'Wanderlusts' gypsy caravan holidays and living off grid

[trevskoda]

WE all love pulling you leg, not the wooden one mind you.

 

[alcam]

I'd just like to say, to make things very clear, that this couple are NOT Romany by birth, neither are they Irish Tinkers.
They have simply chosen to live this way, and I greatly admire them for having the courage to do that.

Some comments have veered away from the content of my original post - which is basically about horse drawn holidays.
If this was 'Just a Minute' you'd all be disqualified for deviation, including me with my reference to Irish Tinkers !

Maybe watch the videos properly (instead of a quick glance and dismiss) and you'll know they had to battle for a long time with the local council to get planning permission for their 'shack'. They are the only family residing on their land, it is tucked well away from prying eyes and it is not a gypsy encampment. They also pay their business taxes etc., (unlike plenty of well known figures we could all mention).

We all drive around in our motorised 'off-grid shacks'. Don't see there's such huge difference really, apart from money spent?

Please don't be quick to judge people before you know anything about them. Yes, they live an unconventional life but are harming no one, neither do they scrounge or thieve.

Beware the green eyed monster, maybe.... ?

Sorry I did go off topic a bit . But did also watch the video which was great , very uplifting . Did wonder how the kid got on at school ?
Kids not always good when someone is 'different'

 

[trevskoda]

Wifes aunt used to live like that up to about 30/40 years ago in a Irish loft 2 room cottage with no lecy or gas, sold last year along with the land.

 

[n brown]

r

Sorry I did go off topic a bit . But did also watch the video which was great , very uplifting . Did wonder how the kid got on at school ?
Kids not always good when someone is 'different'

my eldest had no problems with school ,she loved it but also enjoyed travelling .she could leave school for a year ,18 months and fit straight back in . second eldest was fine with primary but started getting problems in secondary,not being interested in boys ,clothes ,make up or celeb gossip set her too far apart,so she decided not to go anymore around 11 yrs old , my son had already given up age 9 as he found it horribly boring ,as did i at that age . my youngest enjoyed learning and found school a bit slow. she gave it up about 12 . we never home schooled them,just encouraged their interests . all a bit hippy i suppose but the youngest went back to school about 16-17 and got a first with honours in law and was head hunted by a big law firm in her second year . the 2 middle kids are among the best tattooists in the south west and my eldest just enjoys her job working with animals ,mainly horses .

 

[Nesting Zombie]

I’m sure that back in the days that I had a brain maybe mid 70s I recall TWO short films made as like ‘Social Diaries’ of school kids from all different backgrounds & up bringing when they was 7 year Old & AGAIN the same kids when they was 14...
I think one went on to be a Fizzy Drinks maker or something
For some reason I’ve got the phrase
‘Show me a child & I will show you the Adult to be’
Or was that some Greek bloke


I’m sure I didn’t make it up, as I distinctly remember a young chap that wanted to be a Jocky, & a posh little girl

Oh well, Maybe it was a sugar rush from my can of 7 up !....

 

[trevskoda]

I hated school but had to go through it, engines and things mec. teachers said I would be doing the bins, yea right, had my LTD Co with several men working for me at 24 years old and never worked for anyone after that, as Bing sang, I did it my way.

 

[Pedalman]

I hated school but had to go through it, engines and things mec. teachers said I would be doing the bins, yea right, had my LTD Co with several men working for me at 24 years old and never worked for anyone after that, as Bing sang, I did it my way.

Good job it was Frank that sang it, but Bing did okay too.

 

[campervanannie]

I’m sure that back in the days that I had a brain maybe mid 70s I recall TWO short films made as like ‘Social Diaries’ of school kids from all different backgrounds & up bringing when they was 7 year Old & AGAIN the same kids when they was 14...
I think one went on to be a Fizzy Drinks maker or something
For some reason I’ve got the phrase
‘Show me a child & I will show you the Adult to be’
Or was that some Greek bloke


I’m sure I didn’t make it up, as I distinctly remember a young chap that wanted to be a Jocky, & a posh little girl

Oh well, Maybe it was a sugar rush from my can of 7 up !....

Yes the phrase is almost right and I watched the whole series a couple of years back one had a very hard adult life, they caught up with them every 7 years I think.

 

[trevskoda]

Those that start out hungry with determination always end up well fed.

 

[Nesting Zombie]

Yes the phrase is almost right and I watched the whole series a couple of years back one had a very hard adult life, they caught up with them every 7 years I think.

Hey Annie,
Well I’m surprised that I even got a ‘Bit’ of it right to be honest. & it’s wasn’t inherited memories from a ‘Meal’ I might of had recently.

