We arrived at Dummer Down Farm for a little shakedown before the summer Europe trip, parked up alongside around ten other vans, and the first thing I noticed when I went to get the table and chairs out was that someone had had a go at the garage door. Something had been jammed in, the metal was dented and the plastic on the inside had cracked. The lock still works, mercifully, but it is not a nice feeling. Someone had tried to break into our home.
The really frustrating part is that we have no idea where or when it happened. We have been to festivals, and it has been sat on the drive. Lyndsay reckons the drive is against the hedge and should not be accessible, but clearly someone found a way. We are not dwelling on it. It can be fixed, and we are not letting it put a cloud over what turned out to be a cracking couple of days.
Van Upgrades, New Air Con, and a Lot of Sockets
Before we arrived at Dummer Down, I had taken the van into SMG Leisure for a proper electrical overhaul. Twenty-two sockets were fitted throughout, which sounds excessive until you are editing footage on a laptop, charging three phones, and trying to power George’s PC all at the same time. They also ran an HDMI pass-through so George’s PC can sit neatly in a cupboard and feed straight to the TV, with no cables trailing everywhere. Much, much tidier. There is also a Soroco 2 fan above George’s bed now, which moves in every direction and has three speeds. He will love it. Link for those in the description.
The thing that genuinely surprised me was a Teleco air conditioning unit that fits inside the cab, right where the cup holder used to be. It is a completely independent system, fits Fiat Ducato vans specifically, and the compressor sits behind the front bumper. We already have air con towards the back, but the bed area at the front gets absolutely roasting, so this should cool that end down nicely. There is apparently a good chance it can run off the leisure battery overnight. If that turns out to be the case, it is a proper winner. Watch this space.
Van Life Eats, Pizza, and a Midnight Fire Pit
The whole event was organised by Mark from Van Life Eats, and it was genuinely lovely. A couple of fields full of vans, great people, and a farm shop cafe that does a decent full English (Lyndsay had the poached eggs on sourdough, and they were properly good). Mark and Gotlin had us gathered round cooking throughout the day: wonton lasagna, a carbonara noodle dish, and then, in the evening, fresh pizza loaded up with ingredients from Worthy Earth, who had a stall on site. Nduja, sweet onions, Parma ham, hot honey. I will not lie, that was probably the best pizza I have had in a good while. The empty plates said it all.
We also got a tour of Mark’s Sprinter, which he has been living in full time since 2018. It has a bamboo worktop, two fridges (he is considering going bigger still), balsa wood cupboards that weigh virtually nothing, and a 42-inch TV over the bed purely for films. Eight years of full-time van life, and the man still has fresh basil growing in a little herb garden. It puts us to shame. The evening finished around the fire pit, someone played guitar, and people sang. It was one of those nights where you simply think: yes, this is exactly why we do this.
One thing worth knowing: apparently anyone can stay at Dummer Down Farm independently, not just for the festival. We were told it is around £10 a night, though there are no facilities. For a night out in the countryside, that is decent value. I will put a link below so you can check for yourselves.
The Van Life Eats Festival itself runs on 28, 29 and 30 August this year. Tickets are going fast apparently, so if you are tempted: vanlifeeats.com. We will be in Europe by then (again), but we keep saying we need to make it back for one.
The full video is up now if you want to see the upgrades, the tour of Mark’s van, and a very enthusiastic verdict on hot honey pizza. Let us know in the comments if you have ever had a break-in attempt on your van, and where you reckon it happened. We are still none the wiser.
Watch the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gss5tPcy_oc