Martin Dorey
I’m going to Spain on the first of March to Santander and then hopefully driving through the Pyrenees on the Spanish side. I’ll hopefully go snowboarding to show that you can go snowboarding and have a reasonably cheap snowboarding holiday in a van, if you’ve got the right van. Our van has been winterized, we’ve got all the right kit and stuff. Hopefully we’ll be alright!
Martin’s camper van set up
Matt Sims
What van have you got at the moment?
Martin Dorey
I’ve got a Fiat Ducato that was converted by my friend Richard Hales, who runs Rhales conversions. He’s done a great job of it to my spec. It suits me really well. It’s got a little area where I can sit and type and do my pictures and all that sort of stuff. There’s also a really nice lounge at the back where my partner and I can hang out. We’ve even done things like putting the ducting going into the bathroom really close to the boiler so that it’s hot, so that we can dry our stuff really easily.
Matt Sims
Good idea!
Martin Dorey
There’s all kinds of things like that that we’ve tried to think about. We’ve got chains, we’ve got winter tires, so we’re quite well prepared. I’m really, really looking forward to it. It seems like we’ve been…
Matt Sims
Caged!
Martin Dorey
Yeah, we’ve been caged!
Matt Sims
How long are you going away for?
Martin Dorey
I’ll be away for five weeks to start with, and then I’ll be coming back for a few weeks, then going off again. I had to get a work visa to go because of Brexit, which means that you can only do three months at a time, then you have to come back for three months. If I’d have done that, I’d have missed a lot of the summer. I had to work hard to get work visas, which was great, but a lot of trouble. Anybody who’s going on a trip for three months is probably thinking that that’s enough, isn’t it? Hopefully people will be able to do what I’ve done within that time.
New Take the Slow Road books
Matt Sims
When is this book out, the Take the Slow Road Spain and Portugal one?
Martin Dorey
This one will come out in May next year. So it’s a really, really short turnaround. Normally they take a year to do, but because of lockdowns… I was supposed to go straight after Christmas, and drive through France, but obviously, there were problems in France, so I had to cancel that trip. I’m just making it into a really intense period of work. I’ll get it done and out of the door by December. That’s the minimum turnaround time they can get into the shops and publish in May. There’s a lot of work that goes into it after I’ve finished writing.
Matt Sims
You’ve got a new book coming out this May 2022. Is that right? Tell us about that.
Martin Dorey
The one that’s coming out in 2022 is Off the Beaten Track. That’s the one I did last year. So I finished that in December, and that then comes out in a few months’ time. It takes six months for them to put it together, design it and do their magic to make it look wonderful.
On the BBC
Matt Sims
I can’t believe it was 12 years ago that you were on BBC2!
Martin Dorey
It was 12 years ago that we shot it and it actually aired in February 2011, so it’s 11 years since it was broadcast. It’s mad. I get asked all the time whether or not I’m doing another series.
Matt Sims
Are you? I want to ask you!
Martin Dorey
No, I’m not.
Matt Sims
Why not?
Martin Dorey
Well, I would if they asked me! I’d go and do it tomorrow. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to go around the country in a campervan for five weeks being filmed? It’s wonderful.
Matt Sims
If anyone’s listening from the BBC and is into producing a show like this, then Martin’s your man! Honestly, it was a fantastic series.
Martin Dorey
Oh, thank you.
Matt Sims
We loved it. We all watched it as a family and it really inspired us, so go for it! Keep nagging the BBC, I’d say.
Martin Dorey
I’ll try! It seems, now that campervans are the flavour of the month, it might well have been a little bit ahead of its time. It got watched well, but I think that they didn’t like the ideas for the second series and decided to drop it. Never mind – I loved doing it. It was a great thing to do. It brought me so many friends and brought me here and now.
Matt Sims
Have you still got that campervan, the Bay?
Martin Dorey
No, the Bay, I’m afraid, went to a better home a few years later, because I moved to Bude in Cornwall to a house that’s not very far from the sea. I could almost see it sinking.
Matt Sims
Dissolving!
