Courts & Meeks

19/02/2024

3 months & no posts! Let’s catch up 🙋‍♀️

Our last post was on 1st Nov and honestly it’s been the digital detox we needed. But now we’re BACK! (Pledging out loud to commit to more posts and documenting our travels again - yay!)

Swipe to see what we’ve been up to:
1. Got dressed up for Ascot - didn’t become millionaires 😅
2. Friends and Sunsets 💛
3. Christmas parties 🎉
4. Quality time and country air with family 🥰
5. Prioritised health and got RIPPED! 💪🏻
6. The BEST smokehouse in Bath (we’re basically carnivores now) 🍔🥩
7. Soooo much coffee ☕️
8-9. Dog sitting the bestest pooch and snuggliest cat for a month whilst went to New Zealand 🐶🐱

It’s been a very “normal” winter in the UK but we’re almost ready for a spring adventure. Where do you think we’re going?

30/09/2023

Our favourite day in France🛶

A 4-hour kayak adventure down the Dordogne will go down as one of our best memories of the whole trip. So beautiful and so peaceful being on the water all day long. Picnics, sunshine, dragonflies, medieval towns & aching shoulders. What more could you want from an adventure?! Seriously can’t wait to do it again soon!

After 2 months exploring the Creuse, Puy-De-Dôme, Dordogne and Charente areas, we’re back in the UK a bit earlier than planned to be with family during some tough times.

We’ve had the most relaxing and incredible time. Created healthy structure and routine. Learned a lot about what we need and started thinking about our next 5 year plan… all very exciting and naturally we’ve already started chatting about where we will go next. Likely we will be in the UK now until the New Year before we head off on another adventure. Vanlife in the UK winter here we come! ❄️

23/09/2023

🎉Happy Birthday Courts🎉

What better way to celebrate 30 years on this planet than at a frigging super posh chateau in the Loire valley!

I’m so proud to call you my fiancé and feel privileged to have spent these last 8 years with you. Im already excited to celebrate all the next big milestones in posh places like this with you!

Now let’s stuff our faces at breakfast, get a fancy massage and chill by the pool like the rockstar you are!

Love Meeks x

10/09/2023

Photo dump of the last 3 weeks 🇫🇷

1. Hiding under trees at an €11 municipal campsite on the edge of The Cruese river 🚐
2. Fresh baguettes are life 🥖
3. Chilled Sundays at the river beach 📕
4-6. Beautiful Vichy. This spa town and its Art Deco architecture stole our hearts 💕
7 & 8. Evening strolls along The Dordogne in the historic thermal resort of La Bourboule 🏞️
9. Views from the Puy-de-Dome volcano 🌋
10. The manicured gardens of Eyrignac Manor 🌳

Feel like we’ve done and seen so much in the last few weeks and we fall more and more in love with the diversity of France everyday. Halfway through our 3 month trip already!

04/09/2023

Getting fit and feeling good 💪
1 month in France has gone by so fast but we’ve been loving getting outdoors so much more on this trip. We always considered ourselves healthy and active people but in reality we sit behind our screens for a big portion of the week and need to prioritise moving our bodies more to make sure we stay healthy into our older years!
Our fav thing on this trip so far? Random parkup, trainers on and follow an unknown walking trail until we get tired or bored. Not having to seek out “the best walk in…” but just letting our feet lead us somewhere new and every time it’s been great. A simple forest trail, a circular walk around fields looking at the cows and watching the bees and butterflies… I honestly don’t think you can top that feeling of just being completely content in that moment. We’re lucky and grateful to be healthy and mobile to get out and enjoy nature everyday, when others may not have the option or luxury, and we won’t be taking that for granted!

24/08/2023

I call this gallery “il vit sa meilleure vie” 🧡🇫🇷

Translation: “he’s living his best life”

13/08/2023

Parkup Expectations 😅😁

As soon as we leave the UK our expectation for good park ups increases dramatically. The bar is set so low in the UK that as soon as we hit the continent we automatically have this list of criteria when we search for ‘the perfect parkup’.

🚐 is it flat?
🌳is it in nature?
🚶‍♂️are there walks on our doorstep?
🗑️is there rubbish bins?
☀️is it full sun for the most solar?
And finally, is it popular with other vanners?

This last one is proving to be a bit tough seeing as it’s August (we know, high season and kids holidays, what did we expect!) but France is such a huge place we expected to be able to find seclusion. So far we’ve had a 50% success rate.

