We’ve never been away from our home for six months, six weeks; yes.

Six weeks away in the summer? How hard can it be? That depends on the sort of person you are. Are you the walk out of your home and lock the door as you leave sort of person? The fussy, strip the beds and empty the fridge type, or the very very fussy, clean your home from top to bottom, tidy the garden to within an inch of its life, and appoint someone to house-sit fanatic. We fall lazily into the shut the door and go group. But we’re not going for six weeks, we’re going for 6 months, in the winter. We need to up our game.

It’s not simply winter that draws on, it’s the winter of our lives that’s closing in fast, and we want to run from both, as fast as our decrepit old legs will carry us.

The truth is, that, because we’re grown ups, we can’t leggit without a look back, and can’t bust a move without a lot of preparation, and/or help. We know that during the winter the plumbing freezes and power fails, and not just the house. Stuff had to be done before the great escape so we made a list and began ticking off the days and jobs as months passed. Things were completed, added, or removed as time passed.

None of it is simple, you see we have no kitchen, not even a building to fit kitchen units and white goods in to. We live in a one up one down house, the kitchen has to be tacked onto the outside of our little box we call home. What happened to the kitchen extension we had? Oh, p-lease don’t ask. I will say that the sofa went to the tip and the cooker and fridge are now in the living room, the only room on the ground floor. There was a lot for us to do and a lot of tea to drink, before we left the UK for winter in our little red T4 VW camper van.

We made a 4 minute, in depth, movie of how we prepared to leave our home empty for 6 months. We hope it inspires you to follow us to the sun. If you’re of a delicate disposition, you may want to look away NOW!

Enjoy.