Camping, with your feet in the grass and barbecuing all day long. For many holidaymakers, a campsite is Walhalla. This summer we are looking at campers in Brabant, today they are Els and Ko. The couple has golden hands and turned an old DAF 400 into a nostalgic showpiece.
The couple from Spijkenisse arrived this morning at the Eurocamping in Vessem and are resting in front of their bright orange oldtimer. The car dates from 1990, the couple bought it in 2001 for two hundred guilders.
“It was an empty company bus from a facade cleaning company. There was a sliding door on the side, Ko took it out, he is not afraid to use a grinder somewhere,” Els laughs.
He also removed the rear doors and replaced them with windows. They managed to take over the furnishing of a brand new caravan for next to nothing and Ko has incorporated it completely into the bus.
“These colors are the factory colors. The company where we bought it advised to make the bus completely white, but we just left it that way,” says Ko. “We liked that.”
Ko is now retired, but previously he worked as an international truck driver and car mechanic. That makes it extremely handy. In two months he managed to transform the bus into a camper.
Everywhere they go, they attract attention with the special vehicle. At every campsite there are people who want to take a look inside. “Once we were at a campsite in Germany, when a motorhome drove up. It was so big and beautiful. Suddenly a woman jumps out and she addresses us: ‘Ooooh, what a nostalgia! Shall we switch?’. Her husband would never have liked that.”
“We were seven people in the camper and the awning. It was a mess but so much fun to be part of.”
Together they have four children, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. The kids are long gone. Most of the time, the couple goes on vacation as a couple, but they don’t shy away from sleepovers. They don’t always run smoothly, though.
“Our daughter actually slept with her kids in a small tent near our motorhome. When we set up her tent, we already saw that adhesive tape had been used to keep everything together. It rained so hard that night that they drove out their tent. In the end we were with seven people in the camper and the awning. And there was also a dog. It was a mess but so much fun to be a part of,” says Els proudly.
Els gives a tour of the camper. She advises to bend down well before you step inside. “Because people often bump their heads here.”
Once inside the motorhome, the leather wall covering with silver buttons immediately catches the eye. The couple also managed to manufacture that themselves. The made bed is normally a sofa with a table in between.
Everything is available in the kitchen. A boiler with hot water, a refrigerator and a three-burner gas stove. And opposite you will find the toilet and a shower. “Actually, we have everything on board that larger motorhomes also have,” says Els.
Where they used to be able to leave without taking anything into account, they have become a little more house-bound in recent years. Ko had cancer two years ago and a heart attack last November.
“As a result, our planned holiday was a little less successful this year. Ko’s condition is not good anymore and he was often short of breath. We went home earlier. Now we have left again, we are taking it easy. We enjoy our trips as long as we can and we remain positive.”
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