A retired couple are setting off on the trip of a lifetime in their VW camper van.

Bob, 68, and wife Jackie Bell, bought the 1971 bay window camper van nine years ago, which is affectionately known as Flump.

Jackie, 55, of Sudbury Road, Halstead, said: “We haven’t got any route planned out - we are just going to Calais and turning right,” Jackie, who used to run the couple’s gardening business with former copper Bob, said.

“I am very excited and not really apprehensive.

“Bob has brought along spare parts for when we have an inevitable break down, although neither of us are very mechanically minded."

They plan to use campsites or sleep at the side of the road.

Jackie has also appliqued a map onto an old duvet and she will record their route on it.

Follow their journey at flumpthecamper.co.uk