Eventually we made it back to the show room which was actually more of a show barn. Full of expensive, shiny classic cars, it was more impressive than some car museums I've been dragged around in my time. Whilst we were having our little petrol drama, an elderly man had arrived after driving from Lincolnshire to view a car. Being nosy, I asked the vendor if he was expecting the man to buy the car. 'I would expect so as it's the only one in the country' was his reply. This spoke volumes about the kind of business this was; a specialist, high end dealer of beautifully restored classic vehicles. Plus one brown Bedford camper van. As much as Tom would have liked to make an offer on the gleaming purple E-type Jaguar, we both knew that there was only one vehicle in the place that we had any chance of owning. We were building up to making an offer but had one more feature to investigate...the awning. Luckily, it didn't disappoint. Large, stripy and intact, it had a definite ice-cream van feel to it. Perfect, we had to buy it.
There shortly followed a period of rubbish negotiating over the price, with Tom displaying pathetic haggling skills that we shall gloss over. The upshot was that we parted having agreed to purchase it; we were to be the new owners of a 1972 Bedford CF camper van!
On a high, we stopped off on the way home at the Exeter Food Festival to celebrate in the way we know best- by eating and drinking. It was here that we made our first purchase specifically for our new campervan...a huge piece of smelly cheese. The cheese maker said that it would taste better if left to mature for a few more weeks. Ideal - cheese and wine overlooking the sea would be a fitting first meal in our little brown van. Now all we needed to do was to await the MOT and arrange collection.
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