In 2016, we made a decision that we wanted to change our lives and so embarked on what ended up being a 5 year journey for us.
Partly prompted by a bad experience at work and partly after seeing family members get sick shortly after retirement, we felt we were at a crossroads in our lives – where we had some choices to make.
As we considered our next move, the idea of doing the same thing again and again just didn’t seem exciting enough. What was important to us and what were our dreams and how could we make some of those a reality?
I’m sure our story isn’t unique. In 2016, as we thought about our life, we realised that we were both working so hard that we never seemed to have enough time to spend with the people we love – our friends and family. Being prompted to consider this, some of the things we worked so hard for now seemed less important. Our time and energy could only be spent once so the key question now was how did we want to spend them going forwards?
So we came up with an alternative – something a little bit different. Why don’t we live in a motorhome and travel?
At this point it’s probably worth mentioning that this wasn’t as far off the wall an idea as it may seem. Toby had wanted to buy a yacht and sail around the world growing up. He can’t sail (yet) and Sally gets a bit seasick, so whilst getting a yacht probably wasn’t the best idea, a ‘land yacht’ or motorhome seemed like a much more workable plan. It’s fair to say that we think Merlin preferred this option too.
However, as neither of us had ever been in a motorhome or caravan before, the idea wasn’t without a risk or two. Could we cope living in such a small space? Could we actually drive a motorhome or caravan? How do they even work? Could we do the things we were dreaming about in one?
As this little seed of possibility grew, we researched, figured things out and went to Motorhome Shows. The more we did, the more the barriers fell away and the more exciting and real the idea became.
We realised we’d need a few years of working and saving to reach a level of financial independence that we were happy with and that was fine as there was lots of other things we’d need to do to prepare for life on the road.
It’s fair to say that COVID didn’t make it easier.
So, we set about working towards financial independence and whilst ‘normal’ life continued outwardly, we were secretly reading and watching inspiring stories from others leading similar lifestyles, most notably from Our Tour, Sailing La Vagabonde and John&Mandy.
As we’d actually never been in a motorhome or caravanned before we thought it might be a good idea to hire a motorhome and see how we’d survive in such a small space. After 5 days, a lot of giggles and loads of learning we handed back the keys and decided that we loved it and made the decision we needed one of own.
Along the way we enjoyed the process of downsizing and radically simplifying our lives.
We sold our spacious 3 bedroom house, all of our expensive furniture and the stuff we had spent so long accumulating, the cars and motorbikes for a modest 2 bed flat near the train station. This process turned out to be sometimes scary and upsetting and yet cathartic at the same time. We found that with exception of a few, unexpected, things, we didn’t really miss any of it very much.
It took us the 5 years to deliver the plan, lots of ups and downs along the way, however, knowing the life we were planning kept us on the path and on 6th September in 2021 we left our flat in Welwyn Garden City having rented it out to start the road less travelled.