And last night it reached a whole new level when we were at a lovely calm spot with a few other vans spaced out and then THIS FAMILY (scroll to end pic) parked up literally so close they might as well have been in our living room! Don’t be these people! It’s an invasion of personal space and it’s just not necessary!!! People who park like this really grind my gears and I spent all evening moaning to Meeks about it 😂 and to you guys on stories. Happy to hear we aren’t alone in our views!

So here’s to todays mission of finding something more alone for next few days.

06/08/2023

😃FINDING OUR HAPPY😃

We’ve only been in France for 4 days but we feel so at ease already. We’ve only visited Dinan (a very cute fortified town) but we feel like we’re seeing so much more already.

By slowing down and exploring wherever we are parked we’re seeing more nature, more wildlife and giving ourselves more time to look after us.

This version of vanlife feels more us right now, we might speed things up and get that adrenaline flowing at some point but for now the slow lane is where you’ll find us!

It’s only taken us 4 years of full time van life and stopping YouTube to realise this but hey - life is a journey we all take at different speeds…

Who else is joining us in the slow lane?

30/07/2023

Almost time to say goodbye 🙋‍♀️☀️

After 5 months in the UK, a house swap, a mix of weathers, loads of great memories made, family love and friendships solidified, we are almost ready to set off on the next adventure. We’ll be spending August, September and October in France enjoying a slower pace of life 🇫🇷

Can’t wait to catch the end of summer on the continent and explore the country we always transit through!

28/07/2023

Before & After 😲

Spend money on the things that bring you joy and cut mercilessly on the things that don’t 💰

We didn’t need new upholstery in this van but we changed it anyway. The red velour was in good condition and was expensive, quality coach fabric, but it just didn’t make the place feel like home to us. Just like when people move house, we needed to put our stamp on things. And now look at her! She’s completely transformed and the new clean and bright interior is putting a huge smile on our faces everyday.

Our upgrades are officially complete (will try to be a good instagrammer and make a reel at some point to show everything we’ve done!) and we’re setting off for our French adventure in less than a week!

📍A1 Trimmers (motoring upholstery) in Knottingley, Yorkshire

02/07/2023

👋 Hi friends 👋

We’re a bit anti social on here at the moment aren’t we 😂 sorry about that but it’s been for good reasons:

- spending time with family 🏡
- seeing friends 👯‍♂️
- getting to know our beloved Vera 🚐
- upgrading Vera and her slightly older ways 👵
- working hard and doing work that brings us fulfilment and money 🤑
- planning what travel looks like to us 🚐🌅
- prioritising fitness & health 🏋️‍♀️🏋️‍♂️

It has honestly been a lovely few months upgrading our home and spending more time in the UK than we would normally do!

We are however getting the urge to ‘set sail’ again and are looking forward to when we get on that ferry to France but travel will look very different for us this time

We won’t be making YouTube videos, we have realised we were making travel decisions for YouTube and not how we wanted to travel. We were working on all our days off on it, for very little money and it was honestly making our quality of lives poorer. We’ll be posting on here but there are ZERO PLANS to film anything and honestly that is so liberating!

We are honestly so grateful for every single person who subscribed or supported our videos on YouTube but it’s time for a new chapter living more in the present and less behind the lens.

We will be doing an update video on YouTube to explain this further but honestly guys, making this decision has changed our outlook for the better - trust us 💪🏻

Anyway, we will update more on here but we hope you’re all having a good summer, wherever your wheels may take you 🧡

27/05/2023

We are in LOVE with our new home 🧡

She’s 7m long (the same as our old van) but we didn’t realise how a little more width and boxiness can completely change a space. And the storage options are never ending, we can’t even fill them all!!

Can honestly say the first 2 weeks of driveway life in our new home has been heaven and so many novelties of “normal” life we’ve been missing out on the last 3.5 years…

1. Not sitting next to one another every second of every day (Meeks breathing no longer makes me want to kill him! 🎉😂)

2. Getting out of bed TO THE SIDE and not shimmying down the bed or clambering over one another.

3. Floor space for us both to move around AT THE SAME TIME.

4. A loo with a door! (Spot the sexy wee bottles 😬)

5. A proper bedroom where Meeks can stay in bed with the back blinds closed to drink morning coffee whilst I get up and sit up front in the sunlight. And where I can go to bed early and he can stay up working, reading or playing his Switch.

