Ziggy Starrust

Richard's always wanted a camper van, so despite a fairly disastrous and very wet holiday in Wales in a rented VW, we went looking for a characterful secondhand model. When money was a bit more plentiful a few years back, we bought Aurora, a 1986 Bedford Autohomes Midi. We fell in love with all her "-ette" features, the kitch-ette at the back, the din-ette/bed-ette in the middle and the driving-ette bit in the front. Alas, Aurora's mechanics weren't quite so delightful as we found on our maiden voyage, a delayed honeymoon to Scotland. On the outskirts of Sevenoaks, about 30 miles from home, we broke down. Patched up, we got to Scotland and had a fantastic time, helped by the AA and various local mechanics who had virtually bunked-up with us by the end of the holiday. We were stuck in Crail, Fifeshire, for a few days on a fantastic campsite inches from the sea. The soundtrack for our stay there was Bert Jansch and John Renbourn's "Bert and John" and Christine Primrose's "Gun Sireadh, Gun Larraidh", a superb collection of Gaelic love songs. The title is translated as "Without Seeking, Without Asking" which is how we felt about the next mechanic who turned on the campsite at Gairloch, went off to actually make the bit-thingy required, came back to fix it the next day and said we could pop the money in when we were passing. I can't listen to those CDs without recalling the holiday, the fantastic scenery, the lovely people (especially the mechanics) and our long-held wish to live in Scotland, never quite abandoned.