I posted on my Facebook page the other week asking for suggestions of what I should write about in my first blog, what did people want to hear? The first response seemed like a very logical one “start at the beginning…” Fair enough. So here it is: Why I chose Vanlife…
I was 24, working a couple of part time jobs, renting a house. I suppose I was doing exactly what you should be doing in the years after uni; slowly getting my toe in the door of the industry I wanted to work in full time, saving up a bit of money, planning for a future. But to be perfectly honest, it terrified me. I kept conjuring up these images in my mind of myself in another 5-10 years; still plodding along earning enough to get by, still not quite getting to where I wanted to be career wise, still not able to afford my own place. It was entirely believable. My life had somehow become totally mapped out ahead of me; career, children, one holiday a year, probably a dog, a reliable car and a nice house too.
It’s a funny one because that’s pretty much what all of us want for our futures, and I certainly do want most of that one day, but I just wasn’t ready for it, and now with hindsight I look back at that time and know that there were lots of fundamental things in my life which I just wasn’t happy with.
So, I guess the short answer is that I was looking for an escape.
The idea of a van was not my immediate thought. Originally I was contemplating just going backpacking, I was also tempted by a daydream of cycling the length of Africa… or walking the Pacific Crest Trail in America…
But the backpacking scene seemed like lots of people partying, and it was more city based than I’d like. I’ve never been a city person, despite growing up in one, I’ve always preferred being between mountains and trees than buildings. Each to their own. Plus I’d be limited on where I could afford to stay, how I could travel, and lots of other things which just didn’t fit with what I wanted to do.
I also quickly discovered that I just really hate cycling, so that was out as well.
The idea of a van sort of snuck in under my radar, and I can’t exactly remember how.
My dad had talked about it as an idea for when he retired, but I’d always imagined he meant a big white mobile home with veneered MDF cupboards and grey carpet on the walls, and that wasn’t my cup of tea at all. Turns out he meant a selfbuild, and I totally stole his idea, sorry Dad.
I suppose I must have seen pictures online of trendy American couples “living the dream” in their VW campers, doing yoga by lakes in national parks, with a dog and hammock and an incredible mountainscape view through the van door…
All stereotypes aside it struck me as a really good way to see the world, and to be selective on the parts of it that you wanted to visit. I could actually envisage myself doing that. So I followed a few Instagram accounts, subscribed to some youtube channels, and let the idea grow.
The other thing that appealed to me about a van was that you could actually LIVE in one. People were working remotely online, or even working normal office jobs in the city and living in vans to keep their overheads down. I suppose, compared to cycling or backpacking, it just seemed like a more sustainable idea. Not just a holiday. Less like running away from the real world with my fingers in my ears, and more like a potential alternative way to get what I wanted out of life.
But it didn’t feel like a real option to me until I discovered a few UK and Europe based van blogs. There seemed at that time to be tons of “vanlifers” in the US, where it seems like there’s more space and a different attitude, but the ones closer to home were thin on the ground. Once I started digging though I identified a few and watched them closely through my laptop screen. And after a few more months, I was certain that I could give it a bash.
The weirdest thing was that when I started to mention it to my friends and my family, no one was shocked. It was like they all fully expected me to want to do something like that, I had no idea that I was so predictable!