We have never been more sure of a decision and it’s all paying off🥳

…apart from the cracked shower tray and leaking water pump. But hey, those things can be fixed.😅

Also got our solar, electrics, LPG and upholstery booked in over the next few weeks! We’re being lazy this time around and paying the professionals & A1 Trimmers.

What colour fabric shall we go for to replace the red velvet? We’re thinking calm, earthy vibes… cream, beige or forest green (Don’t say orange!)😂 suggestions in the comments! 👇

01/05/2023

Goodbye DeeDee 😭👋🧡
Thank you for changing our lives.

5 years of ownership, 2 van builds, 40k miles, 15 countries, 1279 days of off-grid living, and countless memories.

We know you'll be super happy in your new life with your new family - giving him a home away from home outside folk music venues up and down the country.

As much as we'll miss you, we couldn't be more ready to meet your replacement in 4 days time!! 🚐

06/04/2023

🪧FOR SALE🪧

The sun has set on this chapter of our lives and it is time for DeeDee to find a new home.

We bought her as 2 novice travellers 5 years ago and she has been our home for 3.5 years now. Taken us to 15 countries across 3 continents and has been an absolute dream! We’ve spared no expense in fixing and servicing her with whatever she has needed and she’s relayed us with countless memories and amazing drives.

It’s time for DeeDee to give someone else these experiences so click the link in our bio if you are interested in owning this adventure van!

She has had a complete respray and rust treatment, drives a dream and is completely off grid ready with a fully kitted out electric setup.

If you’re worried about what this means for us - don’t be! We’ve got some amazing plans that honestly have us so excited and ready for the next stage of our mobile lives!

Love C&M

https://www.quirkycampers.com/uk/for-sale/bright-orange-lwb-sprinter-built-and-tested-by-full-time-vanlifers/

17/02/2023

A few random reflections from Tunisia after 2 months 🇹🇳

1. There is so much rich history everywhere!! It may not always be the most well preserved but somehow that makes it feel more immersive and like you’re stepping back in time.

2. There are also scooters everywhere! It can feel a bit manic at first with them zooming down the wrong side of the street towards you but it’s honestly the best way to get around.

3. Absolutely stunning coastlines! I don’t know what we expected but Tunisia has everything from long white sandy beaches to hidden rocky pools and cliffs. The water is some of the clearest we’ve ever seen!

4. Sadly, there is a lot of rubbish in towns and along the roadside which also means lots of stray cats and dogs (but mainly cats). Honestly, at first it bothered us because we’re just not used to it but you learn to overlook it. Since the countries revolution and the people’s “freedom” people misinterpreted some of that meaning as doing whatever they want and their priority for caring for the environment went out the window.

5. Street sellers are everywhere offering everything from local pottery to handwoven blankets and traditional camel leather shoes. Sometimes they can be a little eager for a sale but always super friendly.

6. Our favourite part of the landscape in the country so far was in the south west around the rocky canyons of Tamaghza and Mides. We would teleport back there in a heartbeat and really didn’t spend enough time in that area.

7. The Sahara Desert is pure magic.

8. The north of the country is super green! It’s luscious, mountainous and full of forests! (Fun fact: the Atlas Mountains which stretch from Morocco to Tunisia act as a moisture draw for the wet air from the Mediterranean starving the south of any rain!) We really didn’t expect the contrasting landscape to be so dramatic. Sadly when we were there it was very cold and foggy so we didn’t capture much of it 😂

Honestly, Tunisia rocks! We’re not posting on Insta as much as we’re focusing on YouTube but here’s to the next 3 weeks!!

📸 a random selection of pics from all over

11/02/2023

🚽Pooping - Roman style🚽

We found these communal poopers in the ancient ruin of Dougga in northern Tunisia 🇹🇳

This well preserved ancient site has a lot of history still intact, including the first latrine (or communal toilet) we’ve seen!

Courts was keen to experience life like it was so decided to test the comfort of these social sitters and imagine what it would have been like to share your daily ablutions with your neighbours 💩

There isn’t much space for privacy but we’re sure it would have been a good time to catch up with friends and plan your social calendar for the week - how efficient 😂

Don’t forget to wash your hands after you’re done!

09/02/2023

The best place to see the buzz of local life in Tunisia is at the market 🇹🇳

Full of colour, fresh smells, loud conversations and sellers shouting what we assume is “2 for a pound” (well, 2 for a dinar, but you get my gist).

It’s such a hive of activity and the produce is so fresh and high quality. Everyone knows their favourite sellers or buy from their family friends and are always inspecting, touching and squeezing everything to make sure they get the best oranges, onions and tomatoes.

