sleeping in a hire van

Leaving the van hire place and loading the daunder and all my bags into the back I hit the road, the bike was bungeed up to anchor points on the van and all the bags placed behind it to hold it all in place (hopefully) young Duncan had said to me marinas and ferry terminals are your friend kenjo if on the move with a van, he is a wise young man our dunc the first night in the van I spent at a marina which during the summer doubles up as a motorhome caravan park near cunningsburgh called aithsvoe, I was off course the only person there! But the toilet block was open so I could use it I didn’t investigate but I think I may well have been able to get a shower there, a sign said the kitchen area was closed due to covid sadly but I never tried the door?

Gary park had messaged me saying if I was sleeping in the back of a van then leave a window or vent cracked or the condensation will drip on you through the night, this did happen at one point early on but when I eventually woke in the morning the drips had stopped? I looked at the van ceiling there did look like there was lots of drops ready to drip! I reached up and touched one it was a sheet of ice; I was all cuddled up in my clothes sleeping bag liner and away from the wind but it was still a cold uncomfortable night

My thermarest sleeping mat has developed a slow puncture it lasts about four hours then requires a blow back up which also makes for a restless uncomfortable sleep, ive since bought an old-fashioned camping roll mat to try along with the blow up thermarest I shall trial this soon.

The second night in the van I built a sort of basha style inner tent using my cycling cape as an overhanging drip stopper, there is no vents or windows in the back of this style of van, I was parked up at the ferry pier at west burrafirth, again I could use the toilet block braw, The third night I spent at a car park near a main road at a place called park hall, near a town called bixter which I knew had public loo and a wee shop that sold hot coffee, this was a fine spot I thought! I sat up the front cab having a beer and writing then went into the back of the van after midnight as I crashed asleep log book in hand all toasty up front, I had tried to do a time laps photo of the northern lights with the old building off park hall as a setting but I haven’t mastered the shutter speed stuff of my iPhone yet the northern lights were there but I couldn’t get my phone to take a decent picture, The fourth night I drove towards lerwick to have a fish supper for dinner at the harbour car park (smashing it was) I then raked around looking for somewhere to park up for the night as the van had to be back the next morning for ten, eventually I found a spot up at whats called the knab, but I didn’t feel comfortable people were out sledging that could see me there was public toilets but they were locked, I had passed a hotel I thought bugger it! I will phone that hotel and ask how much? I am not gonna name the hotel as it was a cash price I was willing to pay and I would say I was the only customer this hotel had and by the sound of things the only real guest for a while, its worth telling the tale though as the owner a widow who is struggling to keep the business/building going, had an issue with the hot water, I was all settled in my room wanting a shower or bath. After letting the tap run a fairt time thinking the pipes have just not been used for a while I had to go to reception there is no hot water for washing! This was perhaps THE main rreason for this hotel stay to get washed as I hadn’t for three days! The owner took me to the garage and showed me her boiler saying she had an issue that should now be fixed leave it 15mins and try again! I did it failed we bothe had a look at the boiler in the garage again, but nope no hot water will be happening that night, I boiled my room kettle three times and had a bird bath lol I did feel sorry for the hotel owner though, I phoned her the next day as what happened was I went down to Duncan thompsons hoose, the plan that day was I would drop all my bags and the bike at his bit then return the hire vehicle, me and him would then get the ferry to bressay and do the two trig points on that isle, dunc made me breakfast and then got a phone call his elderly father had taken a tumble he had to go see to him. He marched of bressay was postponed for a day I phoned the previous nights hotel saying I would like to stay another night, she was very apologetic about the water issues and said I deserved a refund so my nights stay would reflect that, life takes over these things though and later on that day I drank beer at duncs hoose we cracked open duncs whisky also and I crashed ooot! Nae hotel sorry landlady