Its Getting Harder

Okie dokie, let's get back on track a little bit here and back to the primary reason I started this blog in the first place, in what seems like forever ago now - an attempt to portray the reality of living nomadically in a van, rather than the "look how amazing my life is" social media version. Reminder to self; not a diary, dickhead.

Let's get back to basics a little and talk about "boondocking", my favourite term for parking up in public locations - towns, villages, industrial estates, wherever - I use this term in favour of "wildcamping" as for me that projects connotations of more scenic locations away from the grind of civilization - and as we all know, or at least, as much as I would like you all to know, living full time in a van is vastly different to traveling in a van, and for many that means finding tucked away spots in less romanticised areas. Reminder to reader (hi mum!); it's not all beaches and mountains. For a few reasons, it's getting harder, and I fear is yet to get even harder.

I wasn't going to write about this next bit, it's been mentally added in, as I don't necessarily think my personal experiences of this vanlife thing are always generalisations shared by the many. But actually, sometimes they do, so it's made the edit. Anyway, recently I was parked up for the night in a spot I frequently use, close to my hometown whenever I'm over this way - a little lay-by type side road to nowhere just off the main carriageway separated by a wide grass verge. It's usually quiet on a night time, the odd passing car, now and then there'll be a lorry driver getting his head down for the night, and occasionally another car will pull up but usually keep their distance and themselves to themselves, and bugger off again after a bit. On this particular night though, a car pulled up directly alongside me, at midnight. Bit weird to park up literally next to me, blocking the road, when there's room for 20 cars in front and behind me - I was awake anyway and curiosity got the better of me, so was trying to look out of window by my bed to see what they were up to, but could only see their rear lights. Right then, a huge bang on the side of the van - not a knock, a bang hard enough to shake the van and have it swaying on its suspension. I immediately sprung off the bed and ran to hit the floodlights, and just as I lit the world up another enormous bang on the van followed by the sound of a door slamming and a revving engine - I initially thought they'd intentionally reversed their car into me! By the time I had swung the door open to greet my guests, they were already doing a rolling burnout halfway up the lane - this all happened in under 5 seconds so in hindsight I'm disappointed I didn't get out of the van when they originally pulled up, rather than waste my time trying to see out of my tinted window at night with no lights. Turns out that the bangs were actually boots - I found a visible full size shoe print on my door and a bit of a dent. I'm really not sure of the motive or particularly what I'd done to invite a bit of casual midnight vandalism - nothing, I suspect, just mindless wankers looking for an adrenaline kick, probably the same type of teenage shitstains that used to egg houses and throw stones at cats, "for a laugh". Hopefully they wrapped their three hundred quid dodgy MOT shitbox round a tree the same night.

Now I'd like to think that examples of unprovoked attacks and intimidation on vandwellers and their homes, are rare. I'd like to think that. In my own personal experiences, they are rare - I'm almost three years in now and can count the number of instances where I've actually had something happen, on a couple of fingers - I have only had my van touched three times, a couple of encounters with hostile locals, and the odd passing car honk. My circumstances are quite unique though in the sense that in the three years I've been living in a van, for the large majority of that time I've been parked up on the private land of whichever customer/client I've been working for, either for the odd night or for weeks at a time - perk of the job I guess. But the majority of vanlifers boondock constantly, either a night here, a night there, or for longer static stints, so I have no doubt that these instances of harrassment are a common encounter.