No plastic packaging, just everything weighed and plonked in one plastic bag. (They may be the worst quality plastic bags we ever touched though because they fall apart in about 5 mins flat and you see them strewn around the country which is very sad. I have a hunch that if reusable shopper bags were introduced here the litter would reduce by at least a third!)

On this outing we bought 5 carrots, a cauliflower, 4 onions, half a round of smoked cheese and a freshly baked flatbread for the equivalent of £2.66

Before we leave Tunisia in a few weeks time we’re gonna have to go to the medina or souk to stock up on dried goods and spices. You should see the cost of Saffron here compared to back home! England feels like daylight robbery for the same (or worse quality) produce!

Thankfully our fridge is almost empty now so we get to go and have this experience all over again this weekend 👌

19/01/2023

I never knew visiting a really really really old grain store could be so fascinating!

This fortified, open air store room dates back to the 15th Century when nomadic Berber tribes (the original people of North Africa) roamed freely in the south of Tunisia. It was built to repel Bedouin attacks (from the nomadic desert people of Arabia and the Middle East.)

It’s such a random structure and nothing like we’ve ever seen before, so it will stick in our minds for a long time.

It stands on top of a hill with over 180 “ghorfas” which are like lots of tiny storage caves, carved out of the rock. This one we visited had 4 floors with tiny staircases made from mud and bricks.

Could just imagine people from all over the desert and surrounding lands meeting here to store and collect provisions, donkeys and camels in tow 🐪🐎

So surreal to visit such a cool piece of history in such a rural village, and experience the historic significance of the place!

📍Ksar Mrabtine, Tataouine, Tunisia

15/01/2023

We're going to do a live stream on YouTube tomorrow to chat about all things vanlife Tunisia!

Please drop us a comment below with any questions you have about the country, vanlife or anything in-between and we'll answer them as honestly as we can on the live stream.

See you tomorrow night at 8pm UK time!

14/01/2023

We need to talk about the sunsets in Tunisia 🇹🇳🌄

This country seems to experience some of the most intense and regularly beautiful sunsets we've seen in our 3 years of travel

The lack of clouds and rain (which is very alien to us Brits) mean most nights produce this strikingly clear and intense red burn across the horizon as the day ends

Couple that with the desert landscape and you get a sight like we've never experienced before

Here's to two more months of sunsets like this 🌄🏜️🧡

05/01/2023

🐪Watch out, there’s camels about🐪

We recently visited Douz, the town named the gateway to the Sahara and boy does it earn its name!

We were there for the yearly Sahara festival, where we stayed at a campsite covered in sand and surrounded by palm trees and a constant sound of celebration from local weddings and events for the week - and that’s before the festival began!

Camels in real life are massive (much like the giant warning sign) and not to be messed with! We also got a lesson from a Berber tribesman on how to wear a turban…. I’m pretty sure we both look the part!

Stay tuned for our posts/reels of the festival where we accidentally snuck in as press and nearly got ran over by a racing camel 😂

01/01/2023

I here thee dub 2023 the year of LEARNING 📚

New languages 🇫🇷

Immersing in new and strange cultures 🌍

Learning the limits of my comfort zone; when to push them and when to let them rest easy 📈

Taking on physical and mental challenges that scare me 🥴

Finally getting behind the wheel again after 29 years being chauffered around like Driving Miss Daisy 🚘

Continuing to be curious and ask questions about myself and the impossibly diverse world we live in ⁉️

C x

26/12/2022

We drove our van to Tunisia in North Africa! This was a huge mission for this year and we'll be spending 3 months here for the winter exploring every inch of this unknown and vibrant country!

This week we ship our self built campervan across the Med from Palermo, Italy to Tunisia in North Africa. Vanlife Africa starts now! Thanks to visa rules cau...

25/12/2022

Merry Christmas from your favourite orange trio 🍊

We’ve woken up in the Sahara on Christmas morning, surrounded by sand, silence and a slow sunrise.

This one looks different to any other and we miss our family and friends more than you can put into words but we’re with them in spirit and on what’s app 😂

We want to thank you all for how lovely you are on here! We honestly love all the interaction we have with you and can’t wait to share more adventures with you in the years to come.

Travel is life for us and life brought us here today. We’re grateful for what we get to see and want to spend our lives seeing a hell of a lot more of this wonderful world!

