Devon One Man and His Campervan

'I'm setting off on a trip that most people dream of.'

Flipping heck, look at this, is this my campsite? Ha-ha-ha!

Heading across the UK to discover the best

that campervan living has to offer.

All right, isn't it?

My trusty sidekick and home for the summer is my 1970s

classic campervan.

This could be a momentous moment.

My first overtaking manoeuvre.

I'm going to fish, forage and cook, tasting my way around Britain.

Oh, my word, it's delicious.

They are sensational.

Baked beans on toast, take a hike!

I'll be cooking up the freshest local ingredients,

to create the best in campervan cuisine.

That, I would argue, is perfect.

I'll be revealing the secrets of successful campervan living.

Brings the van level. It's really difficult to cook on a slope.

Along the way, anything can happen.

I managed to hit myself on this piece of furniture here.

Not allowed to drive.

I think the clutch cable's broken.

So if you've ever dreamed of hitting the road and heading off,

come with me on my great British campervan food adventure.

Clear road in front of you, king of the road.

'My campervan journey begins in glorious North Devon.'

This is absolutely gorgeous. I wish the tide was low, I'd go for a surf.

-Wow, what's that?

-A garfish.

'I find the finest ingredients the sea has to offer.'

Pick out the biggest ones. It's gonna to be fantastic.

'I pull the van over for some roadside foraging.'

Such an amazing, garlicky smell.

'And I try and get dinner ready before the sea washes it away.'

The dam is breached. The dinner's ready.

I'm not a chef.

But I love to cook.

And I love my campervan and I love getting out and about.

Put that all together and what do you get?

A campervan food adventure.

My adventure begins in my home county of Devon.

I'm going to explore the north coast,

which looks out onto the Atlantic Ocean.

But first, let me show you my van.

This gorgeous machine is going to be my home for the summer.

It's a classic 1970s campervan.

It's my pride and joy. Come and have a look.

So in here, I've got pretty much everything I can ever need.

Double bed upstairs, double bed downstairs.

I've got a fridge, a sink, and most important,

my two-ring cooker.

'And a few kitchen essentials I never leave home without.'

My own spice rack. My whistling kettle.

Chopping boards. Three types.

Meat, fish and veg. Plates.

Light and durable.

Won't smash, if you have to go round a corner quickly. My steamer.

Really handy. Tea bags.

And now it's time to hit the road.

'I said goodbye to wife Jo and daughters Maggie and Charlie

'and set off on my round trip of the UK.

'And it looked like it was going to be a glorious, sunny Devon day.

'I was already off to a great start.'

15 years ago, I packed up my first campervan with everything I owned

and headed west on the M4 for a new life at the coast.

And really, I've never looked back.

Every morning I wake up and thank my lucky stars that I'm able to live

in the way that I've always dreamed of.

And I still absolutely love living in North Devon.

It's a kind of wild and forgotten corner of Britain.

The surf is very good.

The beaches are incredible.

And the scenery, to die for.

I headed for the coast to rustle up my first campervan meal.

Now, I'm an old hand with campervans. But the one

I'll be driving on this adventure, I hadn't taken on a long trip before.

'Even on this first stretch, I was starting to encounter its little quirks.'

It's actually one of the hottest days of the year today.

And one of the things that I've noticed about the van

is that you can't turn the heating off, it's absolutely boiling.

So I'm going to have to open the window.

That's better.

Tonight, I was planning

a menu of mackerel, served with new potatoes and a spicy mojo dip.

'Clovelly is a traffic-free village.

'Not the ideal spot for a campervan adventure, you might think,

'but with views like this, I thought it was worth a stop-off.'

Wow!

I tell you what, that's why I gave up everything,

to come and live down here.

Simply beautiful.

'Clovelly is a traditional fishing village. So it's the perfect place

'for me to grab some fresh mackerel for my campervan kitchen.

'Chris Broad and his family have been fishing here for generations.'

-Permission to come aboard?

-Come on down.

'He had agreed to take me out to see if I could hook myself some tasty mackerel.'

You never know with fishing. Some days they're there, some days they're not.

-What's your experience so far today?

-Very quiet at the moment.

-Right, OK.

-Shall I get my line out?

