Andy and Claire now travel with their dogs Dora and Pablo (Image: Andy and Claire Stocks with their dogs)
When adventurers Andy and Claire Stocks found they couldn’t travel during the pandemic, they channeled their energy into a project that would end up changing the way they lived their lives.
The couple, who previously visited over 30 far-flung destinations from the Far East to Central America, staying in Airbnbs and hotels, swapped their jet-setting lifestyle for simpler staycations and close to home adventures. And they’ve now semi-retired to focus on creating content for their YouTube channel.
Their change of lifestyle came about thanks to a ‘battered’ £8,000 carpenter’s van, which Andy bought on a whim after being unable to get hold of parts for his broken-down Mercedes. The couple carried out the work themselves, and their renovated van took them on adventures all the way to Italy through Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium, plus lots of staycations, before the couple eventually traded in their carpenter’s van, opting to buy a purpose-built motorhome instead.
The couple turned a ‘battered’ van into a home on wheels (Image: Andy and Claire Stocks)
The pair now run their own YouTube channel, St Christopher of Atlantis providing their tips on van life to over 46,000 followers and their adventures across some of the UK’s hidden gems. They’ve also turned their adventures into a book: It Started with a Van.
They’ve been to over 30 countries, but it was the UK that proved to offer up a memorable highlight. Claire told me that the Isle of Mull is a favourite, with “the most wonderful sunset we’ve ever seen”. She recommended a campsite called Fidden Farm as “the beaches truly are white beaches up there”, comparing it to the Maldives. Meanwhile Andy tipped Hartlepool as a must-visit.
He added: “This is a really random place that we would never expect it. We went to Hartlepool Marina and we saw dolphins. It was so beautiful, kind of an industrial location actually, but then you look up and you’re watching the dolphins, goodness.
“The Northeast again is a bit like that. You know, you can be on a beach and you look one way and there’s industry, but then you look the other way and you’ve got wildlife. Everywhere has got something going for it.”
The couple told their story via YouTube (Image: Andy and Claire Stocks)
The couple admitted that they have to stay “mega organised” when they travel to cope with living in tight quarters, especially in their original van that had no separate living area, just a bed, and no built-in toilet.
Along the way there have been dramas, including being trapped in a full-blown blizzard, but one that stands out is when Andy and Claire ended up in the wrong country.
Andy and Claire now visit the UK’s hidden gems (Image: Andy and Claire Stocks)
Andy explained: “We did have an occasion where we put in the wrong location into the satnav. I went to the completely incorrect country. It said we should have been somewhere in France. We ended up in Belgium.”
The couple said there are misconceptions about vanlife, such as visitors not being good for the local economy. To combat this, they make sure that they highlight local cafes, bars, and local shops on their channel, in a bid to help promote small businesses.
And how long will they stay on the road? Andy and Claire have no plans to hang up their keys in the near future.
Andy explained: “We are quite young to be motor homers. The demographic of our channel is a lot of people that are older than us. So, we’ve got all that to go and we’ll do it as long as we enjoy it.”
For anyone tempted to follow a similar path, he advised: “Just do it now while you can. Just do whatever you want to do. Get out and do it. That’s my advice.”
As they worked on the van, the couple decided to put updates on their progress on YouTube, and while they’re well known among the campervan community nowadays, the reaction wasn’t quite what they expected. Andy elaborated: “When we put it out on YouTube, I think people thought it was a bit of a joke. Some of the initial comments were, ‘Oh, that was really funny. That was, you know, you made me laugh.’ And actually, that wasn’t your intention at all.
“No, I put my best foot forward thinking this would show people how to build a van, but they thought it was more of a funny sort of parody type thing really.”
But their persistence paid off, and over time they built a loyal following, cutting their work days back to three a week to spend more time on their content.
Andy and Claire have written a book about their experience (Image: Andy and Claire Stocks)
On a typical day, the couple “travel to the campsite and then we do a tour of whichever campsite we’re staying on.”, which they say can “show people around campsites so that they can look at it. And a lot of people book campsites off the back of us. We turn up, we set the pitch up, and then we grab the cameras, and then we will go and tour the campsite and the surrounding area. And then when we’ve done that, we come back to the motor home and we’re working basically.
“The illusion is that we are out and just on campsites and enjoying ourselves, but editing, we’re dealing with the social media side, the comments. And so it’s like our motor home now, it’s a bit like an office on wheels.”
As for what prompted them to make the move? Andy admitted it was originally his idea and that he wasn’t sure “Claire was fully onboard”. However, she added: “No. Well, Andrew has quite a lot of ideas. So, I think this was just another idea. I didn’t really think too much about it. This carpenter’s van appeared and he said that you were going to sort of transform it into a camper van so we could go on some amazing adventures.”
Their first campervan jaunt was certainly less glamorous than vanlife influencers like to portray. Mid-way through the project they headed to Conwy in Wales. “I was trying to sell the lifestyle to Claire. What actually happened was we sat in a car park with a sandwich. On the bare floor!” Andy joked.
The couple have discovered hidden gems such as Hartlepool Marina (Image: Getty)
Isle of Mull was also a favourite of theirs (Image: Getty)
But he admitted that he started the project with no experience and “an unrealistic amount of confidence”. And the early parts of the project “didn’t go very well.” He said: “The first job that I had to do – there’s a a bulkhead that separates the cab from the back to stop things flying into the cabin. So, I had to remove that. I thought that was going to be a really easy job.
“And I started taking the bolts out and they were all good apart from one bolt and that took me two weeks to actually get rid of. So it kind of set the tone for everything else that followed.”
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