In the same week as my "incident", I couldn't help but notice a number of similar tales on the handful of Facebook groups I'm on in the same week - someone had their van windows smashed, another poor family were minding their own business when someone in a stolen car deliberately crashed into their motorhome several times, causing a lot of damage and unimaginable distress - last year one of my close friends had her back window shot out with an air rifle, and someone else had their trailer set on fire on Brighton seafront, completely gutting it and rendering the owner homeless with nothing more than the clothes on his back. I can't comprehend the mentality of attacking or harrassing someone completely unprovoked just minding their own business, it's insane. Unfortunately these stories are far more common than I'd like to admit - sometimes the "incentive", for lack of a more rational word for these attacks, is militant locals with a grudge against motorhomes/campervans being a blight on the area, occupying limited parking, increasing traffic, littering or emptying waste (I'd like to point out that in my experience, this is usually weekend warriors and daytrippers, rather than full-timers), or just simply, being there for longer than they're happy with, or more frequently. I'm on a Facebook group for - or rather, against - the North Coast 500 route, and the vitriol from locals is pitchfork worthy. In some cases I can understand the upset and anger towards whom they perceive to be a problem, it's a sad fact that many do not do us any favours or paint us in good light, especially with littering, emptying toilets, and having fires etc - I've seen it personally, and as a fulltimer it is embarrassing and does not do the rest of us any favours, the damage is done - but as much as I can understand the motive to take matters into their own hands, that does not excuse causing damage to people's vehicles or personally attacking them. It is becoming harder and harder to find suitable locations to park up, with each passing week comes the installation of a new height barrier, parking ban, or local bylaw prohibiting sleeping in a vehicle, with whole regions effectively becoming no-go zones for campers and ultimately concentrating full-timers into fewer and fewer spots or trespassing on private property hoping to get away with it. Which leads me to a related point...

The newly introduced Police Crime and Sentencing Act, (if you're interested) which passed through parliament earlier this year despite many efforts to have it quashed. This Act of Legislation effectively makes "tresspass" a criminal offence in which the police can action, rather than the previous civil offence, specifically highlighting vehicular tresspass or "unauthorized encampments", giving police the powers to arrest owners and seize vehicles where residing or intending to reside in said vehicle is suspected, and damage is likely to occure. The full Act with all relevant subsections is quite exhaustive while simultaneously quite vague in terms of whom or which groups of people it is specifically aimed at - although quite transparent too when you read what's not written. As well as being a direct fingerpoint at travellers and the traveling community, it also specifically makes mention to acts of protest and protesters, giving the police the rights to make arrest and vehicular seizure for simply being there. Future HS2 / XR protests will see these new powers in effect, I'm sure. Now specifically regarding us vandwellers, it's easy to say "well don't tresspass then". The simple matter of fact, is that all land and property is private property, irrespective of whether public access is granted or not. All land in the UK is owned land, either by a private individual, private organisation, or local authority - including highways and byways. So if you are asked to leave (by anybody in the correct capacity to do so) and refuse, you are in effect committing the act of trespass, and the police can be called to action appropriately. It also changes, or rather, invalidates the requirement for signage prohibiting overnight parking. Pre-bill, a privately owner public-designated carpark (we'll use Foresty Commission for example here) would have to display signage specifically stating no parking and what, if any, penalties were in effect. Now, if a park ranger or police officer asks you to leave, you are suddenly tresspassing, and refusing to leave will dredge up sub-sections of the Act determining that you are, in some way or another, in breach of the law. As my man Bob Dylan put it, times, they are a'changin'. For the worse.

Oh and while we're at it, lets mention the poverty clusterfuck grenade thats primed for detonation - the current cost of living crisis that's drybumming many already on the 2022 post apocalyptic shitshow breadline. I'm already seeing a surge in posts from people looking to buy a van and go full time as an act of escaping crippling household bills and pushing the JAMs (just about managing) into Destination Fucked status, and that's before the actual recession kicks in like a Tory hangover. Policing or outright criminalising "residing in a vehicle" will always be hard, thanks (said sarcastically) in part to grass roots nature of vandwelling and moving around coupled with fewer police on the streets, but increasing numbers of people adopting the lifestyle out of a sense of need, will not make it easier to live under the radar.

It's getting harder out here, and I fear harder still is yet to come. It's not all doom and gloom though, sometimes we have parties! 🫖 

Oh and my van passed its MOT again, so I think I'm going to fuck off to live on a farm in Wales and let this allll blow over...

As always, be good, be kind, and behave. ✌️

Dear Diary...

Holy crap it's been a while! I knew I hadn't written a new blog for *quite some time* due to [insert excuses here] and just, you know life - but I didn't realize it had been over a year!! I'll try to recap a little on the last 12 months or so since I last bashed the keypad here, so brace yourselves for a long one (maybe, I don't know yet) as I try to recall the last year or whatever, who's counting, in a sort or diary entry of my very non-linear life on the road. Or what I can remember of it. I'm getting old, you see. Here goes!

