WITH panoramic views to Dartmoor and across the Tamar Valley to Plymouth Sound, Kit Hill is a popular place for walkers, dog owners and sight-seers.

I met Bee Turner on the first day of March, when spring weather had brought many people out for a welcome dose of sunshine.

On first appearances Bee and his tidy van are just like any other, parked up nose to the view, dog bowl filled with water alongside and a camping kettle ready on the stove.

But Bee, 53, and his rescue Alsatian Shelby won’t be going home as the sun dips and temperatures fall. The van has been their home for almost a year, since Bee’s relationship with his ex-partner broke down.

Rented accommodation was too expensive and many landlords won’t entertain pets, he said.

“I could never leave Shelby under any circumstances, so my only choice was to make the van as comfortable as possible on a very low budget.”

Bee has had times of homelessness before. His childhood was not easy to say the least, he says, and his experiences in early life have left him with poor mental health. As a trained and experienced mechanic, Bee can turn his hand to repairing all manner of appliances, but he says work can be hard to come by.

When Shelby got very ill over Christmas, Bee sought help from an animal charity but the call back took a month to come, and it was too long to wait.

“I had to sell most of my tools to cover the treatments. It was minus four degree weather and she couldn’t stand to ear or drink so I was feeding her water with a syringe and lifting her head so she could swallow. Eventually I got her eating and drinking and then finally got accepted by a charity in January, and that’s when I found out she has cancer.”

“She’s my whole world. She’s still continuing to get better though and put weight back on so we walk and go to nice places on a budget. I just want to make her life as nice as possible.”

Bee is not weak, by any means, but he’s battle weary. Surviving through the past months has been tough. Most days he does not have enough to eat.

When it comes to the camping on Kit Hill, Bee says that there are others, but generally everyone keeps themselves to themselves.

“A lot of the van lifers are a bit like me, they have anxieties, they’re not social butterflies,” he said.

“I often have people look down their noses at me in disgust when all I'm doing is trying to survive as best I can. I try to be nice to people but it does get draining sometimes.”

He describes one group who came up the hill in an expensive car.

“I could clearly see them judging me like I'm worthless and then they drove off, flicking rubbish out of the windows.

“Life's hard enough for most of us, so please think before judging us.”