Paul, Off-Grid Engineer
In his formative years, Paul lived in Germany with his family and there began his introduction to travel, both on land and on sea. His holidays were spent touring Europe in the family campervan, or on epic adventures in his parent’s sailing boat. Obviously, the thrill of adventure found its way into his heart and Paul later became a kite buggy instructor, a keen mountain biker and more recently took up white water kayaking. It wasn’t until some years later, when he met his partner, that his passion for travel was rekindled and together they have taken on some big adventures – from high altitude treks in Peru to the jungles of Borneo to weekends exploring wild areas of the UK in their van from their base in Cardiff.
The son of an aircraft engineer, Paul was always encouraged to discover how things worked. At the age of six, he repaired and re-assembled a clock radio, quickly progressing on to bigger gadgets. Once he was old enough, his passion progressed to vehicles, spending hours on his dad’s driveway dismantling and fixing. After studying electrical engineering at college, Paul went on to work for BT before moving on to specialising in unified communications and data networks. “That’ll do” is not in Paul’s vocabulary and he quickly progressed to technical desk supervisor, looking after high profile contracts. His patience and dogged determination has been recognised by many clients throughout his career.
Helping others to get a van converted is really awesome, especially when your nomadic office view can be a mountain one day and an ocean the next!
Paul Wells, Off-Grid Engineer
Each van has been special to Paul, and each a step up from the last. His ultimate aim was to take time out from the 9 to 5 and travel the world for a couple of years, but he wanted a cosy and comfortable home that was as off-grid and as eco friendly as possible. In September 2020 that dream was realised and so they moved into their van full time and travelled across to Europe with no specific plan other than to see what took their fancy along the way.
The preference has always been to visit more remote locations, especially those where Paul could indulge his passion for exploring off-road, so of course, the bikes came too, along with paddleboards to explore the coastlines. Becoming familiar with the various curfews in different countries and several lockdowns in Italy along the way became one of the logistical hurdles to overcome, but that’s where a well-functioning van and a love for the remote makes everything so much easier. Would Paul change anything? No, he wouldn’t..but he’s a perfectionist, so that doesn’t stop him from tinkering with the van whilst his partner does a bit of yoga under the setting sun!
Paul’s favourite food is potatoes (in every form possible!), and anyone cooking him a roast dinner knows that they can never prepare enough for his insatiable appetite!
Campervan electrics leaving you confused?
