This was our dear old car we called the Wuwing. We hoped she’d go on forever. We got her at 70,000 miles and she’s cost us a small fortune. We looked after her rather than buying replacements. Better the devil you know right? Well I’m wondering now for when we were housesitters on the road, we dealt with her engine blowing up and had no choice but to repair her. An expensive, long winded process involving hundreds of miles of travel and months of waiting to finally pick her up. After that happened 2 years ago we hoped she’d go on for a long time. But more parts started failing as of course happens with old cars and we realised she was too expensive to keep.

We’re at a point in our lives where money is tight and cars are expensive so we’ve decided to say goodbye to our Wuwing. With 150,000 miles on the clock, she’s done well and now she’ll be recycled and maybe become part of other cars.

She was our home when we travelled, a personal storage place we could turn to, a sleepy zone we could nap in, a safe space to return to, a relaxing place to eat in, our adventuring bright blue friend.

I’ll remember the numerous animal encounters she had, on her top, inside her doors, cats seemed to love her. She had a panoramic sunroof we could gaze out of up into the blue sky. We cloud watched, we counted seagulls, we saw stars. She represented freedom.

And now…? Now we wait to see what this year brings financially and with regards freedom of movement because we haven’t been able to travel out of a 5 mile radius for some months now.

The way forward is electric for sure. I’ve finally realised just how gross fuel is and I want to try something cleaner. I’m grateful for how it’s helped me in the past but now it’s time for a greener future.

Living in the city means we’re lucky enough to have electric cars close by for hourly hire so it’ll be a great experience to try them out. It’s a whole new way of driving and planning trips to get used to and I’m ok with that. It’s taken a whole year to let go of Wuwing, we relied on her for so long, to not have her, to not have constant access to a car felt very strange.

Now we are ready. Electric bike hire, a train station a short walk away and a BMW i3 on our doorstep means the start of a new chapter. Thanks for the memories Wuwing. We love you.

A new era is here.