The price of freedom: We’ve been living in the van now for almost 18months & have met travellers of all ages & backgrounds. There’s millennials taking a year or two out of the ratrace, carving a different career for themselves through YouTube & social media channels; there’s early retirees who’ve got property back home they rent out, using that money to travel; there’s people like us working to disentangle themselves from the burnout of the more/faster/better capitalist competitive life, who have no financial safety net but earning just enough each month to keep their dream on the road; there’s people who put huge miles on their van – traversing the globe in a year, & others who’re travelling so slowly they might only explore a small part of one country in six months, & again others who might just drive their van to a beach & stay there for a year. There’s poets, photographers, film makers, artists, designers, writers, jewellers, the tech savvy, marketers, theatre makers, musicians & social media wizards – all are dreamers, all want to make a life for themselves outside of our proscriptive, settled culture &, because this life is not in the results of any career prospectus questionnaire, all have to work their creative muscle pretty hard to make it work – to wake every morning & build a new day. However somebody does it, I love them for it. I love their tenacity & self-belief, their ability to see past the fear-mongering in order to carve out a life that doesn’t come in a pre-packaged box with benefits. Life on the road is more of everything: more beautiful & exciting, more stressful & challenging, the highs are epic, while the lows can wipe you out for days. But each day the sun rises on an ever-evolving landscape & a new dream begins to form in the imagination as we learn to be open to the beautiful, contrary, kaleidoscope of what this nomadic life has to offer. (Photo from a wild camp spot near the French Alps recently.)
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