Merry Christmas you lovely people 🧡🍊

23/12/2022

Last week we explored the ancient Sfax medina (built in 851) with its beautifully narrow winding streets and hustle and bustle of local life. Sfax is a proper ‘locals’ city, and not on the tourist trail so this was our opportunity to experience a real Medina quarter. And when we say “quarter” it’s like a village inside the historic walls…it’s HUGE!

A medina is organised chaos with unmarked streets, where one step you’re in the jewellery quadrant and the next you’re surrounded by cauliflowers in the fruit and veg stalls. Locals know exactly where to go to buy fabric, clothes kitchen wear, or the best craftsman to get their shoes and household goods mended. But we were just swept up in the buzz of it all wandering aimlessly with huge smiles on our faces.

The medina was also filled with beautiful doors, hidden staircases and cute little cafes that we could have spent hours people watching in - plus it was 80p for a coffee!

We parked in the centre of town next to the port where the truckers kept us company through the night and after a bit of initial park up anxiety leaving the van in the city, we realised everyone was super friendly and welcoming.

These types of experiences are why we vanlife - travelling to new countries and discovering places and most importantly people that welcome us in and sweep away any fears or worries about our safety or security!

We feel like we’ve properly arrived in Tunisia now 🇹🇳

20/12/2022

Tunisian beach parkups so far… ☀️

In our first week in Tunisia we’ve wild camped at a few different beaches and tbh they’ve blown us away. Never seen such fine white sand in our lives! Unfortunately what you can’t see in these photos is the astronomical amount of rubbish on the beach, in car parks and basically everywhere. It’s something we’re gonna have to learn to overlook I think.

Police checks have also been common and in our first 48 hours we had 4 knocks asking for our documents and checking if we were ok. Campervanning doesn’t seem to be a popular thing here, even with locals so it’s probably very unusual for the police to see vans parked up overnight in wild spots. All smiles and friendly once we’ve explained our plan and that we’re here to experience their country 🇹🇳 To quote the national guard they are “at our service if we ever need them”. Not sure yet if the enhanced police presence means it’s safer here or the opposite but we will find out over the next few months!

📍Kelibia, Plage de Sidi Mansour
📍Cape Bon Peninsula, Sliman Plage

19/12/2022

The journey to Tunisia 🛳️🚐

On December 10th we started the “official” part of our winter trip. Not to say that Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily haven’t been great but Tunisia 🇹🇳 is what we’be really had our sights on this whole time! And we’ve finally ARRIVED!

We’re gonna spend 3 months here for our non-Schengen time despite it being pretty undiscovered by vanlifers and explore every inch of this North African gem.

The port at Palermo was manic. No signs and so many cars and trucks piled high with European goods, washing machines, ladders and bicycles. Customs must have had quite the job on their hands!! Then we got to our cabin for the 11 hour journey across the Med. it was pretty grim with dead flies, food on the floor from the last occupants and I’m pretty sure the pillowcases had hairs on them 🤮😷 but the crossing was so rough we had to ignore it all and lay down most of the way to stop ourselves spewing up everywhere.

Border control in Tunisia was…interesting! After 2 hours of queuing, multiple passport checks, forms for van import and chatting with customs officials, we had our stamps and a “welcome to Tunisia”!

We bought 3rd party insurance (no fire and theft), got cash out because it’s a closed currency and couldn’t get any before arrival, then bought local SIM cards the next day which we can top up on an app at any time.

We slept next to a huge lagoon in the centre of Tunis and people watched as we recovered from the journey. Everyone is super friendly so far and very fascinated by the English people driving on the wrong side of the car!

Here’s to the next 3 months and to spending Christmas in the Sahara Desert 🏜️ 🐪

08/12/2022

We never understood why some people hate rainy days in the van. For us, as workaholics and fast travellers they are the perfect excuse to slow down, switch the fairy lights on, indulge in self care, binge watch Netflix or Disney and enjoy the simple pleasure of our home to the soundtrack of raindrops on the windows and thunder through the skylight.

We're putting out an extra video this week showing a typical, slow, rainy day in our tiny home on wheels. It's a very different pace for us but we loved making it 🧡

We would love it if you tune in tonight at 5pm to watch it with us and let us know what you think in the comments 🎥

06/12/2022

📍Enna, Sicily, Italy

On our journey across Sicily we stopped at the small hilltop town of Enna. The town was nothing special, even in the old quarter so we didn't stay longer than to stretch our legs but the views out over the valley and luscious green hills felt like it went on for days.

Sometimes you just gotta stop and take a moment to enjoy the view.