Martin Dorey
Dissolving is exactly the right word! It was kind of sinking on its suspension when the wind was blowing in a certain direction. It went to be saved, basically. Also, I spend a lot more time in vans these days, and actually a 1979 Bay isn’t quite right to take into the mountains or to drive around Europe, because it’s a bit of an effort.
Matt Sims
No, you want something that can bring you back!
Martin Dorey
And get you there as well!
Matt Sims
Well, yeah, that’s a benefit!
Martin Dorey
They’re lovely things. They’re such great vans, and they’ve got so much character – I know why people love them. But when it comes down to it, I need a loo, and a shower’s nice every so often, and a heater.
Matt Sims
Yeah… and you don’t necessarily want to be on first name terms with the recovery driver, do you?
Martin Dorey
I think it’s so old that they probably wouldn’t insure it any more.
The Camper Van Bible: Glovebox Edition
Matt Sims
Maybe not! So you’re off to Europe in March, and the book is going to no doubt keep you busy this year. What else is happening in the Dorey world?
Martin Dorey
I’ve basically tried to concentrate on this book this year. I’ve just finished doing some updates to the Campervan Bible, which you’ll know is my sort of handbook to campervan life. I’ve just finished some of that and I’m going to do some more.
Every time I think I’m done, I turn around and somebody says, ‘oh, do you know about this?’ There are so many updates happening all the time and there’s so much to keep on top of. Since it came out in 2016, compressor fridges have almost taken over from absorption fridges, so we have to allow for that because they’re different sizes, and all that kind of stuff. All that has to be taken account of.
Matt Sims
So the Campervan Bible, for those listeners that don’t know, is a beautiful hardback book. Nearly A4 size, isn’t it? It’s a big book. Maybe slightly smaller. It’s beautifully illustrated. It’s a thick book, it looks amazing on the coffee table or by the bed. It’s a really, really good read. I congratulate you on it. It’s fantastic. We love it. We love reading it. Ours is very dog-eared on the corners. Are you doing a glove box version of it? Is that right?
Matt Sims
Yes, that’s right. The original Campervan Bible, for anybody who’s listening and not watching, I’m holding my hands out to say it was a really thick book. It’s really great to use as levelling, you know, if you find yourself on a campsite…
Matt Sims
Propping the table up!
Martin Dorey
Yeah! The glovebox edition of that is a little paperback version that’s got a lot of the lists taken out, but has lots of new stuff. It’s about questions like what do you need to take? When do you need to think about particular things?
Matt Sims
You were telling me earlier that you’ve reprioritized the book. Is that right? Is it reordered a little bit?
Martin Dorey
I think things have changed since I wrote it originally. I think we now have to think more about the environment and think about what we’re doing and the impact we have. I’ve reordered it a little bit so that the eco stuff has got more weight as well as the things that you can do to be a responsible camper.
An example would be the idea that maybe if you go to Scotland to go around the NC 500, you don’t go to Waitrose in your hometown and take your food with you and eat just that as you go around Scotland.
It would be better for everybody if you were able to eat local, and be within the community in which you travel, because that means that you’ll be buying local food, supporting local people, supporting local produce and local agriculture. That’s good for the environment, believe it or not.
You can eat your way to a better environment, rather than just eating packet stuff that’s flown thousands of miles. Those kinds of things, I think, are really important going forward for us.
Environmental Work
Matt Sims
You position yourself as an environmentalist, and I introduced you on this podcast as an environmentalist. What are you doing that gives you that title, if you like?
Martin Dorey
I don’t know whether you know – I was, until a couple of weeks ago, the CEO of an environmental charity that I set up around 2006. I went walking on a beach and found it knee deep in plastic bottles, and decided I would do something. I didn’t know what I was going to do.
I started an online campaign about people picking up litter called 2 Minute Beach Clean to try and encourage people to spend two minutes picking up litter. It applies as much to campers and motorhomers as it does to anybody, the idea being that you go somewhere, and you just leave it nicer than it was. If you’re talking about turning up wild camping, if ever I go anywhere, I’ll have a look around and if there’s litter I’ll pick it up. That’s it.
