A Little Chat from a Field in Dorset

It truly is the little moments in life that fill us with so much joy. As I sit here with a coffee in my battered coral travel cup, listening to pigeons unleash their early morning ‘twootwoos’, I’m thinking how lucky I am to be able to do this each and every day. In all honesty, there are days when mornings aren’t quite so serene and coffee is instead consumed lukewarm to the soundtrack of Peppé’s rumbling engine, but living this lifestyle allows us to choose what we do every day and that’s where so much of the magic of ‘vanlife’ lies for us.

Having lived in vans for over 2 years now, Aidan and I still find ourselves experiencing moments that take our breath away and fill us with such a zest for life that we simply just cannot go back to the 9-5 routine. We would be lying if we said there haven’t been times where money has been low and our moods have equally struggled, but navigating through the high and low moments of life on the road teaches you so much.

There are of course tricky times such as squeezing down tiny Cornish lanes, forgetting to empty the rather full pee container before a drive (we know its happened to you too), or teaching English online in the van when the other person is clenching their behind in a drastic effort not to fart and make noise. However, when you’re parked up in the middle of the forest or hidden away in the Portuguese mountains, the stressful moments melt away and suddenly you feel like the luckiest people in the world. We often get asked what it’s like living in such a small space together, and in truth, although sometimes we want to whack each other over the head with a fly swatter, it’s also an incredible experience that bonds you together like nothing else (and let’s be honest, it’s pretty amazing to travel the world with your best friend). One of the great things about living and travelling full time on the road with a partner is the utilizing and sharing of each other’s skills. Aidan, for example, is the mechanical brain that keeps Peppé in tip top condition and running at his best on the road, whereas my strengths lie more in the kitchen where our Omnia Oven takes a hammering every couple of days.

By putting our strengths together, we’ve been able to problem solve and conquer numerous challenging situations such as a breakdown in the Spanish mountains to a frozen water tank in -16 degrees in Scotland. We were once told a brilliant quote by a special friend that said ‘everything will be okay in the end, if it’s not okay, it’s not the end’ and so I guess this has kind of become our mantra for life.

There are so many different reasons for why people choose to live in vans, and for us, we both have a deep craving for adventure and a huge motivation to explore the planet in a raw and affordable way. Some of the travellers we have met on the road have become such close friends and it’s a strange thought that if we had never taken the leap into vanlife, we may never have crossed paths with them.

Community is such an integral part of this lifestyle and often we find ourselves chatting with people who also have an older vehicle, who need or want to share some advice or just generally want to exchange stories around a fire. In a time where technology is forever progressing and we are all at risk of growing more accustomed to screens rather than each other, travelling on the road suddenly seems such an old fashioned way of meeting people and making new friends, but maybe we all need a little more of that…

Although we absolutely love our way of life and our home on wheels, over time we’ve realised there are other goals and dreams that we have, and for us, the only way to transform our dreams into reality is to take life by the boobs and go for it! This is scary and daunting and exciting all at once, but sometimes feeling vulnerable and trying something new allows us to grow and challenge ourselves in ways we didn’t think were possible.

Life is meant to be lived and since my endometriosis diagnosis, my mindset has shifted and I realise now more than ever, how important it is to seize each day and live life the way you want to live it.

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