-Get your line ready and let's see what we can do.

-Great.

OK, let's give it a go.

-Got a spinner there?

-Spinner on there. Lovely.

Figured I'd do a bit of spinning.

'I can just about talk the talk, but the truth was in the casting.

'Take two!'

Oh, that's better.

'Despite all evidence to the contrary, I remained optimistic.'

There goes a seagull, if I cast it high enough, I might be able to catch one of them!

'Two hours later and not even a nibble.

'Chris was rather more realistic about my fishing abilities

'than I was, and he'd prepared a back-up plan.

'Some fishing nets he'd put out earlier.

'So before too long, we'd found a little something for my campervan meal.'

Oh, here we are, we're in luck...

-Whoa!

-Wow, what's that?

-That's a garfish.

-Garfish. Fantastic.

-Are they good for eating?

-No.

-No?

That's only good for pot bait.

'But before I had time to be disappointed, we'd landed our first mackerel.'

Heh-hey!

-Have we got fish?

-We've got fish.

Oh, look at that. Fantastic.

'And then another...'

-Very good.

-Another mackerel there.

'..And another.'

There's another one in there as well.

God, they're just swimming in!

-Look at that, that's not a bad one.

-Beautiful colours.

Yes, the colours in there are just incredible.

-Taste-wise, they're quite oily, aren't they?

-Yes.

'It wasn't long before the bucket was full

'and it was time to head back to shore.'

Well, that was fantastic.

I didn't actually catch anything with a rod,

but I certainly got dinner.

'The old sea dog that he is, Chris can gut a fish in seconds flat.'

Cut into the back of the neck,

through to the bone, and there it is. All comes out. That's for the seagulls.

'It's certainly effective, but not very aesthetically pleasing.'

-That's not the way I would have done it.

-No?

No. I just would have cut it straight up.

-Are you going to leave the head on?

-Yeah.

They look prettier on the barbecue.

'But Chris had to cut short my lesson as he had an escapee.'

Chris appears to have let his boat float off into the harbour.

'With Chris busy rescuing his boat, I waved goodbye

'and headed back to my campervan.'

Right then, back at the van. Let's do something about these fish.

Out with the cooler.

The important thing about having a cooler in a camper

is that you can put things like fish inside it

and it doesn't stink up the upholstery, cos let's face it,

I've got to sleep in there tonight.

Having owned campervans for over 20 years, I've learnt a few things.

But there's one thing you should never, ever forget,

and that is - pack light.

There's not a huge amount of space back there and every inch is precious.

Besides, the more weight you carry, the slower you go.

'So with that in mind, I was going to be picking up just enough

'fresh ingredients to cook as I went along.

'What better way to sample local produce?

'A local farm shop would surely have what I needed for tonight.

'Fresh herbs, new potatoes, garlic and a couple of lemons.

'Now, I'm clearly no aristocrat,

'but I have a friend whose mother is a proper lady of the manor.

'That's Lady Stucley to you and I,

'and she lives in a rather lovely house.

'But the landscape gardens are of no interest to me.

'I'm here because Lady Stucley also owns a private beach.'

-Hello.

-Oh, hello, Martin.

-What are you doing here?

-I fancied cooking up a bit of a barbecue,

-so I was wondering if you'd let me camp at the beach tonight?

-Do, please. And have a good evening.

-Thank you very much.

-It's really nice to see you.

-And you. Take care. Bye.

-Bye.

'30% of Britain's beaches are privately owned,

'but of course, you just can't turn up and park for the night.

'However, if you're nice and polite like me,

'you just might get to stay on a little piece of paradise,

'and paradise doesn't come much better than this.'

Much of this coast is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty,

and the clear Atlantic water was also going to be a key ingredient for tonight's dinner.

This is absolutely gorgeous.

It's been a while since I've been down here.

It's absolutely fantastic. I wish the tide was lower, I'd go for a surf.

'For my freshly caught mackerel and new potatoes, I wanted to make the most of my environment

'with a little campervan cooking secret.'

What I'm going to do is I'm going to pick up some seawater

to boil my new potatoes.

What happens with this is you boil the potatoes in the seawater,

and when they're cooked, you tip the seawater out,

then cook them for a few minutes in the pan and all the salt crystallises on the potatoes

and makes them really crunchy, delicious, salty. A real taste of the sea.