 

[kensowerby]

I was brought up in the slow lane, all work done by horses and most tractors had a top speed of 4mph so that they could use horse machinery, fantastic really when you think about it, all the jobs were completed and a bit of time to talk to folk
I have now reverted back to the slow Lane, haven't got a horse and cart but have plenty of time to watch the world go by and remember all the good and happy times
Sod the bad times just forget them
Had some wonderful news yesterday, we are going to see our great grand daughter on Sunday, she's nearly 2 and we haven't seen her for the last 14 months so I think there will be some watery eyes,
Happy days

 

[REC]

Having gone back to " the older ways" when living in Portugal, I can really
appreciate the slower pace of life. We spend a lot of time on a spending roundabout "needing stuff" which is really not important. People in our village live off the land mainly, taking jobs to pay for the extras. Don't know if they are happier, but seem to have time for people and definitely not in competition with each other. One thing this pandemic has highlighted, is now little it affected the way of life here for many. Even the cafes have stayed open for takeaways ( and been well used) as they mainly are family run, and the owners live in the premises and have land for produce and a few animals. Don't spend any time looking to "expand" just to earn "enough".
Pandemic rules have affected the communal attitude to helping each other with jobs on the land, like olive pruning etc. But they still do it for each other, in family groups spread out. Just miss out on the big communal meal afterwards.

 

[n brown]

that's right , the women would pick oranges for something like a pound a day ,just to get the small amount of cash needed annually for baccy and tools . and the tools were often made of rebar and car springs -still are on many markets

 

[mariesnowgoose]

Wanderlusts
22 June at 06:46

20 years ago!

Seems more than one lifetime ago now, I bought my old companion Charlie and built a carriage from an old dismantled wagon and salvaged shuttering ply and on a wing and a prayer, started offering horse and cart rides on the Isle of Arran....

Shortly after the journalist of this article dismounted from the cart, we overtook a drain cleaning truck that started an almighty sucking noise just as we past! Charlie spooked and jumped, hitting me in the back with the shaft, he then bolted through a gate and took our excited passengers careering onto Brodick golf course before coming to an abrupt stop!

And so began the early murmurings of Wanderlusts horsedrawn holidays.... (now with another 20 years experience)
(To cut a long story short!)

Friends just sent this retrospective article from the Arran Banner

Wanderlusts.co.uk

#wanderlusts #isleofarran #memorylane #buskinglife #awingandaprayer #horseandcarriage #horsedrawn #bowtop #wagon

 

[Fisherman]

I remember well my first holiday abroad in 1977.
My mate and I headed for the then Yugoslavia.
This was my first time flying, and found that experience amazing.
Step on a plane in Glasgow and just two hours later you are in the middle of Europe.
Anyway that holiday was full of things I had never witnessed before.
Horses used to plough a field, women washing their clothes in the sea then hitting them of rocks to dry them. When you entered a shop no one bothered you, no one cared if you bought something or not. When you went to a bar the service was slower than slow, you had to order two drinks at a time.
The pace of life here really amazed me, and the lack of materialism was everywhere. The locals seemed to follow the well known Irish mantra, why do today what you can put of till tomorrow.
To be honest at first I found it annoying, but after a few days I started to appreciate that their lives were not ruled by greed, and the clock. These people would have given you the shirt of their backs, and yet they were so poor.
Things will have changed now that communism has long since been replaced.
But I wonder, yes they will all be driving cars, using washing machines, and those horses will have been replaced with tractors, but some will probably miss how things were back then.

 

[mariesnowgoose]

Bill, I think if you get off the beaten track in a lot of places things are pretty much the same?
Especially when it comes to agriculture and subsistence farming.

Here's a recent vid taken in Romania, for example.

(One for @kensowerby ?)

 

[Fisherman]

Bill, I think if you get off the beaten track in a lot of places things are pretty much the same?
Especially when it comes to agriculture and subsistence farming.

Here's a recent vid taken in Romania, for example.

(One for @kensowerby ?)

No Marie my mate went back there about ten years ago, and things had changed in what is now Croatia. No longer ruled by a communist dictatorship under Josef Broz (Tito) things are much different. But I wonder will some prefer the old ways, no doubt some will.

 

[trevskoda]

The above get away living like that with horses etc roaming all over the roads with logs, and thats because they dont live in a police state like we do.

 

[izwozral]

This looks like great thread. I will read it and watch the vids when back home.

Programme was called Seven Up, Fourteen Up etc, the last one the participants were in 63
Fascinating programme with really interesting story lines.

Thanks for posting it kiddo.

 

[Tookey]

Happiest groups of people I have met come from Indonesian fishing villages,

'Jam Karet' which translates as rubber time was their ethos once the mornings catch was in