As some of you may have noticed is that I’ve been abscent both from Instagram and on Facebook since November of last year. It’s is not because I’ve stopped doing photography. I needed to take a break from everything and catch my breath so to speak. I’ve been suffering from depression and mental health problems for most of my life. Prior to the summer of 2021, I was totally burned out mentally. Had no strength or energy to do any photography for almost two years. Litterally I didn’t have the strenght to pick up the camera to shoot a single frame. So to not end up back where I was then, I needed to take short little break. To gather some strength and new energy to get back out there again this year. So I hope you will continue to follow my work and my progress futher on.

So what’s I’ve been up to?

Currently I’m focusing on getting my RV project up and running as spring is comming. The RV was also one of the factors that drained my energy back in November. I’m still not fully back to my old strength, and the set backs hits a little bit harder. Here’s a little overview of what happened.

First out of the modification I needed to make to the RV was the tailgate camera. Great to be able to reverse the without needing to have a spotter helping me. At the same time as getting the tailgate camera installed, it was also time to replace the broken taillight. Let’s just say this didn’t turn out to be the quick fix as I thought.

Turned out that taillight I got was for an older model. I had no time to wait for a new order, so with some modifications we made taillight work. And yes you guessed it, this to far longer to do than it first look to be. During that prossess I found out that my 12V outlet in front of the camper was not working.

The 12V outlet is critical for me. It feed the power to charge different appliences I have, like my EcoFlow powerbank, my phone, and my tailgate camera. So a quick fix was made to that problem. As I returned to the Tessung Valley to do some fall photography I found out that the quick fix did not solve my problem at all.

But wait, there’s more…

Then there were the problem with engine’s glowplugs in that needed to be replaced. They were not working as they should. This was giving me troubles getting the campervan to start in the morning when the motor was cold. So once again I needed to return home to get that fixed.

I returned home to get the problem sorted out. At the same time I got the electrical problem I had sorted out.

Once the electrical problem and glowplugs was sorted out I hit the road again. I was hoping I could catch the last of the fall colours only to discover that the still was a problem with my 12V outlet. It turned out that the autoshop had made a mistake when they modifided my electrical system (and they fixed it when I returned). Since this made it so that I didn’t have much time left before winter set in, I decided I would park the camper for the season. My personal battery was by now drained. Winter was just around the corner now. Since I had not tested the camper on norwegian winter roads I was not up for any more setbacks.

But as in the infomercial, wait… there’s still more…

Well, with my luck there was more setbacks. Just to top of the problems for the season, I discovered the RV had a leak in the roof. So that was also another problem that needed to get sorted out. By then winter had set in. As I’ve mentioned earlier with my struggles with depression, the anual seasonal depression hit me.

New year, new me, yeah yeah, you know the story

Even though this season didn’t start out great from the start, it have just improved. Mostly because one of my last problems with RV have now been sorted out. Namely the electrical problem. After the first trip out, I just to get feel of the vanlife again. Then my old deep cell lead battery was not up to scratch. Not in the way I needed to. So finally after losing power on my leisure battery for the last time, that battery had to go. Now the camper have a new lithium battery. Also have a power generator now. Finally enough power for me to free camp around in Norway. No more worrying about not having power for my lights and the heater.

Here comes the sun… sort of, it’s Norway

Now as the days get longer, and the sun have graces us here in Norway. With the good weather these past weeks my battery have charged. I’m once again ready to get back in the saddle again, along with Ludde the miniature schnauzer. Off to do more photography and share more images with you in the months to come.

All photos are captured on my cellphone.