'So once I'd got my seawater, it was back up the cliff to set up my campervan kitchen.

'My barbecue would take the longest to get going, so that was my first job.

'I love these little bucket models.

'Simple, quick, small and re-usable. Perfect.'

It really depends on the kind of beach you go to

how much driftwood there is.

So, you know, if you do intend to have a fire or a barbecue,

it's not actually a bad plan just to bring a few logs with you from home.

'So with the fire burning away,

'it was time to get to work in my portable kitchen,

'and I don't think I could have picked a better spot.'

It's all right, isn't it?

'The evening sun might look absolutely beautiful, but it was a reminder that I didn't

'have much time to get my food ready before I lost the light.

'First up, my garlic and coriander dip for my potatoes.

'Or mojo dip, as it's known in the Canary Islands.

'I'm using a whole bulb of garlic for this traditional recipe,

'so this mojo dip should have a real punch to it.'

So I think the thing about camping on your own really is

that actually, you can make dishes like this,

because that amount of garlic going into a dip,

you'd probably want to be on your own, really!

OK. Next up, coriander. My favourite.

Chopped up as fine as we can get it.

'Once I'd chopped the coriander, I ground it into a paste in my pestle and mortar.

'You'll find no electric kitchen gadgets to help you in the countryside.

'The final touch was a dessert spoon of cumin,

'a splash of white wine vinegar and a good glug of olive oil.

'My mojo dip was complete.'

Oh, Jo is going to be glad she's not here with me tonight!

Fantastic. A little bit of lovely coriander for a garnish. That's done. Right, moving on.

'With a handful of potatoes bubbling away in my seawater,

'it was time for my piece de resistance - my freshly caught mackerel.

'I stuffed the mackerel with fresh tarragon and lemon slices,

'and then I tried out a little experiment

'with a rather unusual cooking method.'

What we're going to do is wrap him up in newspaper

and give it a really good wetting down.

And then back for the next sheet.

'The idea that the fish goes onto the flames until the paper catches fire,

'at which point, I take it off, and I'm hopefully left with a perfectly steamed mackerel.'

I'm not sure where it comes from. It's just one of those kind of...

almost mythical ways of cooking the fish.

It's just been one of those things

that people discover as they go along.

I shifted my boiling potatoes to my handy -

don't leave home without it -

portable gas hob whilst I got this fish on the flames.

I like to experiment, but I'm no fool, so I also did a back up mackerel in foil.

Just in case.

And we'll just let them steam away.

As we reached the last snatches of daylight,

my potatoes were finally boiling.

After draining the water, I put them back on a low heat,

allowing the sea salt to crystallise on them.

And thankfully, my fish were done, too.

Fairly well burnt,

the fish.

Let's have a look at this.

If the legend is to be believed...

..then we've got ourselves...

a perfectly-steamed fish inside here.

Wow!

There's that fish.

So there you go. Look at that. Wow! That's amazing. Look.

Perfectly cooked, and the tarragon is just...

Oh, it's absolutely delicious.

I'm really pleased with that.

As a cooking method, it's, er, you know,

spot on.

Delicious as it was though,

I didn't want to scoff it all out of the newspaper,

so I walked to the beach edge to enjoy the beautiful Devon sunset

with my first campervan meal.

Freshly-caught mackerel stuffed with tarragon and lemon,

served with sea-salt-encrusted new potatoes.

And not forgetting, of course, my mojo dip.

So this has been a really great start to what

I hope is going to be a great journey.

All made possible by my friend over there, campervan.

I think if things carry on like this, yeah, we'll be all right.

All that remained was to push the roof up, climb into my new bed

and listen to the sound of the waves as I fell asleep.

Coming up - I reveal of the best way to strum up an egg banjo.

Mmm!

And I show you how to pick up some beach-side fast food.

This is the restaurant with the finest view in the world.

Right then. Well, I slept pretty well last night.

It's a little bit cold this morning,

but I wouldn't want to wake up anywhere else.

That's not a bad view to wake up to, is it?

And...surf's looking pretty good as well.

Might be time to go and get some waves.

