Our T4 Family Story
Campervan adventures in a van called Gino
Hello!
We are the Blackmore family, John and Jackie, and our two kids, Thomas and Elliot. Since 2014 we have been camping with the kids to explore the South-West and South-Wales without breaking the bank. We had been dreaming of buying a campervan for a while, so in 2017 we decided to see if van life was for us.
Try before you buy: Our first van holiday
Would we enjoy travelling in a van? Would the kids be comfortable sleeping in a poptop? These were just some of the questions we had so we hired a campervan from The Bristol Camper Company to find some answers.
Sebastian was a newly converted 2016 Volkswagen Transporter T6 and our shakedown would be a week touring Wales. We started in the North and worked our way back down the West Coast, ending our week in The Gower. By the end of the week, we knew this was the life for us and that we needed to buy our own van.
Buying our first campervan
We knew what we needed, a pop-top to make it a four-berth sleeper, a gas hob and sink for cooking, and a crash-tested rock and roll bed so the kids were safe in the back.
After nearly a year of looking, we found nothing that ticked all the boxes within our budget. With our summer holiday plans shaping up, we booked another rental van for the Summer. Then just a few weeks later, a lead on a van that wasn’t too far from us. Slightly older, but it had everything we were looking for including an Austops poptop that was fitted only the previous year.
We bought the van, a 1999 model T4 with a full-service history and 184,000 miles on the clock. It ticked all the boxes and was within our budget. We collected the van on the 5th of April 2018, and named him "Gino the Campo".
In the Summer of 2018 we hit the road, and our adventures began.
Tragedy, and a new look.
After failing the annual MOT test in October 2018, we were left with a difficult decision. Our van had a lot of issues we weren’t fully aware of, so the choice was, do we patch it up and move it on or commit to spending a lot of money to fix everything and continue?
We took the plunge and committed to a restoration project. After what felt like months in the bodyshop and many new panels later, Gino arrived home in early 2019 with a brand new look, blue!
This new look caught the eyes of many, and our Instagram following quickly grew. We were sure we had the only Neptune Blue T4, but have since inspired many others.
The rest of 2019 flew by with campervan breaks at every opportunity in Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, and even as far as Yorkshire. By the end of the year, the previously fitted self-built interior was starting to fall apart, so we started plans for an interior refresh…
Refit and Retro Fresh!
Boxing Day 2019 was the start of our next phase. The existing interior was quickly removed, and we worked evenings and weekends on a complete interior rebuild. Everything from sound-deadening, insulation, ply-lining, carpeting, flooring, electricals, re-upholstered captain seats, new kitchen units from Majestic Wood Design and a Scopema RIB112 bed.
No expense was spared; this would be our signature build. We planned to fit the best we could afford and finish it to the best of our ability. The build was completed in March, ready for Easter and the start of our camping season. Little did we know, we were about to start a 4-month national lockdown. We didn’t get to test the new build until July.
We were sharing our build progress on Instagram throughout and our efforts had not gone unnoticed. We got a call from Andrew Thompson pitching us a feature in VWt magazine and later that year Gino was featured with a 7-page spread and a centre-fold poster. We had made it!
On the road again… where we are today
Gino is now in his final form. Apart from a few upgrades along the way such as a diesel heater from Autoterm to extend our adventures into winter and a larger solar panel to stay off-grid for longer in Summer, everything else remains the same. Our 2020 plan to build it once and build it properly has succeeded, and we have now travelled further afield to Scotland and France as well as re-visiting our favourite destinations.
As our children grow, “4 in a T4” is getting a little more cramped. We may soon start looking at the next chapter in our family adventure, building another, larger van. Whatever that future holds, we will continue to share it on our Instagram account.
Meanwhile, we continue our adventures in Gino and work with our amazing brand partners. We have built so many lasting friendships since our journey began and look forward to making many more.
One final note, we are open for collaborations. If you have a brand or represent an event, or you have a project you think might be a good fit then please reach out using the contact us page.
See you on the road!