This past weekend we finally started working on the van in preparation for our trip to France in two weeks. It feels great to be in and around Camperissimo again and we’re counting down the days until we leave (14).
Fixing Stuff Up In The Van
The first task was clearing out six months of dirt and trash from inside.
Even outside of the camper season we use Camperissimo as our everyday vehicle – for boring stuff like shopping and going to IKEA.
Having such a huge amount of space available means we tend to indiscriminately fill it with beer crates, empty carrier bags and bits of wood on a daily basis and then forget about them. So: everything out, time for some spring cleaning!
It looks ugly from underneath, but it works.
The second task was fixing the water tap in the sink in the back of the van.
Towards the end of last summer the head of the tap broke and the only way to turn the water on or off was with a pair of pliers, until that finally stopped working. Since then we’d ignored the problem and instead used the rear washbasin to store useful things like screws and bits of paper and a shoe. We bought a replacement tap at Perohaus and I spent an hour lying on my back under the sink fitting it.
The third task was cleaning the waste water tank.
The tank holds about 40 litres of water and sits directly underneath the van. My best guess is that it hadn’t been cleaned for over ten years. Since the plumbing in the van doesn’t have a U-bend, on hot summer days occasionally a fairly unpleasant smell would work its way back from the tank into the van. Sort of a funky, sewage smell. Not lovely. The solution is simple: fill the tank with cleaning solution and hot water, leave it overnight and then drain the evil spirits away in a safe place. Problem solved 🙂
Apart from that we’ve completely emptied the cupboards of food, spices and other stuff so we can clean things thoroughly and then completely restock the moment we arrive in France. Nothing like French hypermarches!
