Exploring together

(First published in Issue 6, September 2022) Our vanlife really started almost twenty years ago, in a world without WhatsApp, Tinder, Happn, or similar apps, when Renée (now 36) and I (Joris, now 40) met in a local club. From the beginning, we picked up a backpack and started traveling, exploring the world one month each year. In 2015, we finally bought our campervan and traded in our backpacks for a camper, which we quickly named Otto de Berggeit (Otto the Mountain Goat). For us, it was a test to see if we wanted to live out of a van or stick with backpacking, as we had been dreaming of long-term travel, this time with our dog, Doeska.

A campervan was eventually the only solution for us. The three of us test-drove our camper during a vacation from Holland to the south of France, crossing the Pyrenees. Huffing and puffing our old van over the mountains, which we then thought were steep, we made it into Barcelona. After this, we drove back north through Spain, following the mountains again. After visiting beautiful towns, mountain ranges and sights, we were infected with the vanlife bug.

After a short month, we returned to Holland, quitting our jobs almost a year in advance. We started selling everything we didn’t need on the road or didn’t want to keep. During our test drive, we also made a list of everything we needed to sort out and buy. Such as a solar panel, some maintenance for the engine, a better mattress, and some more interior improvements so our camper felt more like a home instead of a camper.

And so we worked for months to improve Otto. And during this hectic period we also planned our wedding, a hippie party and goodbye party in Belgium. In the beginning we started an enormous road trip - 4 days of being together with friends and family. Our life on the road really started on the last day of the trip. With tears and laughter, we drove away leaving the party behind and starting our new life. We slowly made our way into France, doing a Workaway on a huge farm and making friends for life in these short three weeks. We continued heading south, passing the Great Dune, lavender fields and huge mountains near Carcassonne. After zigzagging for a bit we finally made it into Spain, where we spent a month exploring before starting a Workaway job working with mistreated donkeys. Exhausted but really happy to be here we left after a month. When we left we took three Workawayers and friends with us for a short, intense journey - traveling, eating, sleeping and partying in our van.

These days are still a core memory of life on the road with friends from different countries, lives and experiences. We dropped them off and continued south to Portugal. This country, and especially the coastline, is amazing. At the time, there were hardly any campers in the north, which made life on the road hassle-free. Following the broken streets with potholes on every corner sometimes made us desperate, wanting to return to the smooth roads of Spain. The nights on the rugged coastline were always crystal clear and full of stars.

Even in those early days of our journey, the thought of running out of money was already on our minds. We started in June 2016 and traveled until April 2018 and we were only on the first quarter of our journey and already had to face these worries in Portugal. By the time we returned in 2018, we were flat broke. We had traveled through 21 countries, including the fabulous Morocco, driven about 50,000 kilometers, and created memories that could fill a book. The only possessions we had were Otto and the stuff inside. Sadly, our sweet little black dog, Doeska, passed away only a month after completing the biggest journey of her life. Still, we are grateful we gave her this way of life, being together 24/7. We started planning and pondering again. Back in Holland, we found jobs we loved, but when we were refurbishing the van inside and out, giving it a new paint job, plumbing and electrics, we felt a bit odd.

Otto was ready again. We didn’t skimp on maintenance, even installing a new gearbox. The van looked brand new on the inside (if you didn’t look too closely), and we were proud of the result. . Feeling at home here, our bed, as tiny as it is, feels better than all the mattresses we had in Holland.

We left again September 2021, with a little less drama but still with a few small going away parties. When we drove off, we didn’t have much of a plan. The only certainty was that we needed to be in Sicily by November.

So we went for a road trip to Greece, one of the easiest European countries for camper vanlife. The roads here were familiar to us, the food was great and the people were welcoming. We drove around the Peloponnese, a huge island full of ancient History, beaches and a relaxed way of life. After two months of relaxing, we headed to Sicily to reconnect with a surrogate family we had met on our last journey. At their fantastic place, we helped, worked, ate a lot and felt at home.

We also left for a month to walk the Camino the Santiago from Lisbon to Santiago and to Finnesterre, a great walk of 750km which took us 25 spectacular days, Walking the Camino is something we would recommend to everyone to do once in their life, its fantastic, stupid, unreal and painful all at the same time. On the way back to Sicily we picked up Otto again and set off for Turkey, the country we’re in now. This enormous country is the most welcoming, diverse, spectacular and beautiful country we have driven so far. Over the past two months, we’ve watched hot air balloons rise in Cappadocia, explored pristine ancient ruins, admired turquoise seas and lakes that look like the Maldives, and driven through mountains that seem to touch the sky. A country that can never be fully discovered is a country we love and enjoy every single day.

And if you’re curious about our plan after Turkey? We’ll start with six months of backpacking in South America, leaving Otto for a well-deserved rest. After that, we’ll return to explore northern Europe.