With our „Redak“, as we call our T4, we have traveled thousands of kilometers and we have to say that for luck we do not need the latest model of home delivery, but we just need his older „brother“, with whom we experience a lot of adventure and still stylish.

What do you need?

What you absolutely need is definitely a good mood and a desire to discover the world. Furthermore, it varies based on whether you are a girl or a boy. In our case it is simple. I pack what is needed to survive the three of us. This is need food, feeding for our dog loka, toothbrush, toilet paper, sewing, sunscreen and other necessities. Jirka packs the most important thing, it is a snack for the journey, because without a snack there can be no serious adventure. After a few hours of preparation, we are finally leaving, all the empty spaces are full, the suitcase is packed to rupture, two surfboards stick to the window, and Loko curls up on the floor, getting into the car a few hours early to make sure we won’t miss him. .

Where do we go?

We have been talking for some time that we need to warm up before the winter. And where is the sun in October? We will not lie to each other, but we would look for uselessly on the Atlantic coast, so our journey leads to the warm coast of the Mediterranean, to Andalusia. The next plan is to get to Portugal on the coast and catch a few waves.

And we go!

We already have everything in the car, as it turns out at the end of the road, even useless, and we head south. The car goes like butter. A little disturbing element may seem to be a running engine, we really hear it, but we play the music and the problem is solved. Our T4 handles everything without a problem, we enjoy the view of the Spanish landscape that changes every kilometer. The surroundings can be enjoyed the most when climbing, when some of the longer hills we have to downshift to the fourth speed, but otherwise we go 120km / hour and after a few hours we watch the sunrise on the beaches in the National Park Cabo de Gata. They say there are hidden and least populated beaches of Spain.

Sometimes it is possible to camp right by the beaches, to others you have access only for pedestrians, so we make a day trip around the park and discover beaches where we rarely meet other people. Have a beach for yourself? It is a dream.

We discover Aqua Amarga when we need to buy water. Life flows here at its undisturbed pace and only the last tourists and locals meet on the beach. On one side of the city you can discover the beauties of the underwater life of the Mediterranean Sea and on the other side views of the old stone caves that were previously inhabited by people.

Once we’ve reached the Andalusian beaches, we head for Gibraltar. A 426 meter high rock with a long history belonging to the UK. Right at the beginning we are surprised by the barrier in front of the airport, we wait a few minutes and suddenly we are about 20 meters in front of the car landing plane. We think that this is probably not the last peculiarity of this place. We go on, walk through the city and, except for the occasional palm tree and apes on the top, feel like London. Fortunately, they don’t have to drive right here. In the evening we park on a promontory with a picturesque lighthouse overlooking Africa. It’s a warm evening and we can watch the moon rise undisturbed.

We cross the Tarif in the morning, it is a paradise for kiteboarding and windsurfing, so it is clear to us that there will probably be no wind there, and rolling on the beach is just as fun for us. So we choose a trip to the national park and to the dunes. Walking through the town of Tarifa is very nice, you will find here many confectionery, which offers local specialties. We are attracted to us first, Confiteria La Tarifaña, where our eyes go out of all goodies. During the day closed bars and empty streets turn into one big party in the evening and we enjoy the Spanish nightlife.

First, we want to have a local specialty, but we are attracted by home-made burgers and cannot be resisted. Then we walk around the harbor and admire the sunset. This spectacle will never bother us. We’ve seen a few of them since we’re on the road, but everybody is an original and can’t look away.

It’s time to move a little further, we’re moving to Portugal. Along the way we visit a small fishing village and buy fresh fish. With a refrigerator in the car that is recharged by a solar panel, it’s no problem to keep it in the evening. When we finally cross the highway from the highway, we pass small, picturesque villages where time has stopped. The doors and walls of the houses are lined with colored tiles and everything looks relaxed. We arrive in the city of Sagres, where we sit down in the café and get a home-made Pastel with coffee. This goodness is a typical Portuguese cupcake filled with pudding.

In the evening we wait for nothing, we take wet clothes, surfboards and jump into the ocean. The waves are pleasantly large but avoiding so many people on the lineup, that’s challenging. After the exertion, we also have a well-deserved reward. Under the starry sky we spread the grill on the beach, we drink Portuguese wine and under the nose we can smell the baked Dorada.

After a few days we leave the south of Portugal and approach the destination of our journey, Lisbon. My friend is not a big city fan, but I have one condition, at least one city per trip, so we walk in the streets of Lisbon this afternoon and soak up the atmosphere of the capital. Throughout the day we are tired and enthusiastically using the possibility of renting scooters, which we drive along the water to our safely parked van. Although it has a height of 2.5 meters, but all the time, we had no problem with parking. On the last day we finish our breakfast at Fort Belém, buy the necessary cork souvenirs and head back to Asturias.

It is Sunday and the streets are full of people, yet Lisbon is friendly and we enjoy walking through street artists, beautiful weather and Sunday market with traditional Portuguese delicacies.

After two weeks of our adventure, we drove an incredible 4500km with the 1995 T4 Westphalia, recognized a lot of new places, and again realized the freedom and independence behind this way of traveling. You go to any place, stay where you like and try to do everything in harmony with nature. The car did not disappoint us for a while, and although we did not drive at 150km speed, it allowed us to slow down from everyday life in the cities and all we were interested in was the basic needs of cooking, getting water and choosing another destination. This is vanlife and if you want to try it, don’t wait for anything and enjoy it to the fullest.