So that thought started on social media. It’s just gotten massive. It became a charity two or three years ago and it now employs 10 people and I’ve stepped down as the CEO. So my environmental credentials are kind of okay! I’ve done some books about plastic and I’ve written some kids’ books about fighting plastic and fighting climate change as well.
It sort of has led me down another little path, which I’m really happy to be able to bring back to this industry because I think we’ve got work to do. You know, we’re not as bad as other industries, but actually, there’s a lot that we can do that’s really positive. We shouldn’t feel bad about driving in a diesel van, because diesels are good these days.
They’re okay, it’s better than flying. But there are things that we can do along the way. Eat local, don’t use single use plastics, don’t chuck stuff away, stop using wet wipes, all that kind of stuff that has a positive effect.
Matt Sims
Common sense stuff. What’s the name of the charity? Where can people find out a bit more about that?
Martin Dorey
It’s called the 2 Minute Foundation. There’s a website – it’s 2minute.org. It is based in Bude in Cornwall, and they’re doing great stuff.
They’re doing lots of education as well. They run a beach school in Bude, kids come along and they take them on walks on the beach and teach them why they need to pick up plastic and why it’s important and show them the devastating consequences of not picking up plastic. Then they do rock pool rambles and stuff.
They do something which is amazing -they put a UV light on rock pools in the dark. The rock pools ping with colour because – if you do night dives you might know – I don’t know why it is, but the anemones and all the stuff in rock pools for some reason just look amazing in the dark with a UV light.
Matt Sims
Is there a plan to get this into the national curriculum or is it just Cornwall based?
Martin Dorey
No, it’s UK based. We’re trying to open another beach school somewhere else. I think they’ll take it on – they’re opening an academy so that people can come along and learn. It’s difficult to explain, but the idea of it is that people can come along and learn how to do a beach clean and learn how to do risk assessments for a beach clean, but also they can learn to become a medic for marine life, like for seals that get stranded.
They can learn from the BDMLR, which is the British Divers Marine Life Rescue Association or something like that. They train people as medics, so actually, they can come to us and we talk to lots of different agencies about delivering their training for them.
The Marine Conservation Society will deliver training to the people that come to us. It’s kind of like bringing in lots of different things all under one umbrella. By the time you’ve done all these little courses, you would be the sort of ultimate eco beach goer. That’s the idea. It’s just about education and just trying to make people more aware.
Matt Sims
I love it. If people are heading off to the coast in their campervan for a bit of wild camping, then this kind of knowledge is paramount, isn’t it?
Martin Dorey
Absolutely. And why not, when you’re at the beach, go to a beach clean? Or even when you’re in a field somewhere or in Scotland or Ireland – just leave it nicer. Be responsible, because we have to do it. And it does matter.
Matt Sims
It’s fascinating. Thank you very much for your time today and for taking time out of a busy show. People can buy your books from our shop, www.thatleisureshop.com – go and get them! We sell most of your books, and certainly all of your UK books. We’re planning to stock the European ones and we’ll definitely be stocking the new one next year, now that travel restrictions are lifted. I think we’ve got the France one on order. Where can people find out more about you? You’ve got your own website as well.
Martin Dorey
If people want to read a little bit about me, there’s www.martindorey.com – you can have a look at that. I sell my books there, but people shouldn’t buy them from me, they should buy them from you! There’s a little bit about my life on there and about what I do. People can get in contact with me through there as well.
Matt Sims
We will follow your next escapade into Spain and Portugal with great interest and we look forward to the new book next year!
Martin Dorey
Thanks very much. If anybody does want to follow my escapades in Spain and Portugal I will be posting pictures to Instagram. I’m @martindorey on Instagram – follow me, check it out and come along with me on my adventures!
Matt Sims
We will be there. Brilliant. Good luck!
Martin Dorey
Thank you very much.
Keith Gooden
Thanks for listening to the Motorhome Matt podcast. Remember to check back here for more episodes full of hints and tips and helpful advice. We’ll see you soon for another Motorhome Matt podcast brought to you with www.thatleisureshop.com.