So the last time I put thumb-to-screen and blogged about whatever, I think I'd gone back to my casual seasonal work of ragwart pulling, which I'd done the previous summer all over the UK - I'd spent the winter based in Hornsea renovating a holiday home and living there through the week, completed that early in the New Year ish and hit the road again. Ragwart pulling was a good gig for making a few quid and took me all over the place - a proper "traveling job" that kept me busy and my finances healthy. Through the powers of the weird and wonderful (and insane and terrifying) world of online dating (dating as a van dweller is a topic I'll get onto another time, as it's definitely high up there on the FAQs, and probably warrants its own post, but not right now) I'd met someone and had been dating for a couple of months by this point, based in Sheffield, so I was keeping my seasonal work in and around Yorkshire so I could head to Sheffield on Weekends and whatnot. One of the ragwarting jobs that got booked in was a commercial gig at an active quarry site in North Yorkshire, I was asked to head this booking and staff up for it - so I recruited Lucy (that's her name by the way, she's a real person, honestly) and our friend Amy for the job, plus a bunch of other guys, and had ourselves a little workaway in the sun.

We had the idea of doing a proper road trip, booking some time off work for a bit and heading off somewhere. So after the quarry job in July, off we fucked round Scotland for a couple of weeks, and spent 18 days doing the famous North Coast 500 - a five hundred mile loop around the coastline of the Highlands, starting and ending at Inverness Castle (which from Sheffield and including a tour of Skye, is actually more like 1800 miles) and seeing all the sites, which was awesome - we bought an inflatable kayak and took that with us too so we could do some paddling on a few of the lochs in-between ticking off the checklist of landmarks and locations. 

I love Scotland and have enjoyed my previous visits there, though sadly not as often or for as long as I'd have liked, so it was amazing to spend a chunk of time there and see so much of it. Proper tourists! I suppose in a way this was also Lucys initiation into Vanlife, which I'm pleased to say was a pass with flying colours. Oh, and while we were away, the sale of my house completed, which I'm very pleased to say closed an incredibly stressful chapter in my book, so I came back from Scotland a little richer than I left, both figuratively and literally!

Back to work on return. Needs must, and all that. The quarry client had booked us in for a second location, so I teamed up with a lad called Charlie who I'd worked with at the first booking and then later on met up with in Scotland, so I was pleased to be back working with him again. Towards the end of this job, the client not-so-discretely approached us to ask that we work for him directly - same arrangement, freelance on a week-by-week basis but doing a broad range of work types, to which we eagerly agreed as it suited us well - plus having worked with Charlie before and hung out with him socially, everything sounded good. Still living in our respective vans, parking directly on the work sites through the week (a mixture of quarries and ex-quarry nature reserves), and a little payrise too - then heading off to Sheffield on the weekends. So this is how we spent summer, which flew by incredibly quickly due to a new plan...

Now I've mentioned my mate Mat before and how he and family bought a motorhome and set off traveling Europe on a permanent basis. What I can't remember mentioning (I could check, I suppose) is that on their travels they bought an old Mercedes coach to convert for full time living. Mat and I had maintained regular contact since their departure and the proposal was floated a few times about me going out to Turkey where they were based for the big build, and giving them a hand for a few months. This proposal gained traction into an actual plan, and Lucy was on board too - so after a LOT of planning involving her applying for a career break and giving notice of her rental property (and the mammoth task of putting all her things in storage) that was it - we were off to Europe, for 6 months!! The brief and mostly unplanned aspect of "the plan" was to leave early December, spend a couple of months bumbling through Western and Central Europe, slowly making our way East towards Turkey, spend three months there, and then bomb it back quickly before our 90day allowance ran out (thanks to Brexit). Sanchez is a European pet passport holder thanks to being Spanish so he was good to go, the only major hurdle for us was being unvaccinated during covid restrictions, but we figured we'd wing it on the day. But not before my 2 year Vanniversary and my 40th Birthday - which Lucy and Amy had worked together on in turning into a suprise birthday bash in the Peak District in a blizzard. Because we don't do things by halves here. But a van party / departure bash was to be had, no exceptions!

