Tails and Trails Together

Tails and Trails Together On the road together 🚐🐾🌍❤️
Chasing moments that matter
No rush. No perfect plan.

Just us, our little furry family, and making the most of every day… Because life is too short ✨

So much for my idea of writing daily or even weekly, I think I set myself too big a task while also working the festival...
01/08/2026

So much for my idea of writing daily or even weekly, I think I set myself too big a task while also working the festivals😳. The festival schedule has been all consuming, fun… lots and lots of fun, but incredibly hard work and when we finally do rest, my brain has no excess power to do anything.

So firstly I need to say “I’m sorry” to all our friends and family that we haven’t been in touch with… you’re in our thoughts ❤️

We’re currently at a very small and very quiet event down south and we’re taking the opportunity to catch up on a few bits and pieces and more importantly taking a breath and remembering that we are doing this for the longer plan of travelling and that we have to remember to enjoy the festivals and each other, even when we face challenges and cope with lack of sleep.

Last I wrote, we were heading back to Southport and we’ve been all over the place since then. Rather than bore you with a recap the last six weeks I’ve put together a selection of photos from that time with individual comments.

Highlights have been:
❤️ Watching Shira get more and more confident and cheeky as the weeks go by
💜 Darren finally being able to find time to fly his drone a few times… we are super excited to be able to use it for our travel blogs
💚 Having the best tan we can ever recall having had in the UK thanks to amazing weather for weeks on end

Lowlights:
💔 Just the one really… a broken trailer turned out to be a costly affair… but finding the silver lining, we have a nearly new shiny replacement now.

We are currently at festival number 13 out of 17 and once we’re done it’s time to travel and then I’ll definitely find my writing muse again 😊

Trine and Darren xx

And then another week passed and we are set up at VanLife Fest near Scarborough after a lovely ‘weekend’ in York… well i...
20/06/2026

And then another week passed and we are set up at VanLife Fest near Scarborough after a lovely ‘weekend’ in York… well if you can class our Tuesday and Wednesday off as a weekend 🤷‍♀️

This is one of the only festivals where we can’t get in to set up until the Thursday so knowing we had an extra day off we thought we’d spend the time in York on our way back up north to see the sights and sample the beer… normal people would probably have had a nice rest but no not us, who needs a break 😂😂

We had found a cracking campsite almost in the centre of town but with great access to river walks so both days consisted of 5 mile walks in the parks with the dogs first and then when they were tired out and asleep we then walked into York to have a look around. We made it to Guy Fawkes Inn, the exact building where he was born, did a bit of shopping and then finished off tracing my Viking roots to Valhalla for some Viking mead and a lovely sharing platter feast.

One more day at this festival and then we will be Southport bound for 10 days enjoying our first weekend off since we moved into the van and hopefully will catch up with friends and family too ❤️

Trine and Darren xx

Well I knew that I was way overdue a post on here and then yesterday I was told by a friend that 'I must do better' 😮😂😂....
11/06/2026

Well I knew that I was way overdue a post on here and then yesterday I was told by a friend that 'I must do better' 😮😂😂..... so here goes, let me try to catch up with the last month of activity whilst sat in the campervan in a storm hoping that all the ratchet straps are going to stop the gazebo from flying away!!

I can't actually believe that it's been a whole month since I had the time to sit down and just write a little bit. The idea of us doing the festivals full time in the summer without having the day job and the shop to worry about was so that it would be less stressful and it would give us more time to relax in between event. In practice it's been non-stop.

It makes us chuckle (and very much roll our eyes) when customers walk into the stall at an event and exclaim that "it must be great to just work 3 days of the week" !! 😳🙄😂 What they don't see is that we arrive at least 2-3 days before the event start in order to set up, clean all the displays from the last event and polish the silver (again and again and again...). We then work 14 hour days trading from 9am until often past 11 at night and then pack it all down after everyone has gone back home. The one day off we then get in between events becomes chores day catching up with food shopping, the necessary emptying of toilet, refilling of water, laundry, cleaning the van etc etc.

In between that we have also managed to get back to Southport briefly for a family visit, collection of our post (and lovely lunch at the same time - thanks Heather ❤️), collection of stock and a trip to the wholesalers.

