Vanlife: A day in the Life Part Two

Moving days

Following on from our last blog, this is what our day looks like in vanlife when we are moving on from our wild camping park up and finding somewhere new to stay.

Planning

Usually the day before we leave we make a plan on where we are going and what we are doing. And again depending on Will’s teaching schedule our day starts between 8 and 10, which can also vary depending on which country we are in and the time difference. This time can greatly impact what we get done in a day, how far we drive and what time we park up at our next destination. Admittedly we do travel slow and tend to drive a maximum of 2 hours with it quite often being less than that. This gives us more time to explore a country fully as well as saving us money.

Packing Up

To pack up the van we generally like to make a coffee to go and have breakfast or lunch before we leave. We do live in a small van with little space so there is a fair amount of organising when packing and unpacking. Everything has its place and is put away or strapped down. The longer we stay somewhere the longer it takes to pack away as everything seems to spread out. We have multiple items that get moved to and from the cab of the van otherwise we would have no room at all. It may seem like we have a lot of stuff but if you think of trying to put all the essential living belongings into one small living space, it can seem like a lot.

On the Road again and Errands

So we have our coffees ready, the hob is strapped down, the toilet is tucked away, everything is where it needs to be, what now? Vanlife sometimes includes some less interesting days. So these are the times we run errands that again can vary depending what is needing doing. It might be we have found somewhere cheap to wash our clothes (we have recently found in some petrol stations it costs $4 to do a wash and dry) and these occasions its very much worth it. Or we can have a real hot shower, also at a petrol station but it still feels like a luxury to us. In many cases we need to do a little food shopping, we only have a small fridge so fresh produce has a quick turnover. So we frequently need a super market or veg stall.

Finding a Park Up

We don’t like to arrive at a new wild camping spot any later than 4 or 5pm and definitely, not ever in the dark. We need to be aware of our surroundings to make sure we don’t get into any unnecessary trouble. If we are are by water we need to be sure we are not to close or that the tide will not rise. If it is, has been or will rain, it’s important to know the density of the soil or sand, we don’t want to get stuck! Or if the place looks “off” in any way we trust our gut and hop on out of there. This is all much harder to do when you can’t see. For those who don’t know we use an app called iOverlander here in South America and used alternative apps in other continents to find a place to stay, like Park4Night in Europe and CamperMate in New Zealand and Australia. These apps are great as the information is generated by people just like us, most of the time it will have photos and other comments of the safety, location or any other important information about a particular place.

Settling in

Now that we have arrived it’s time to unpack the van which is just the same as packing it up but in reverse. We are so use to doing this that we have a system that flows and it takes us no time at all. At this point our day turns out much the same as anybody else, we have dinner, we watch a little television on the laptop and we go to bed. Aiming to be in bed around 9:30 ready for the next day.