D-Day quickly arrived and we headed for Dover - only to bump into a familiar face - Charlie! The sneaky bastard had booked his ferry for the same day after an in-jest comment about coming with us - so we actually travelled the first few legs of the big trip together, as far as Rome, where he set sail for Spain and we continued East into Slovenia where we spent Christmas Day (even managing to cook a full Christmas dinner on two hobs), followed by New Years Eve above the clouds at the top of a mountain in Croatia watching the fireworks in the distance. I intentionally won't go on about the trip here (cardinal sin of traveling, banging on about it) as there are plenty of pics on my Instagram (@thisvanlifething for anyone interested) but a few countries later, a couple of blown tyres, a minor mechanical breakdown, and many police stops along route, we were in Turkey and met up with Mat and family in the very industrial city of Bursa all ready to jump aboard the big bus build. 

While in Bursa, which is famous for being the automotive central of Turkey, we decided (through a mix of want and need) to have some major work done on the van too - it was looking and feeling a bit tired from the harsh winter trip and previous years of abuse as a trademans van, plus general age - and it made sense to take advantage of the downtime and exchange rates and have it done here. So with the help of Mat, his contacts, and our incredibly helpful new friends that we had met, I had the engine rebuilt, the whole van resprayed, and some new windows installed, plus the seats reupholstered. 

Again I won't bang on about our time in Turkey but I cant not mention the incredible hospitality of everyone we met here - more sincerely friendly, helpful, welcoming people you could not meet in the world, and we met a lot of friends here as well as the feeling of being adopted by the local community. It made saying goodbye very hard when our time was up - but time most definitely was up. We actually made it through the border with only 20 minutes remaining on our visa! The drive back through Europe is all a bit of a blur and we had such little time remaining on our 90 day allowance (yeah thanks for that, Brexiteers), so it was mostly long uninteresting drives and the odd evening of city wandering - though we did stop at Castle Bran, Transylvania, so thats one location ticked off my bucket list.

Landing back ashore of old Blighty came with a bang. No time for fucking around here; Lucy had to be back at work by the 1st of June and we had the slight inconvenience of moving her into a new house first, before we could go back to our respective jobs. Charlie had arrived back a couple of weeks before me, and I joined back up with him back at the quarries.

Aaaand we're up to date. If you've made it to the end of this chapter in my life, well done! I will try and blog a little bit more often, and get back on track with portraying the reality of living in a van day by day. It's not all road trips and sun chasing. I write this from my bed in the van, somewhere in North Yorkshire, in 38c heat. Aside from the freakishly hot weather, its back to normality now for me - or I guess what has become normality for me, being into my third season as a "vanlifer", living and working on the road. Its not all that bad, is it 😉 Si thi!

Fight or Flight, Park4Night

I've written before about how I find parkup spots on the move, the types of places I stay and how I assess them - one of the ways is Park4Night, a phone app where users tag public locations suitable for overnight parking, and review them. I have developed somewhat of a love/hate relationship with Park4Night over the course of the last 18 months - it is very handy and the concept of it is brilliant, especially when on the move in an unfamiliar area or when you just need to get off the road quickly and don't have time to do a recon on Google Maps or driving around etc. But, it has a downside, in that every location tagged draws additional attention to it, and the more a location is used by the VanLife community and casual campervanners, the increase in the likelihood of parking restrictions being implemented (height barriers, prohibitions etc) or disgruntled locals with an axe to grind taking matters into their own hands. As I have found first hand...

I've said before that the spirit of this series of blog posts is to paint a realistic picture of VanLife from the perspective of someone actually living it in reality, not a glorified social media filtered version where you only see the best bits (I am also guilty of that), so while I don't want to come across as negative or moany, I do want to be honest on certain aspects of this lifestyle. I had a Park4Night related incident last week which is a common altercation with "VanLifers", and at some point ot another will pretty much happen to everyone, so I'll give you the story.

I was working in an area of Yorkshire that I'm not that familiar with, so I arrived close to the location the night before, pulled over at the side of the road, and opened the Park4Night app - quickly found a tagged spot not far from my job - nothing fancy but a wide layby off the side off a very quiet lane through some woodland. Looked alright, so I went for it. The first night was absolutely fine, nice little spot surronded by trees, lots of dog walkers but no passing traffic and had a silent nights sleep. Woke up early, packed up, and headed off for work.