This 'summer' has so far also had the added complexity of really challenging weather. We have had one heat-wave weekend and the rest of the time it's been 'British summer' at it's best. I cannot remember any other festival season that has been this windy and I think only people who work outside at event's like these under rickety canvas structures will understand the fear and stress that wind brings.

That said... do we regret anything? Absolutely not!! Are we happy? Of course we are!! We have each other and our furry family and we get to see new places and meet new people every week. Would we like some sunshine? Yes Please 🙏🙏

We have also managed a few pub visits (just to keep Darren happy and alive 🍺🍺😂) whilst trying to get the most out of the little sun we have seen and even managed a couple of days in a windswept Brighton.

As a special Shira update, asides from being a favourite with all customers and the events she has now advanced from catching flies and bugs to her first mouse... but we actually think she wanted it as a friend. She was ever so gentle with it and would probably have carried on playing with it had I not decided to spare the poor mouse a guaranteed heart attack and set the mouse free again - much to complaints from Shira 🐭🐈

Photos are a random selection of this busy last month. I will be back soon (I promise).

Trine & Darren xx

Let me address the flying cat first…. No she wasn’t caught by the kite 🦅🐈 but there were several of them nesting in the ...
12/05/2026

Let me address the flying cat first…. No she wasn’t caught by the kite 🦅🐈 but there were several of them nesting in the trees above the campsite and one had already swooped down to fetch a rabbit and were swooping very low over little Shira eying up their next meal and we honestly had visions of her dangling high above 😳🫣, so she was kept on a very short leash, much to her disgust and loud protest, and we were constantly watching. It has to be said though that the kites were beautiful to watch 🦅❤️

Working away at festivals is fun but also very hard work and definitely stressful at times especially when you are working and living together round the clock without a real separation of work and home. It’s therefore super important that we remember to reset in between. Not just to get the inevitable admin of shopping, cleaning and washing done but to remember to reconnect with each other too away from work.

We’ve booked campsites between each event, sometimes (like this week) we only have time for one night but it’s about making the most of that time. So we got up early yesterday and drove the 4 hours south to Henley on Thames. Had a quick pit stop collecting our Amazon purchases at a locker (yet another trailer hitch lock which didn’t fit our trailer 🤬)

After a much needed proper shower and hair wash we walked into the town (with Darren getting extra exercise by carrying the rather heavy hitch lock back to the post office 🫣💪) and found a lovely pub by the river to catch the last rays of sun. We then found a little gem of a pub with heated booths in the beer garden serving the most gorgeous tapas to round the day off 💗

We had a lovely day off yesterday between festivals. The plan was to have a little walk across the fields to the village...
06/05/2026

We had a lovely day off yesterday between festivals. The plan was to have a little walk across the fields to the village of Scotton with a pit stop at the local pub … but the universe had other plans as we found out that said local pub was closed on Tuesdays and apparently the only other thing to see in Scotton was precisely nothing 🫣😂

So a change of plan was in order and rather than a little walk we did a 5 mile round trip to Knaresborough. Having no idea what to expect we were pleasantly surprised to find a lovely little market town with castle ruins, a very quirky painted house, stunning views and a lots of cozy independent ale houses. So everyone were happy, and the dogs were goosed by the time we got back.

I’ve also had time to do a little more cooking than usually in the van. At festivals we rarely have time to cook proper meals but I’ve so far managed a seafood pasta and tonight was corned beef hash which neither of us had eaten for years.

Now to get ready for the next festival…

Definitely one of things I’ve missed the most whilst living in a house… waking up to open green views and just be able t...
05/05/2026

Definitely one of things I’ve missed the most whilst living in a house… waking up to open green views and just be able to sit with a coffee and take in the peace and quiet (well it would be quiet if Darren didn’t have the radio on 📻 😂 …but it’s pop quiz time…)

It’s downtime ‘weekend’ for us today. We’re at a small farm campsite round the corner from our next festival in North Yorkshire and both trying to get used to the notion of having a day off. Last year we had to rush back home in between festivals for work and the shop and the last 6 months have been full on getting everything ready, so to just be sitting with no real plan for the day apart from a walk feels almost like a guilty pleasure 😳 but we’re not complaining and nor are the furry babies 😍

