The Caravan

Farmstay

Now we are living in our house it was a question of what to do with the the caravan?
A few people suggested offering it for rent.
People might  enjoy the experience living off grid, or on a small farm or even living abroad.
Learning to live using only solar power and no piped mains water, is a challenge!
I remember ( in England) how I took for granted switching on a light or turning on a tap or just the simple pleasure of hopping in and out of the shower without thinking about the water consumption or the power it took to work the pump!!
  It seemed a good idea.So weve been working towards getting the caravan ready.

Outside Living Area

This area made the biggest difference.It doubled our living area.

Fine dining Alfresco style

We spent many evenings stargazing and listening to music, or entertaining friends.

The Living Area

It seems so much bigger now there arent 4 dogs lolling all over the place!!

The Kitchen

I remember trying to make honeycomb and the whole caravan filling up with bees!

The master bedroom

 Its been a real trip down memory lane for us and now is finally ready for renting.
A holiday with a bit of something different.You can learn about "Living off Grid" or trying to become self sustainable.
The caravan has 3 bedrooms which sleep 2 people in each.
The living room also has a hide away double bed.
So it can sleep between 6/8 people.
It has its own BBQ area.

So if you or anybody you know would be interested in coming to stay please contact me.
We are set next to Els Ports Parc Natural in Catalunya,Spain.
There are many cycling and walking routes locally.
A variety of beaches, natural pools all within a 30/40 minute drive.
The local town of Tortosa is set on the River Ebre famous for its fishing especially cat fishing.
Im more than happy to show you around our little farm and introduce you to some of the characters!! Maybe try your hand at goat herding!! Or just come and say Hi to Pickle :)

Its only temporary...

It was always Ians plan to move abroad to sunnier climes.and no way was he leaving me behind!!

We bought 2 caravans to live in while the house was rebuilt and renovated.

It would only be 3/6 months and we'd be in.....

Our 2 teenage sons lived in the 2 bedroom one on the left.
My husband,me and our 11 year old daughter lived in the 3 bedroom caravan on the right.With the dogs.
We had plenty of  room and we made them homely.It was only temporary...
In the beginning we made a lot of expensive mistakes like buying 500 euro mobile air con units when a 20 euro fan worked far better!
Work on the house was well underway.
Friends visited and we got to know the area and our neighbours were really friendly and helpful.
Our daughter was  enrollled in the local school.
Ian made a temporary (!) scaffold tower with a water tank on top and our water was gravity/pump fed.

We ran a generator for 5/6 hours a night for lights, music,showers and eventually tv as there was a lot of sport being missed!!

Just over 2 months into the build we had an official visit..2 police cars arrived and social services.
Armed police!! Yes we panicked a bit !!
We were told in no uncertain terms to stop all building works.We needed permissions for everything.
We had been very naive and trusted our estate agent and the local architects.They had told us as long as we stayed within the footprint of the house we could rebuild and renovate what we liked.Apparently this wasnt true.They took photos and measurements of all the work we had done.It was very intimidating having about 6 armed police making their presence felt.
The social services wanted to know about our 2 sons and our daughter.We had to prove the boys were 16 and had left school.We had to prove our daughter was enrolled in school.
So the paperwork trail began...
What with one thing and another mainly bureaucracy (which is the same in any country.But made harder here because our daughter wasnt learning the language fast enough..just kidding!!) work on the house ground to a halt.Things were obviously becoming not so temporary any more..