Who are the main characters in our blog about 'Bryony' an Autosleepers Broadway EB motorhome?

 Who are the main characters in our blog?

Well obviously, there is us!

She's put up with him for thirty six years - some would call that a life sentence!

After thirty-five years in teaching, we took early retirement in our mid-fifties (gulping at the 25% reduction in our annual pension as a result).  We felt we had done our bit and so we trimmed our finances accordingly, invested in Florrie, dug out our old bikes and started exploring southern Britain. Early retirement had always been the plan we had worked towards from the start, saving where we could, paying off the mortgage a little earlier and only moving house once. Any ‘spare’ cash was always put aside for ‘exciting’ holidays as we wanted our two children to grow up being confident travellers and explorers in their own right.

Saying goodbye to 'Florrie' (Florence) was heart-breaking.

Steve, is either slightly absent minded and occasionally forgetful or incredibly single minded and over focused on something! There is no in-between.  His roles in Florrie and now Bryony are simple - washer upper and cleaner, trip planner, security detail and mechanic. Happiest when dinghy cruising in his self-built 15’ yawl Arwen, he enjoys cycling, photography, mountain walking, gardening for wildlife and building things out of wood. He gets ecstatic over all things geographical, historical or volcanic. Mathematically challenged, he is proud that he persisted with his ‘O’ level, passing it on his sixth attempt and he always feels he understands teenagers better than adults! If you are into sailing, why not head over to his blog at some stage at www.arwensmeanderings.blogspot.co.uk or his YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy . Steve is the main writer for our blog.

Maggie is the brains of the partnership. Calm, measured, good humoured, highly organised and extremely patient, she is treasurer (for obvious reasons), chef, chief decision maker and organiser of things like roadside assistance, insurance and paperwork. Practical, pragmatic and always chilled out, she loves wine, gin and port in sensible measures (or with a straw). Big hearted, she thinks nothing of stopping in the middle of a road to rescue worms and insects. She loves independent travel, cycling, exploring new places and learning new languages at a basic ‘it gets me a glass of red wine’ level. She has a particular soft spot for pandas, cats and squirrels. She likes sewing projects and ‘resignedly’ supplies Steve with a steady stream of cloth face masks because he keeps losing his.  She is the chief proof reader and arbiter for our blog and you will rarely see a photograph of her in it as she doesn’t like having her photo taken!

We know it is backwards but one of us hasn't mastered his new phone yet!

Between us, we’ve travelled across many parts of Europe and also Costa Rica, Namibia, USA, Dominican Republic, St Lucia, New Zealand, Kenya, Tanzania and The Gambia. Our most recent and most exciting adventure to date was touring across parts of SE China for several weeks by bus, plane, train, raft, bike and car. Our most favourite place? Hard to pick, but the four weeks we spent exploring Sicily is still hard to beat.

Bryony, as you have gathered already, is a 2019 Autosleeper Broadway EB. ‘Brian-ony’ shortened to Bryony as we didn’t think the new motorhome looked like a ‘Brian’ (nor a Dougal or Dylan for that matter!) You will have gathered by now that we grew up in the sixties and seventies and so are big ‘Magic Roundabout’ fans!

The Magic Roundabout

How can you not be a fan of it?

Bryony was, to be honest, a spur of the moment decision in late September. We had only called in the dealers to pick up something for Florrie! Motorhome stock was low across the nation due to the rise in staycations bought on by the covid lockdown release, but visiting a few local dealerships, we quickly realised we didn’t like shiny, bright, white and grey Formica topped interiors with electronic drop-down beds. Choosing a motorhome, after all, is such a personal choice isn’t it?

Stopping off to overlook a very soggy Plymouth Sound locality 

The sudden appearance of Bryony filled our hearts with joy. Traditional looking without looking dated, compact (being just under 6.5m long) with bench seating and large enough end bathroom, she was delightful. Easy to drive and to get down narrow Dartmoor lanes (yes, we did check on the test drive – sssh!!) and with enough storage space for our needs (but not so much that we would end up carrying unnecessary things), we were instantly smitten. Spacious enough for us to survive time together inside during prolonged rainy spells, she came with a solar panel and awning, a full winterisation kit and a free TV. Perhaps it was also that her interior mirrored that of Florrie’s as well. Bryony felt like we were slipping on a favourite jumper. Comforting, reassuring, confidence boosting.

The rest, as they say, is history. From the initial idea of having a motorhome and then visiting dealerships to actually paying the deposit on Bryony was just four days! Suffice to say we never do things by halves and this is not an approach to buying a motorhome that we would recommend. But, when we make our minds up on something, we just go for it!

Our first big road trip - the Devon and Dorset Coastal Tour.

Here we are on touring pitch 1 at Manor Farm, just above Seaton.

Stunning views, warm welcome, our own deck and picnic table.

Highly recommended! 

And there we have it. Welcome to our new blog. We look forward to you joining us on our journeys with Bryony. Please drop us a line, we would love to hear your thoughts, comments, practical advice, tips, or questions as we start our next great travel adventure with her. Take care and have fun motorhoming.

Steve and Maggie

PS: if you want to read a little more about who we are and why we want to blog, then visit this post at https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2020/10/welcome-to-our-blog.html