By cheer chance.
We search the web for a carriage and cannot find one. Than by cheer chance, John walks up to an old man. In his eighty, the man is well known as the gypsy carriages builder. And yes, he has one for sale.
Very happy we make an appointment. Loaded with no experiences what so ever about carriages, we walk into a hug hangar and fall in love.
After the knowledge we have now we should have run away, but did not.
www.slow-express-journey.com/carriage-assembly.html
There it is.
Our dream carriage.
Wooden frame, big enough to stay right up inside, two tiny little doors upfront. A box to sit on, plenty of storage room and cute little windows.
Just in need for some adjustments to make it ours and we can already see us driving "along Gods roads".
The price is reasonable and in two hours, we have a carriage, no experience, no idea what to do next and no place to store it.
We find a place to store the wagon and space enough to do the adjustments. The list is much longer than we thought.
The roof is a bit leaking.
There is no toilet.
No bed.
No kitchen.
One window is almost rotten.
The color scheme (dark red) is not our favorite.
The box is too small.
The brakes do not work.
There is no pole.
Moreover, the tires are ready for replacement.
The rest is fine, thank you.
If you want to know what happend after a month driving. Visit our website its a must!
horse drawn gypsywagon
A journey with a horse-drawn carriage must be prepared of dangerous situations. That's why we have at the back disk brakes. The weight the horses have to pull or to hold back is too big to let them do that alone.We have a very little, tiny kitchen. Just enough to put a petrol burner and do the dishes. In case if cold weather we have a kerosine stove.
What people want to know the most: where to do "it"?! How to shower and wash or using a toilet. That was an interesting question for us to! Finally we found the perfect solution. Lets talk about "the nonolet ". A compost toilet in a compact format. To be specifically al the liquid are collect in a tank, the rest is compost. That easy. No smell at all.
To be able and use our laptop we need electricity. We choose a solar panel of 125 watt, with a battery of 110 ampere. Than a 300 watt compact converter and ready we are.
We give you a guided tour:
Inside the car measures are 200 cm x 350 cm. The box is about 70 cm. At the back, sticking out about 50 cm, we have a little "shed".We also have a cellar! Not for grocery but stuffed with al the horse belongings. It's about 100 cm x 150 cm.
Most of the important things we want are to stand right up in the wagon. The height in the middle is 205 cm less high beside.
Weight is, the way we want to travel, even more important. Totally prepared, including water, and all the belongings with us, the horses pulling twice their own weight!
We did not choose one big tank of water. Considering that it's not always that easy to collect. Instead we have 4 jerry cans, each 5,28 gallon.
carriage plan
A little insight'. I cannot get a bigger picture in this lens, sorry!If you send me an email trough my website I am more than happy to send you a carriage plan.
The first steps with this Gypsie wagon
www.slow-express-journey.com How we struggled
Horse-drawn caravan journey from the North Sea until far in the East. With two horses, two people and a dog. No goal to reach, just a direction to take. Never to now where to sleep that day!
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would love to build my own,i have lots of wood and room to build one or more of these caravans? JOHN
Posted January 13, 2008
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driewe
Loved the lens! Posted December 18, 2007 |
