History Of Van Life

Quick History Lesson

Way back in 1976 a friend and I converted our first van, we just took the back seats out of a Hillman Imp van and inserted a sliding platform for a bed. The only lighting we had was from a torch, and we navigated using a paper thing called a map, no GPS in those days, we would have to wait 31 years for mobile phones to be invented. But it wasn’t totally the dark ages; no, we did have a car radio.

Pete had passed his driving test, quite sometime before me. I passed mine on the Thursday, and two days later on the Saturday we were on the ferry to France, quite strange to think I had never even driven on a motorway, but here we were embarking on this journey, and driving on the wrong side of the road.

We visited ten countries within Europe, and back then they had proper armed border controls all across Europe, I can tell you there are quite a few hours I will never get back, waiting to cross through a border control.

There was not such thing as the Euro, so we had to change our money/Travelers Cheques in a bank every time we crossed into a different country, Italy was an eye opener, when you bought goods from a shop, they didn't give small (lira) change, it was paid out in sweets, but even that process became a game, as some sweets were nicer than others so you had to barter for the best deal.

We had some great adventures, even including the time we inadvertently walked through an armed police stakeout in Athens. Only to be thrown out of the City early the following morning.

As you can see from the photo below, we had a very small van, and no mod cons. As I've got older, I've gotten softer and prefer my creature comforts.

Van life won't suit everyone, but in this life, we all have to create our own memories, and have some adventures along the way.

How We Did It Back In The Day