I returned for a second night, same as previously. Took Sanchez for a little walk, made dinner and listened to music. While I was on the phone to a friend, Sanchez started barking - he only does that when someone is too close to the van, so I cracked the door open to find a man just stood there. "You do realise this is private property don't you?". Heeeere we go. I told him no, I didn't, there was no signage indicating such and the lane appeared to be a public highway. The man iterated it was private property and that if I didn't leave he would call the police, I asked him if he knew who supposedly owned this lane and hr replied "I do", he told me he know the location had been marked on "some sort of app" and claimed he had clamped a campervan the previous week and charged them £600 removal. We had a short exchange of words which ended with him leaving saying "you'd better get gone quickly" which I took to be a threatening remark.

Now, there's a couple of issues with this gentlemans claims. Firstly, I don't believe for a second that the lane is private property - aside from the lack of any signage, the lane is marked on Google Maps and recorded on Street View. But lets entertain him for a second here. Firstly, tresspass is currently not a criminal offence, so it's nothing to do with the police. Secondly, private clamping was outlawed a few years ago, so if he did clamp anyone, he actually broke the law himself. Not that I believe him. From a legal perspective, there's nothing this bloke could have done to force me to move. But he clearly wanted me gone.

I picked up my phone forgetting for a second that I was on a call and my friend had overheard the conversation "fucking hell that was tense!" were the first words I heard. We had a bit of a chat about the encounter and she convinced me to just leave, not to stand my ground as some sort of point of principal, just in case he came back later in the night damaged my van. I agreed, on the basis that I had to be up for work in the morning and didn't want to spend the night listening out for every noise, so I started packing up and found a new location in the form of a public carpark. Just as I was ready to leave, I saw two figures approaching from the back of my van - the same chap had returned with a friend. I'll save you dialogue as it was quite colourful, but let's just say their intentions were very clear - l was to be sent packing with a kicking. I don't respond well to threats, I despise anyone who thinks they can physically intimidate someone to get what they want, and I'm far too stubborn and fiery for my own good, so the exchange got hot quickly, but basically it had gotten past being a claim of ownership dispute and all got a bit Mexican Standoff, with flatcaps. 

As much as I hate feeling like I ran away and they got to bully be out, I left without anything getting physical or my van getting damaged, because as much as I might have wanted to put up a stand, if it was anyone else telling me the story, my advice would have been "just leave, don't put yourself at risk, it's not worth it" so it was time to swallow my pride, call them a set of inbred cunts, and get out of there. I'm still pretty pissed at this. I don't run away.

Stay safe ✌️

One last thing...

I received quite a lot of comments and messages off the back of my last blog, which I'm really appreciative of - however one comment struck a bit of a nerve with me, and I want to address that here for clarity. I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but the tone of the comment was along the lines of "only the financially privileged can talk about not worrying about money". I cant let that go unanswered.

I am privileged. Very much so. I'm extremely privileged in many ways relevant to living how I do. I'm a white heterosexual male for starters - any hardships and struggles I face are not furthered by or a direct result of my ethnicity, colour of my skin, sexual orientation, or sex/gender. I don't generally have to worry about my personal safety, or take additional steps in protecting myself. In all likelihood, I will never be a victim of sexual assault, discrimination or targetted bigotry. There is a level of stereotyping and discrimination towards "travellers" of course, but that's not really what I'm talking about. I'm fortunate enough to be in very good physical health and general fitness, all things considered, for a nearly-forty year old, and I take the time to recognise and be thankful for this. I am extremely lucky to have a supportive family and network of very good friends. These are the things that I'm privileged with - I am not nor have ever been privileged financially, I have never been gifted money, I am not funded by anyone. I don't have much, I funded my van build by selling a cherished car that I'd restored and owned for a long time, and I moved into my van with no immediate income and less than a grand in savings. What I do have comes from my own sweat and blood, taking pride in being good at what I do, living somewhat frugally, and a having positive attitude towards opportunities for work. As I write this now, I have more in rainy-day savings than I ever did when living conventionally - but I don't forget that I started out with nothing (big up, Steve!).

