The thing we love most about living in a van is the different gardens we enjoy every day. Currently, we wake up in the Sahara Desert, In our self-built camper van, hence the Sahara van. We could be at the beach, on a mountain, in a forest, or in the center of a city. This also means we wake up with new neighbours each day, often from different nationalities and backgrounds to share. This life grew the passion for camper electrics and the freedoms that this has made for us.
Meet Lotte and Gijs from Camper Electrics
Hi! We are Lotte and Gijs, and along with our dog Noor, we’ve spent the last two years travelling through Europe in our self-built camper!
Almost five years ago, we met in a bar in Sydney. It was King’s Day—yes, we have a Dutch national holiday for our king’s birthday! Lotte was studying architecture at the University of Sydney, while Gijs was backpacking from Perth to Cairns. Our first date happened in Sydney, the second took place in Fiji, and the third on a sailboat in the Whitsundays. The fourth time we met was in New Zealand, and by then, we knew we had something special. We both fell in love with each other and with travelling.
From Vision to Reality: The Birth of Our Van Adventure
As soon as we arrived back in the Netherlands, we started making new travel plans. We wanted to build a self-built camper in Canada and drive the Pan-American Highway from Alaska to Chile. However, these plans had to wait because Lotte needed to finish her studies, and we needed to earn some money.
We prepared by searching online for vans and housing for our first few weeks, and we even obtained our American B2 visa. For anyone who has done it, you know how much effort that takes! We booked our flight for the beginning of April 2020. You guessed it—COVID put a stop to that, and we had to make new decisions. We chose to start more locally and looked at thousands of vans online. The first van we visited quickly became ours. We named it Bas! It’s a white Mercedes Sprinter from 2011, with a high roof and medium wheelbase—perfect for us and our plans.
Crafting Our Dream: The Journey Toward a Self-Built Camper
Building our self-built camper was an amazing experience. We both love working with our hands, and seeing this DIY project come to life was incredible. Honestly, we’ll probably build another camper in the future!
The build took us roughly 12 months. We worked in the evenings, on weekends, during holidays, and even throughout the Dutch winter. Many days, we simply stood in the van, thinking about the next step instead of working. With the experience we have now, the next build will likely go much smoother, especially when it comes to the camper electrics.
Designing for Comfort: Our Key Features in the Camper
During the design process of our self-built camper, we had one priority: a fixed bed. This required some creativity since Bas isn’t the longest van and Gijs is very tall. Sleeping widthwise wasn’t an option, so we decided to build the bed lengthwise. We created a fixed bed that measures 1.5m long by 1.4m wide. An extra cushion can extend the length by another 55 cm, and when not in use, it serves as a backrest for our seat.
Another necessity was two separate closets. This turned out to be a great idea. Now Gijs can fold his clothes neatly and keep all his black and white socks in one place. Lotte, on the other hand, can shove all her colourful clothes inside, hoping the door will close!
Hitting the Road: Our First Adventure in the Sahara Van
Once our home on wheels was complete, we took our first trip to Northwestern Europe. This became a two-month journey through Sweden and Norway. We were so excited to travel and wanted to see as much as we could. Believe it or not, this became quite exhausting. After those two months, we discovered the joys of slow travelling. We began driving a maximum of one hour per day and staying longer at each spot along the way. We must admit, that’s our thing now. Most recently, we visited Morocco, which took us five months to reach from the Netherlands. While there, we decided to repaint our van!
Life on the Road: The Joys and Challenges of Van Living
The thing we love most about living in a van is the different gardens we enjoy every day. We could be at the beach, on a mountain, in a forest, or the centre of a city. This also means we wake up with new neighbours each day, often from different nationalities and backgrounds to share.
Another reason we love this lifestyle is that we get to spend it together. Almost everything we do, we do as a team. We are each other’s life partners—Noor included—and we get to spend much more time together than if we just returned home from work each evening.
However, it’s not always perfect. Some aspects make this life more challenging, like cleaning our toilet. We have a chemical toilet that we must empty every 3-5 days, depending on our usage. In our next self-built camper van, we’d prefer a dry toilet, like the BOXIO separating toilet. Not only will cleaning a dry toilet be easier and more sustainable, but it’ll also be faster since we won’t have to find a suitable place to empty it. That’s either a campsite or a dump station, neither of which excites us. The same goes for filling and emptying the water; tasks like this take time and aren’t always very enjoyable.
Financing Our Freedom: Balancing Work and Adventure
Full-time living in a campervan is mostly a dream, but it does cost money. We don’t track every penny we spend, but our monthly expenses range between €1,000 and €1,600. This depends strongly on the countries we travel through and any extra expenses for Noor. Fortunately, we can offset these expenses by working online.
Lotte is an architectural designer who works remotely for a company back in the Netherlands. Since it’s on a freelance basis, she can work whenever she has the time and an assignment is available. This flexibility is great, but when there’s no work, there’s no income. We recognise that opportunities to work like this are rare in the field of architecture, so we feel very grateful.
Gijs runs a blog about camper electrics. During our build, he found the electrical side to be the most enjoyable. With a background in technical engineering, he noticed the information available online was scattered. Plus, countless DIY van lifers struggled to find clear answers to their questions about camper electrics. This became a problem he wanted to solve, and fortunately, he could.
Your Online Guide to a Self-Built Camper Electrics System
The idea for Camper Electrics – Camper Elektra (Dutch) came to mind while we built our van, but it truly came to life once we started travelling. It includes numerous blogs covering all aspects of camper electrics systems. We also offer a calculator to help you confirm your daily usage and an interactive wiring diagram to assist in creating your electrical system! Soon, we’ll add a new extensive wiring diagram with additional options. Furthermore, Gijs has created an eBook that explains camper electrics simply, from start to finish!
Words of Advice
Here’s what we learned during our two years of travel:
People without social media have the best stories to tell!
Find Them Here:
Website: Camper Elektra
Instagram: lotengijsopreis
