I’ve been living full-time in Travis for just over six weeks now. That’s still way to early to give any kind of meaningful insight into whether this is a way of life I think is going to work for me long-term. Overall, it’s going great and I’m really enjoying it and having no regrets at all but I’m aware that there is a novelty factor involved which at some point will surely wear off. I love change and I get bored with routine and repetition so I always knew that embarking on a new way of life where everything was different and a new challenge was going to stimulate and energise me in the short-term. The question is whether this can be maintained over time, whether the novelty of new places and every day being slightly varied is enough to keep feeling that way, even once I’ve inevitably developed my own routines and become more proficient at getting everything I need to do done.
Some aspects of van-living have been much as I expected, others have surprised me and there are a few benefits that I hadn’t even considered and to be honest I still don’t quite understand. But I am glad that they’re there and hope that they continue.
The first and one of the most important aspects I suppose is that I find that I sleep incredibly well. I did know this before I hit the road full-time as I had spent a few nights away here and there. I remember the first night after I picked him up wondering what it would be like and whether I would feel comfortable and secure to sleep and as I lay there I felt so cosy and cocooned and peaceful. And I remember thinking on that first night that this had been a good decision to at least try it.
It helps that I’m an unfussy sleeper. I’m discovering that this is a serious benefit to finding places to stay for the night. My place in London used to be on the A1, one of the main routes north out of the city, and there was a night bus stop pretty much directly outside the window. When I was growing up we used to live under the flightpath to Gatwick Airport back in the days when they still used to fly through the night. So traffic noise doesn’t bother me, which means I can park up next to busy roads and the occasional passing car doesn’t bother me particularly. Sometimes as they whoosh past the displaced air makes Travis rock me gently to sleep. It’s ok, I know most other people don’t see it that way but it’s fine for me.
I’m also not fussy about being level. I’ve no great prior experience in this regard to call upon, as far as I know my beds have all been pretty horizontal until now. But I now know that it doesn’t bother me if my head is a bit above my feet, or vice versa, or if I seem to keep rolling to one side of the bed. I just seem to get comfortable and sleep fine.
This combination of factors has made it really very easy to find spots to sleep in. Strangely, finding places to park and sleep was never a huge concern for me but it’s actually been even easier than I expected so far. In my first trips out I was incredibly conscious of finding somewhere I can stay for the night. Now I am much more relaxed about it, although some nights it is more difficult than others, and some nights I sleep better than others but I’m learning to accept that as part of the reality of doing this day to day.
And there are always daytime naps. There’s something highly pleasurable about finding somewhere quiet to park up and hopping in the back and taking a little nap whilst other people are going about their business outside. It feels privileged and slightly incongruous, albeit very cosy.
I’d originally titled this post ‘what’s it like to live in a van?’ but now I’ve banged on about just sleeping for so long there’s no room to get into all the other stuff so I’m going to have to go back and change the title and then, fittingly, go to sleep.