Well if we’d been concerned about how Shira was going to take to Van and festival life, there was no need 😻She had taken...
01/05/2026

Well if we’d been concerned about how Shira was going to take to Van and festival life, there was no need 😻
She had taken everything in her stride, said hello to customers, explored the displays, enjoyed our festival ‘back garden’ and generally just charmed everyone❤️
I’ll be teaching her how to work the till tomorrow 😹❤️

Well it all got very real today…Darren has handed his laptop in to work and left the office he’s been working in for 8 y...
28/04/2026

Well it all got very real today…

Darren has handed his laptop in to work and left the office he’s been working in for 8 years for the last time. It was emotional 🥹

We’ve handed the house keys over to the lettings agent ready for viewings.

Everything is packed into Bluey (the name of our van to those who don’t know 💙) and honestly I don’t think we could fit as much as another dog biscuit in there now 🫣 … we are a bit worried about the weight of the van given we were a bit over last summer. We have definitely lowered the weight with the sofa reengineering, but on the other hand we’ve added a small roof rack and got much more belongings. We should really go to a weigh bridge, but we might just keep it a surprise until we get stopped by the French police again 😳🫣

So tomorrow morning we start our new life. 17 festivals and on the 8th Sep we head to Europe to do roughly the journey on this map over the course of nearly 8 months… although without a doubt there’ll be loads of diversions and alterations knowing us.

We will keep posting throughout the festivals where we also hope to meet many more of our fellow vanlifers to pick up some tips and tricks and start making memories 💙

I mentioned in our last post that I took the van apart over winter and although it was nearly complete before our trip l...
18/04/2026

I mentioned in our last post that I took the van apart over winter and although it was nearly complete before our trip last weekend I only just managed to finish the rest off today as we couldn’t decide on our table configuration. Probably exaggerated slightly that it was the whole inside but it felt like it at the time 😂…but I thought I’d share the renovation process we did (and in this instance it’s the royal ‘we’ as in it was pure girl power doing this renovation 💜)

Whilst the design done by the previous owners was functional it just didn’t work for our way living. We wanted to open up the space a bit more and I do like to snuggle up on a sofa rather than sitting at a table and we also couldn’t both face the tv at the same time. The previous design had also incorporated a fridge under one of the seats meaning the seats had to be so high that our feet couldn’t touch the floor when sitting down, making me feel like I was back at school 😂😂

So, after removing everything I reduced the height of the one remaining seat and all the contents, which is the electrical hub storing our batteries and all the electrical components, built a bench seat and having ordered memory foam cushion sewed the cushion covers … with the immense help of Shira 😻 …. Now it’s one thing sewing a standard cushion cover, but sloped backs with graduated corners took my sewing skills to a whole new level… along with my swearing vocabulary 🫣🤬

It was then time to organise the storage underneath, and there’s now a shoe cupboard, a removable laundry basket and last but not least a litter tray for Shira accessible via her own little cat flap.

That left the conundrum of the table and in the end and having ordered and subsequently returned most camping table options from Amazon we finally opted for a removable lightweight table from Clearcut Campervan Design. It meant a bit of altering to the van again to get the rail fitted but we are so pleased with the final result. And the fact that the table stows neatly away in our existing little narrow cupboard is even better!! 😍

So there we are…. ❤️❤️

It’s about time that I get posting on our new travel page, and what better time to do our first proper post than from ou...
11/04/2026

It’s about time that I get posting on our new travel page, and what better time to do our first proper post than from our first trip away this year… even if it is only a little weekend away across the Peak District with the Dubbed Out Festival gang. Not only is it our first trip this year but it’s also our little baby girl Shira’s first trip ever anywhere, and she’s being a little trooper taking it all in her stride😻

It’s crazy to think that in less than 3 weeks this van (Bluey) will be our full time home for at least the next few years, so this weekend is a quick trial trip to see if everything was working as it should, especially after I rebuilt half the interior over the winter… and also a much needed respite from all the preparation work we are doing at the moment. And true to form, the list of bits that we need to do or buy in the next 3 weeks is growing by the minute 🫣😂 … not least the 2 leaks we have found on the roof during this mornings rain 🌧️😳

More to come soon as we prepare for full time van life ❤️❤️

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