Some may think it’s a trend, this #vanlife thing, but I’d beg to differ. My parents travelled around the country in a van in the 70’s and hippies alike have been living the van life dream since 4 wheels could roll. The only thing that’s changed is that people are sharing about it – and inspiring more people to fall in love with the concept of squeezing your belongings into a more mobile way of living.
We were lucky. Rob’s mom, the lovely Max, owns a stellar, completely functional camper van that we were able to use to gallivant across the state of Tasmania with.
We would pull up and park, often in a place Rob knew from his junior years, and lounge around cuddling on the van couches/bed, prepping dinner and building a fire.
Closing all the doors, popping the top and turning on the solar panel lights, we were continuously blown away – literally every need we had was met in that tiny little van home.
There’s so much used excess space in the world. We build big homes with big rooms that we never sit in.
At the start of the trip, I carefully unpacked all my clothing from my backpack onto the shelves of the van. Packing up at the end of our two weeks on and off the road I realized that I hadn’t touched nearly half of the clothes I had brought. I thought – Isn’t that all too true more than not in our busy, overflowing lives. We have more than we need.
Waking up like this, with the simplicity of life’s beauty meeting the need to be mobile and have shelter – that’s my very own state of perfection.
That’s why I #vanlife.
-emventurer