Van life isn’t all unicorns farting rainbows
I’m Elton, a 51-year old van life photographer, website designer and SEO consultant and pet sitter currently undertaking a long-term photography project in an attempt to document as much of the UK, Europe and further abroad as I possibly can with whatever time I have remaining on this rock.
I am undertaking this long-term photography project as a full time van lifer, living in my 1995 Hymer B564 accompanied by my 14 year old Staffordshire Terrier, Shaka.
My Journey to van life
I’m originally from Durban, South Africa where I spent the first 27 years of my life. I travelled around South Africa quite a lot with my grandparents in my preschool and pre-teen years and I’m convinced this is where my wanderlust was embedded in me. It is also during this time that my passion for photography was born. Being South Africa, I was taking mostly pictures of wildlife and landscapes in the early days. Combining photography with sketching which I really enjoyed but sadly have not done for several decades now, perhaps its time to brush off those pencils!
If anyone asked me when I was young what I wanted to be when I grew up my answer was simple, ‘A photographer on Sir David Attenborough’s team traveling around the world taking photographs’. However, my dream was pushed aside to pursue a more ‘reliable and responsible’ career in the Information Tech world with specific focus on Internet based technologies.
Coming to the UK
In January 1999 I immigrated to England. The initial intention was only to be here for two years, do a little part time work and travel around the UK. However once my first born was conceived the decision was made that I would not return to South Africa and raise the children in the UK.
Up until June 2019 I continued to work in the IT sector primarily for London and Cambridge based software houses. In 2015 I also started up a ‘side hustle’ of offering photographer sessions. These were aimed at both private and business clients. I had a small home studio for portraiture and product photography and did a lot of onsite work for clients. In June 2019, following a redundancy, I decided not to return to my career and launched my photography business full-time. Little did I know what was to transpire in March of 2020!
The push I needed
A few years ago a very close and dear friend of mine suddenly passed away. He was of a similar age to me and it really did have an impact on me. I knew all the things he still wanted to do with his life. A life that was taken far too soon. His passing really made me think about my own life and reevaluate my priorities.
For over a decade during my career I was very aware of my wanderlust and the fact that I had pushed my dream of traveling the world and photographing as much of it as I can aside to do the responsible thing. It was now time to dust that dream off and take action to make it a reality.
I wasn’t in a position where I could keep my home and purchase a motorhome in which to undertake this long-term photography so the decision was made to sell up. I put the house on the market at the start of 2020 but a few weeks later Covid lockdowns were enforced and house viewing were not permitted. I had two offers on my house, both of which had the buyers pull out weeks into the process for no apparent reasons. Finally, on the third offer the house sale finally completed in June of 2021!
Star, my new home on wheels
It was originally my intention to purchase a van and do the conversion myself. Whilst searching for a suitable van I rented a room with a lovely lady in a nearby village to where I had my home.
One day whilst searching through Facebook Marketplace a Hymer motorhome popped up which was not far from where I was. It looked really good and the price was fair so I arranged to go and view it. Long story short, I drove home in the motorhome!
I managed to talk the seller down on the asking price as it needed some work doing to it but for her age, she was in really decent condition with some cosmetic work needing to be done. My reasoning for buying Star was quite simple. If I bought a van and did the conversion myself, I’d be looking at at least 6-12 months of work as I would still need to put time into generating an income through my photography, website design, SEO and Social Media services. That meant another 6-12 months of rent that I’d have to pay for the room.
I also estimated that to buy a decent LWB was going to cost me around £10,000. With a further £12,00 – £15,000 in doing the conversion. I got Star for half of this cost and the added benefit being I could start my van life and photography project immediately.
The van life adventure begins
In August 2021, Shaka and I moved into Star and have been travelling since. We have experienced many highs and plenty of lows and the challenges that come with van life are not often documented on social media. In fact, social media in general is very misleading about the realities of full-time van life as the vast majority of social media ‘van lifers’ are not in fact full time van lifers.
The reality of living full-time in a van, caravan, boat are very different from taking a van out for a weekend or your holidays. For a start, you don’t need to carry everything you own/may need when you have a home to return to after the weekend or your holiday. When your van breaks down, you just send it to the garage and return home, whereas if you are full-time, when your van breaks down it presents a real problem in your life.
Some of the challenges encountered by full-time van lifers tends to result in the vast majority who attempt the lifestyle to quit it in the first two years.
A realistic and authentic look into full time van life
What you will find in my blog posts as well as on my YouTube channel is genuine, honest and authentic content about my experience living in a motorhome full-time. I will share the highs and lows so that if you are considering this lifestyle yourself, you are prepared for the challenges that you are almost certainly going to encounter at some point.
Please come and join me on the road!
I would love to have you along for this adventure, the good and the bad and hope that you will find value in the content that I publish through my various channels. Please do sign up to my mailing list to be notified of new blog posts and YouTube videos 🙏
