We are Masha and Dan.
This is written by Dan.
Masha and I met in San Francisco while I was there on holiday for a few days. After I came back to the UK, we spent many hours on the phone, and three months later I went back to collect her along with two cats and seven suitcases.
Since then we spent many months navigating visa applications, got married and moved house, where we live with Atlas, Flynn (my son who lives with us part-time) and the cats.
In 2018 we bought a little yellow VW T5:
We love Bumblebee.
We would never sell him.
He has taken us on many amazing adventures around Europe, and given us many happy memories, with many more to come (see here).
Despite this, we both want a bit more.
More risk.
More distance.
Greater variety of people we can meet.
Bumblebee is amazing, but there is a limit to how remote and extreme things can get in a little van like this.
We have been to places we shouldn’t have, but they are stories for another time.
So after loads of research, we decided on an MAN HX60.
Let me introduce OTTO!
The next bit of this story is mostly about the the conversion of this ex-military 18 tonne truck into a little house on wheels.
I expect we’ll make some mistakes, but we’ll learn as we go, and remind ourselves not to take any of it too seriously.
We hope that this website will help us get a little closer to our dream.
We have also put together this website, which includes a guide for each step in the conversion. Our hope is that it will inspire you, and make the process a little easier.
Click here to find your t-shirt!