I've spoken before about how there are two "camps" in the vanlife community - those that live in vans because they want to, and those that do because they have to, for lack of a better option. There is some animosity between the two factions a little, with a perception that those who live in vans that are... a little fancier shall we say, or furnished to a level above bare basic essentials, come from wealthy backgrounds and are being financed by the bank of mum and dad. I have no idea if there is any truth in this, I've never asked anyone how they funded their builds - but I suspect it's spite ridden bollocks. Most definitely is in my case anyway! Financially privileged?! The fucking AUDACITY! 😅

The Route (sic) Of All Evils

Ugh. I'm going to do it. I'm going to blog about something I hate, so let's just get it out of the way and have done with it. Money. I've never liked money or wanted much association with it. It doesn't motivate me, excite me, or inspire me. It certainly doesn't drive me in any way, and was never a factor in my decision to try this vanlife thing - but whether I like it or not, it is a necessary evil in the capitalist construct of, well, paying for things I want (like coffee, and rum), so as much as I loathe to talk about it, I do want to talk about the financial aspect of Vanlife and maybe expell some unrealistic dreams about the cost of living full time in a van in the UK. Spoiler. It isn't free.

Before I talk about what it costs me personally, what I pay for and how much, I'll list what I don't pay for:

• Rent/Mortgage. Obviously. I'll also add to this that that I don't (or at least, haven't yet) pay for any sort of camping. I either boondock on the move, or park on private property.

• Council Tax. On account of not residing at a physical address.

• Electricity. My electric currently comes "free" from my van engine as I drive. Soon to be my solar panels, once I fit them (shush, I'll get round to it one day).

• Water. I take the opportunity to fill up my tanks and bottles where ever I can, when I can.

• Heating. I mostly heat my van via my log burner with salavaged scrap wood from jobs and projects, and have become a bit of a timber-squirrel.

• TV License, Cable/Sky.

Straight away you can quickly put a rough figure to the realistic costs if living nomadically. Take your current outgoings, deduct the above, and you won't be far off the number. So here's the remaining what I do pay for, and how much:

• Van insurance. Currently £270 a year, or £22.50 a month, on account of being old and having a lot of no claims.

• Road Tax. £23 a month

• Mobile bill. £22 a month, unlimited data (must have)

• Pet Plan. £12 a month. Covers my dogs flea/worming and checkups/consultations. I don't have insurance for him as it's extortionate, so I keep a blank credit card for emergencies.

• Breakdown cover. £12 a month with European coverage. Optimistic!

• Netflix and Prime. Tenner (half). I split this with a mate.

Call it £100 a month all in for my fixed bills  Now obviously this doesn't factor in my two largest outgoings - food and fuel. These are both variable costs, and can be as little as £50 a month if I'm working on fixed location and food/parkup is part of the deal, or upwards of £400 a month if I'm permanently on the road and covering a lot of miles. It's also worth accounting for van maintenance, keeping on top of the servicing, fixing and mending bits, adding and changing other bits. It can add up, especially if you're paying for labour rates and the clutch shits its self. I like to average it out at £100 a month for tinkering, but we all know a big bill is only ever a bad MOT or major breakdown away!!

So there we go, that's everything. My total fixed outgoings plus my variable costs even at peak, is a substantially different figure to when I lived in bricks and worked a 9-5. When I put it like that, I can certainly see why so many peoples inspiration for wanting to move into a van and live on the road, is money and getting out of the rat race. It isnt my place to tell anyone what they should or shouldn't do, however what I will say from the benefit of a little experience, is that there is so much more to living in a van - both positives and negatives - than simply cheap living, and the financial aspect in relative terms is only a minor one which I don't believe should be anyone's only major consideration. In my case, moving into a van was the catalyst for a lot of life (and lifestyle) changes, and living so cheaply afforded me the ability to make a drastic career change. Ive spoken before in previous blogs about what I used to do for (ironically termed) "living", and what I do now to pay for my life, so I wont cover it again here, but as a result of having so few financial leeches sucking me dry, I can afford to work very sporadically and put enjoyment before need - I can now take on work when and where I want to because I enjoy it, rather than needing to, and need is very subjective.

