Camping in Europe with Spaceship Campers

Cool Camping around Europe

To infinity and beyond! Well, not infinity exactly, but Norway is rather a long way to drive from Hayes – 1,316 miles to be precise. And it’s not even in the European Union…

A few friends and I had the ambitious plan to drive from Hayes (Middlesex) to Hemsedal (Norway), where we would spend a week in a cabin before driving all the way back. And all in just two weeks.

Luckily, we had our wits about us when it came to choosing a vehicle for this mighty European road trip: a Spaceship (admittedly, not a real one). These converted Toyota people carriers have been cleverly transformed to hold a fridge, a couple of storage compartments complete with cooking equipment (double-hob gas stove; crockery etc), back and side awnings, and bedding – on top of which is room enough for a double mattress.

If it’s a warm night you have the option of leaving the back door open and using the back awning as a breathable wall. Or, for a cosier time, keep the door closed and extend the bed further into the car; the two back seats swivel around to accommodate this and allow space for a little table attachment for indoor eating. Both the 2-berth Beta and Alpha vehicles and the 4-berth Alpha have DVD players, and you can even choose a couple of films to take on your travels from the 'Space Station' when you pick up your vehicle.

So what are they like to drive? These are no sluggish, lane-hogging Winnebagos that clog up country lanes, but streamlined, narrow vehicles, which feel remarkably car-like. And the best news: they’re classified as cars on ferries and toll bridges/roads, which helps to keep the cost of your holiday down.

Our route took us from Hayes to Dover and across to Calais by ferry. Unfortunately there was no time to stop for wine or sample un petit peu of French culture, as we had to drive straight to Ghent (Belgium), allegedly the vegetarian capital of Europe. After a falafel-filled evening we made camp in the central Blaarmeersen campsite, part of a large park and sports centre, just outside the city centre. It’s fairly large and impersonal, but it does have fantastic facilities including its own sandy beach adjoining a swimming lake.

We could happily have stayed for a couple more days, the sun was shining and Ghent is a truly fantastic city. However, the Spaceship needed to hit the road and we set course through the Netherlands and then Germany, passing cornfields and antique windmills and travelling through forests heavy with towering fir trees. After a quick stop overnight near Kiel, we caught a ferry from Puttgarden over to Rødby in Denmark. Although it's a slightly pricier option, the 45-minute ferry journey allows you to kick back on the sun deck, and look out over the sea windmill farms.

Back in the Spaceship, we motored across the Danish roads to Copenhagen, along the way spotting a deer leaping through a cornfield next to the road, seemingly trying to keep pace with us.

A sunny afternoon in laidback Copenhagen was spent eating moules frites and drinking Danish lager – not the designated driver, naturally – by the water’s edge, while a live band set up opposite and played some improv rhythms. It was a shame to leave, but we had the big bridge over to Sweden to cross before dusk…

Safely into Sweden and travelling up its west coast, we pulled up by a beach near Mölle and had a sunset dip in the surprisingly warm and shallow waters of the Baltic Sea. That night, we settled at First Camp, a big – but friendly – camping park, just the job for a quick overnighter. We’d taken along a tent for two and the other couple popped up the awning to make the most of a mild night.

As we hit the road again, we watched our surroundings alter dramatically, as Sweden’s north gave way to the grey shelves of rock protruding from Norway’s lavish cloak of firs. Norway has the kind of natural wilderness that made us feel like we'd been transported to the wilds of Alaska. The population here is just 4.9 million in a country which boasts 148,747 square miles of land sprouting craggy mountains, Sound of Music-worthy green hills and luscious lakes, forests and fjords. Beautiful.

We did our best to explore as much of this awesome new territory, during our stay at the Hemsedal cabin. Highlights included summer husky-sledding; watching the wolf man and his pack at Langedrag Nature Park; climbing one of the local mountains and wild swimming in numerous bodies of natural water. In summer, many of Norway’s winter ski resorts open their slopes up to downhill mountain-biking, an adrenaline-fuelled way to spend an afternoon, and so Hemsedal’s resort was a treat for the slightly braver members of the team.

Then it was time for the astronauts to clamber back aboard their Spaceship and wend their way back through Europe, stopping over at Enschede in the Netherlands and Lille in France, still enjoying the fact that we only had to pay a camping fee for a car and tent.

All too soon we were back across the ferry, docking the Spaceship at its Hayes station once more – 2,600 miles later. One small step for man, one giant leap for an Asteroid, but she was a great ship and we’d recommend giving it a go, albeit over a slightly longer time period.