pretty relaxed with that kind of stuff in France, because I lived there for a whole week without anyone saying anything. Before I took off from Denmark I had not thought about the lack of electricity I would face. Luckily I had some small battery driven lights to use in the night and the hob and fridge was gas driven. So I spent the next week during the World Cup getting my laptop and phone charged everywhere I could as well as taking showers in a fountain. Luckily I had my laptop and my FRIENDS box to entertain me in the evening until it was out of battery. Luckily there was WiFi in the centre of the city so I could go up there and check up on things while shopping. The electricity was a bit of challenge sometimes because I had to kill time for more than an hour while my laptop charged. I went to different bars, bought a drink and then took out my extension cord and plugged in both phone, laptop and camera. One day I snuck into a hotel launch to charge my things, the receptionist came by a couple of times, but she did not say anything.


Fortunately it was lot warmer in Meribel than it was in Pila. Pila was pretty high altitude, it was freezing in the mornings. On the way home I took a couple of days at Eurobike to talk to all the good people in the mountain bike industry. I ended up spending the first night at a parking lot at a supermarket. They weren't too happy about me and I ended up getting kicked out at 6 am. I then went searching for another spot suitable for my purpose. I ended up finding a sweet little parking lot in a house district just 5 minutes walk away from the fair, which was pretty ideal.


The caravan life is actually pretty sweet and I hope I can get a motor home for next year to cruise around in.

Cheers,

Frederik Leth
www.FredLeth.com

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Mentions: @Frederik24

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