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!