Former journalist Richard Harris celebrated his retirement by embarking on what he called a “great daft adventure” in his small Bongo campervan — trying to spend one night a week in his van for 52 consecutive weeks.
So all through the summer, autumn, winter and spring — through sun, rain, gales, ice and snow — he set off once a week in his ancient Bongo van. Just because he could.
He kept it up every week — despite badly injuring his back (when he fell over inside the van) on one trip, and breaking his leg (when he slipped on a patch of wet grass) on another.
“It started off just as a vague idea to occupy me in my retirement,” he says, “but that vague idea quickly grew into a mission and then an obsession.
“I would never have guessed it would turn into such a marvellous, exciting and, at times, emotional adventure.
“I ended up going to places I'd never dreamed of going, doing things I had never dreamed of doing and meeting people I'd never dreamed of meeting.”
