Bongo Nights

Former journalist Richard Harris celebrated his retirement by embarking on what he called a "great daft adventure" in his small Bongo campervan - trying to spend one night a week in his van for 52 consecutive weeks. So all through the summer, autumn, winter and spring through sun, rain, gales, ice and snow he set off once a week in his ancient Bongo van. Just because he could. He kept it up every week despite badly injuring his back (when he fell over inside the van) on one trip, and breaking his leg (when he slipped on a patch of wet grass) on another. "It started off just as a vague idea to occupy me in my retirement," he says, "but that vague idea quickly grew into a mission and then an obsession. "I would never have guessed it would turn into such a marvellous, exciting and, at times, emotional adventure. "I ended up going to places I'd never dreamed of going, doing things I had never dreamed of doing and meeting people I'd never dreamed of meeting."

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