If the shaggy hair wasn't enough of a clue,

I should perhaps own up to being a fully-fledged surfing fanatic.

So just off to meet a couple of friends of mine to go for a surf.

For me, one of the great things about campervan living

is the fact that you can just sleep anywhere you want to

and you can make an adventure out of every day.

And you might have to be more resourceful in the way you cook, or be more imaginative.

So you just have a huge amount of fun doing it.

My love of catching waves was what fuelled my passion for campervans

and endless weekends spent driving up and down the coast looking for perfect surf.

-Nice to see you.

-I just got back on Monday.

-Did you? Brilliant.

'And 25 years on, nothing much has changed.'

Morning. You all right?

-Yeah.

-Shall we get in then?

-Yeah, definitely.

-Come on then. Ready.

What a day!

For you, this might just look like a stormy sea, but for me,

this was an invitation to heaven.

Just look at that surf!

Believe it or not, this is what I call relaxation.

I've been doing this for years with my surfing buddies, Simon and Justin.

This stretch of Devon coast is ideal.

Waves created by storms thousands of miles out in the Atlantic

are channelled into these idyllic bays.

That was so much fun.

Now since I've got the van, I've drawn the short straw.

I've got to make breakfast.

And that required some careful planning.

So the secret to cooking in a campervan

is to be really well organised.

Everything out that you're going to need, ready before you start.

This morning was the first time I'd used my new cooker,

and I was making an old faithful recipe - exploding egg banjos.

Don't want to overcook these eggs, because

we need to keep those yolks nice and runny.

The eggs need to be cooked sunny side up

and supplemented with a healthy dollop of brown sauce.

So, whilst you might think this is an ordinary egg sandwich,

what's so special about it...

Mmm!

That's the explosion,

and that's the banjo!

And this is the joy of campervan living.

Oh, it's delicious.

You can park up in spectacular places and fry up an impromptu breakfast for your mates.

-Three exploding egg banjos.

-Oh, yes!

-You might need to stand up to eat these.

-Cheers, Mart.

There you go.

That's fantastic. They're pretty exploding.

Good. Kettle's on, anyway.

Now I'd fed them, it was time for the guided tour.

So yeah, got double bed downstairs.

Double bed upstairs.

Is that for pole-dancing?

This is for pole-dancing, yeah. Look.

Just my size!

That looks like a good night out.

The table obviously goes on there.

This little spare seat, this is quite cool for the kids.

So you can actually sit four around the table.

-They're very well thought out, aren't they?

-Yeah, they're pretty good.

And it's amazing really that it's like 32 years old,

and it's still in reasonable condition. So, yeah.

The challenge of course is keeping the van in perfect nick.

The joy of reaching isolated spots is tempered only with the trepidation

of driving back up overgrown dirt tracks, with all kinds

of brambles and branches threatening my paint work.

With that hazard safely negotiated, it was time to hunt for more food.

I had finished all of the mackerel

last night, and Simon and Justin headed back into the surf.

Leaving me on my own to source and cook tonight's meal.

Luckily, the key ingredients were close at hand.

OK, mussels - these little beauties

- is my favourite all time, number one campervan adventure

cos it's free food. It's absolutely delicious.

The sea here is really clean, so they're as good as they possibly can be.

I decided to cook Thai style, steaming the mussels in coconut milk, with chillies,

garlic, spring onions and ginger.

This is certainly a lot easier than fishing,

as long as you know where to look.

The best time to pick mussels is on a low spring tide,

when the biggest ones will be exposed.

And it's best not to pick too many from the same spot.

Pick out the biggest ones

and move on.

As with all foraging, we need to leave a few for the future,

so I only ever pick the biggest mussels from each spot.

This allows the rest to reach their full potential.

So far so good, but once again,

Mother Nature has imposed a deadline.

Right, well, the tide's starting to come in.

I think I've got enough mussels.

They really are fantastic.

The lads from this morning have been surfing all afternoon, so I'll cook them something special.

It's going to be fantastic.

A bucketful of fresh mussels is a great start, but I still had my special Thai sauce

to add to the mix, and there was a key ingredient I was hoping to find.

It's called ramsons - wild garlic to you and I -

and it's only in season for a very short time in early summer.

Because it's wild, you never know when you're going to find it.

