In 2008 the idea came to buy a bay-window VW camper. By December of that year we had one called Bob, after Bob/Kate from the Blackadder series. It was around the time of purchase that I set up www.ourbobisanawesomebob.com to record our life with this enormously lovely 30-year-old vehicle.

The first six months or so with Bob were not particularly enjoyable as she (for Bob was a girl) kept breaking down. Eventually this was found to be nothing more than an errant sticker in the fuel tank! As soon as that was been removed she didn’t miss a beat…

We spent our time with her improving things here and there both by ourselves and with the aid of VW specialists, and in 2009 we enjoyed holidays to Devon and Suffolk before embarking on a problem free 1000-mile holiday through Belgium and France during 2010. We also enjoyed a number of other weekends away in her across the country, and no journey in her was anything less than an event.

Sadly, after our trip to Belgium and France we decided to sell Bob. We had/have aspirations to travel further afield and trundling around Spain, Germany etc. with a young family holding fingers crossed that your classic vehicle won’t let you down wasn’t going to be as much fun in practice as it didn’t sound in theory. And then came the news that our family would be increasing by one in the Spring of 2011.

I had a Eunos Roadster R-Limited in white – one of only 106 ever made – and, complete with red leather interior, was lovely. I called him (for Mandy was a boy) the Virgin Mandy because his official colour was Chaste White and I like the character the Virgin Mandy from The Life Of Brian. I thought about doing a blog for him but never got around to it. In November 2010 Mandy was driven into by a 4×4 whilst parked. The insurance company wrote him off.

And so it came to pass that we were a one-car family in need of a replacement for Bob (suitable for camping holidays but able to seat 5 in comfort & be modern) AND Mandy (my occasional daily driver) and the Christmas spirit told us that it would be called Pearl, and that he (for Pearl will be a boy) would be the Son Of Bob.

This site will continue as an archive of our time with a Devon Moonraker VW Camper, but Pearl will have his own site, with the address to be confirmed…