Money, as they rightly say, isn't everything.

Social Animals

Normally when I come to write these posts, I've already mentally written it out several times in my head first, as I generally have an idea what I want to write about and think about how I'm going to attempt to turn my brain-soup into words and legible sentences - I generally do this as I'm driving as my mind wanders a lot. I know what I want to blog about, I think about how to structure my thoughts, and then flesh it out as I'm actually writing it. Recently however I've been completely uninspired to really write about anything at all, because here we are again, back in lockdown, again, almost a full year in of being socially distanced and devoid of human contact. So I haven't mentally penned this blog this time, I'm just going to wing it and see where we end up. I'll apologise in advance for... whatever happens next.

Ok lets be honest here. The last 12 months has been pretty fucking shit hasnt it, pardon my French. But it has. Like, properly shit. I don't think it's been particularly fun for anyone, regardless of their normal lifestyle and personal background - but spending a full year of being severely restricted on whom you can see socially, when, and where, has taken its toll on peoples emotional well-being and mental state. A very common theme amongst "Vanlifers" is the sense of isolation and loneliness that comes with the fluid life on 4 wheels. Week in, week out, I see posts from people reaching out for company, both physically and virtually, as cabin fever kicks in. It's very evident that people are struggling. 

I don't particularly include myself in that statement, for a few reasons really, which actually make me feel quite fortunate. Firstly, and without meaning to come across as as a smug dickhead here; I chose this lifestyle, as a conscious decision of something I wanted to do as a personal adventure and change of direction, for many reasons, but the fact is I want to live like I do, and I've embraced not only the positives of #vanlife, but the negatives too - but I must remember that not everybody did. A lot of people live in vans for reasons outside of their immediate control, it's where they have found themselves as a result of external factors and not necessarily by personal choice, and those people perhaps may not be as comfortable with the sense of isolation as others, so I won't go as far as to say that feeling isolated doesn't apply to me, but I chose this. 

Secondly, the last 12 months hasn't impacted me as hard as it had for a lot of people - in the sense that it hasn't interfered with my day-to-day life all that much. I've still worked, and the work I do involves traveling around, meeting people, occasionally working directly with them, and sometimes hanging out with them socially out of hours too - I'm very lucky that the work I do quite often comes with the bonus of staying on private property, either parking up on their land or having a vacant house to myself, so I can get off the road and not have to look over my shoulder for passing police cars or vigilante pitchfork-weilding locals taking it upon themselves to "police" the parkups for day-trippers and weekend-warriors. 

Lastly, and somewhat self-assuredly, I maintain that I am my own best company, loneliness is not something I often find myself feeling - I am horrendously introverted, bordering hermit level, with social anxiety which I mask with a verneer of extroverted outbursts, which is to say I can be sociable and outgoing in doses, but I need my small quiet space and a nap afterwards. I do have a pretty wide but distant social circle and do keep in touch with my friends daily via messenger platforms and social media, and for the most part that is ample human contact for me. Plus, I have Sanchez, who I couldn't do this without.

Now, I never started this to be part of any sort of scene - I didn't even know there was a scene, and usually I'm very anti-scene - not in an elitist-douchebag hipster too-cool sense, just, I'm not generally interested in being part of any sort of club in which I identify myself by. I certainly didn't move into a van to make friends with other people who live in vans. This isn't a hobby for me, it's how I live. But, unintentionally, I have picked up a few friends along the way over the last (counts fingers) 16 months of life on the road, people I've met up and hung out with, or just chatted to and engaged with frequently online. As much as I may maintain that I don't need other people to assure my sense of self-dependency, is has been comforting to have a group of people whom I have a very significant aspect of lifestyle in common with, and they've become quite important to me - if only for the in-jokes and bants if nothing else. You know who you are.

I think if there's one positive to come out of the last year, it's the reminder that we are social animals, we need interaction with other humans, from time to time, some more than others. Be aware of this, because what lockdown has been to a lot of people, is life as normal for others - it comes with the lifestyle. This is another unspoken reality. This is "#vanlife".