Ah. I smell wild garlic.

Luckily, it has a very, very strong smell.

One of the dangers of finding wild garlic is getting run over!

It grows in early summer,

and you smell it often before you see it.

It's got such an amazing strong garlicky smell.

Best thing is, pull over, somewhere safe, of course.

Jump out the van, pick yourself a load of leaves, use it later on.

Whilst I'd been hard at work,

Simon and Justin had been chasing waves all down the coast.

They had moved on to a sandy beach

that would be the picturesque venue for my Thai mussel extravaganza.

-How was it?

-It was all right,

-It was good.

Not as good as this morning. You haven't missed it.

-You guys chill out and I'll get cooking.

-Brilliant.

Two broken men, starving.

The setting could not be more perfect for our end of the day meal.

We had no fridge, so the beers were cooling in a nearby rock pool.

I got the chaps to help me with a spot of chopping, as the tide

was already making its way in towards our beach-side kitchen.

The boys are at work, earning their supper.

I'm just going to debeard these mussels, then I'm going to soak them

in fresh water, with a little dash of malt vinegar.

That will encourage them to spit out

all their bits of grit and grime that they get inside their shells.

Hopefully, in a sort of half an hour or so they'll be ready to cook.

But be careful. Floating mussels may be dead

and can give you food poisoning if you eat them.

Give them a good stir, just to make sure none of them are floating.

So if any of them float like that one it means they're no good.

Then you throw them away.

Bit of olive oil and all our bits and pieces.

Spring onions, wild garlic, or ramsons as it's known.

Chilli, ginger and garlic, that all goes in.

So what we do is give that a really good stir.

So a couple of minutes

to get that slightly softened. We don't want to burn anything.

Then in goes the coconut milk.

We'll just let that simmer.

So while we're waiting for that to come to a boil, I think I need something to drink.

Any chance of a beer?

-One for the chef.

-Oh cheers, Si.

Right, that's now boiling.

Squeeze a couple of limes in there.

So it's kind of like a Thai dish,

but you could use lemongrass or green curry paste.

We're about to get washed away

by the sea here!

Any minute now.

I think we'll be all right. We better get those mussels in.

In they go.

As many as we can.

Give that a stir.

Here comes the sea again. The tide was in danger of ruining

all my hard work, and so the cavalry got off their chairs

and offered to help me out.

Hey, Martin, shall we build a trench?

Come on, quick, quick, the tide's coming in!

Not only do they have to chop their own dinner, they also have to build

a dam to save their dinner from the incoming tide.

How desperate are we!

But would our impromptu defences buy some crucial cooking time?

-Hooray!

-Good job.

That's quite impressive. That's pretty good, isn't it. It worked.

Just a quick check. Yes, starting to open.

So just a couple more minutes

and we're there, just as long as we can hold back the waves.

The home-made sea defences look to be holding,

but further up the beach - disaster!

Oh, I think we've lost the beer!

Never mind the dinner. There's one.

-Oh no, here we go.

-I've got it.

Thank God for that!

The sea was trying to reclaim the mussels, but I was determined to add the finishing touches.

I hadn't realised I was putting the whole meal at risk.

Big handful of coriander. Just tear it up, chuck it in.

Load of basil.

A quick stir.

Let's have a look.

Fresh mussels.

Pretty good.

The dam is breached. The dinner's ready.

And...do you know what, I'm going to serve up.

Fresh, English mussels

in a Thai coconut sauce and they look stunning.

-Cheers, Mart.

-Oh, pleasure.

I can taste the ginger.

Doesn't get much better, does it?

What you going to do next time we go for a surf?

Do you know what I'm going to do next time? Buy a tide table.

Yeah.

I would hazard a guess, despite the small problems with the tide

nearly taking dinner away from us,

that this is the restaurant

with the finest view in the world. What do you think?

Definitely.

-Same again next week?

-Yep!

White wine and cream next week.

Do you do puddings?

Next time on One Man and His Campervan...

I take my campervan to one of the most beautiful forests in Britain.

It's so great to be back in the New Forest.

I go foraging for my dinner.

That's an absolute cracker.

And will my tiny campervan kitchen allow me to make a classic French dish

with a rather unusual local twist?

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