Courtney & James are a lovely couple that we have followed throughout their van build / life journey! They are living full time in an amazing self built Mercedes Sprinter van. They are currently in Spain, lets find out how they are finding the van life!
We really enjoy watching your travels on Instagram - but life is
certainly different right now, and you are currently in Spain on
lockdown due to the Covid-19! How are you adjusting to this? Were you
unable to stay in the van over there?
Yes, we're currently in the south of Spain near Almeria and have been here for around 9 weeks now. We decided to rent an AirBnB about two months ago to wait out the lockdown rather than staying in the van as it felt safer and gave us peace of mind – as well as not having to worry about emptying the toilet and having access to long hot showers every day!
We spent the first week of lockdown in the van but because the rules were so strict here with heavy fines (up to 2000 euros!) being threatened to anyone out of the house without a valid reason – and rules against having more than one person in a vehicle - we were constantly looking over our shoulder and felt really on edge all the time. On top of that all caravan parks and the majority of aires or motorhome service points closed too so finding water and grey and black drop-off points was really tricky.
It's not quite how we imagined spending the Spring months, that's for sure, but we've tried to stay positive throughout it all and will just have to adapt our route plan accordingly, as and when things start to resume some normality and country borders begin to open again.
Lockdown restrictions have eased slightly now, so we are leaving the AirBnB to move back into DeeDee this week and drive to an animal sanctuary near Valencia who have offered us to park on their land whilst we volunteer with them to build their new rescue centre. That should keep us entertained for the rest of lockdown (hopefully!).
How do you guys earn money on the road?
We both worked in digital marketing before we got into Vanlife so our income is tied to that. James still works for the marketing agency he worked for before we started travelling, working Monday – Wednesday in a SEO role. Courtney quit her agency and now does a combination of freelance projects and helping our family financial planning business part time.
This structure allows us to maintain a routine for our week, with the first 3 days being work days and then the rest of the week is exploring and travelling – whilst also doing all the life admin bits like shopping and getting water etc. We find this super helpful as it means we always have a routine and don't find ourselves getting stuck in a rut. It is also super helpful that James is contracted, meaning we have a guaranteed wage, holidays and sick pay, taking the pressure off finding lots of freelance projects.
Is there anything about van life you find particularly difficult? After working full-time in a lifestyle where being constantly busy and 'go-go-go' all the time is encouraged, transitioning to a slower pace of life and accepting that you don't need to have a plan for the next month is harder than we expected. For the first month or two, we were constantly checking Google Maps and planning our park-ups a few weeks in advance, agreeing in advance how long we were going to stay somewhere before even arriving and experiencing it.
There's a bit of an expectation with vanlife (and a lot of alternative lifestyles) that everyone is really chilled and no one has any set plans, moving freely with their mood and following good weather all the time and although when you get to that stage it feels amazing, it's something that we struggled with a bit. Learning that it's ok to not feel totally relaxed and 'go with the flow' on day one (or day 30) is something we wish people had prepared us for before we left. And now look at us, we have no idea where we're going to be next week, let alone next month!
Having lived in the van for some time is there anything you would now
change?
We wouldn't change anything about our lifestyle – we're happier, have more disposable income, better savings and a more fulfilled life than we did working full time in the UK, it really has been that good a change for us.
As for the van, there are a couple of things we would change for sure:
- We'd plumb gas into a cooktop this time, the small canisters are expensive and we were really just scared about dealing with gas. Now we've got some experience and spoken to other vanlifers, it is something we would 100% change.
- We'd change the worktops, they scratch super easy! Whilst they look awesome, they are also super heavy so take up valuable weight. We'll probably do it when we get back to the UK at some point and swap in lighter (but still pretty) worktops that have much better scratch resistance.
- We'd probably change some of the cupboard space in the kitchen area for more drawers. Whilst the cupboards have loads of room, most of it is wasted in the top half of the cupboards whilst drawers would eliminate that. Plus in such a small space, trying to contort yourself to reach the thing you need at the back of the cupboard isn't always the most enjoyable.