✌️

Stick Another 50p In T' Meter!

If you jump on any of the VanLife or Campervan groups on Facebook, you'll notice they're awash with the same three topics at the moment, as people struggle with three issues in winter. Electricity (lack thereof), heat (lack thereof), and condensation (biblical proportions of). I moved into my van last October, so this is my second winter of VanLife - I almost feel like a bit of a salty old veteran this year! But I'll talk about my experiences of these three issues. Starting with 'leccy.

Now, I'll be brutal. Solar panels, in the UK, in winter, are about as much use as a chocolate pisspot. Partly due to the lack of daylight hours, and the hours we do get tend to be a bit grey in typical British fashion, but also just plain old lack of space on a van roof to accommodate more than a couple of panels, and the tendency for them to be fixed flat down rather than angled towards the sun. So the people that have built their vans, or at least their expectations, around the reliance of solar power to charge up their leisure batteries, are falling short of juice as we hit winter. Now I've got a pretty decent sized solar rig, by van standards anyway - a whole 750watts of black magic and witchcraft... Sat in storage. Yep. Not even fitted to the van, just sat there, gathering dust. They've been there for over a year now, I actually bought them quite early on in my build and just never fitted them. I will get round to hauling them up on the roof one day, but that day won't be in Winter. Another issue is power storage. Lesiure batteries don't like the cold, they take longer to charge, and self-discharge quite a bit in colder temperatures too, so a bit of a double-whammy when you're struggling to pull in power AND THEN LOSING the power you do normally get. There is a very simple answer to this VanLife problem though. Use. Less. Power. Needing less is the same as producing more, so if you can learn to be less reliant on electric you can be less reliant on producing it too.

Ok I don't have solar, so I don't find myself being consumed by how many free amps the great fireball in the sky is gifting me. I do have hookup and a battery charger, which I've used precisely twice, as I tend to be off-grid and not anywhere where I can plug in - so I charge my battery banks purely by driving. I don't typically stay in one place for more than two days at a time, so I'm driving anyway, and charging my cells via a basic split-charge is a pretty efficient way of generating juice - it typically takes around 1 hour to fully top up my 2 x 110amp batteries, and doesn't seem to make any noticeable difference to my MPG either, so while it's not quite as free as sun-leccy, it's a close second, and it gets me by comfortably. As for using less power, well that's a pretty standard comprise of moving from house to van really, and something that all crusty van-hobos have to adapt to quickly - but a bit more so in winter. I don't run my fridge, because I don't need to. It's a fairly decent size (55ltr) and uses 60watts, making it probably my biggest consumer of power, so if I don't have to use it I gladly wont, and winter is easy for not needing it. I keep a couple of ice blocks in the freezer compartment, and I pop these on the van roof overnight and chuck them back in the fridge in the morning, same with bottles of water. This keeps my food plenty cold enough through the day. 

Now I've mentioned before that I grew up poor as chuff as a kid, and fondly remember the days where we had a 50p electric meter, and when it ran out (frequently) we'd often have to wait for my dad to get home from work (or the pub) with some change to feed it. 

My mum would probably be incredibly embarrassed if she had any idea I was telling internet stangers any of this, but I'm not, I don't bregrudge growing up poor at all, I learned a lot about not taking things for granted, appreciating the little things, looking after that what I did have - and how to entertain myself without a TV. Plus it was the 80s, there was bugger all on the four telly channels on a black and white 14" portable we had then anyway. I played outside, I read comics (Beano > Dandy. Fact), I played with toys, I took said toys apart to figure out how they worked and put them back together again. I still do the same now - if my inverter starts frantically beeping at me to tell me I've been a bit frivolous with the precious juice, I'll throw the big killswitch switch and light a couple of candles, and I'll find something to do - ok so it's 2020 now and a lot of those rainy day or night time "somethings" are lithium-ion powered, my phone/tablet, Bluetooth speaker etc, which are hopefully charged enough to last me until I next set off driving - but I can happily get by without power on tap. Rationing electric is a normal part of this vanlife thing, so embrace it.

Ok I've waffled for far longer than I indended. My battery will run out if I'm not careful!

Bye for now! ✌️