Anyone who knows me will know that I am no good at sitting still, I’m like an energiser bunny or at times a Tasmanian devil (a bit like Echo!) In the first two years of owning my motorhome I travelled to over 20 different countries across Europe and into Asia to spend three months in Turkey to celebrate my turning another decade older in Cappadocia surrounded by hot air balloons.

I had a very steep and at times bumpy introduction to motorhome life so wanted to create a space to share tips and advice on motorhome/van life, travel and life on the road with a dog.

My introduction to van life was a T4 owned by someone I dated, we converted it together and drove to the top of Scotland and down to the bottom of Portugal, it gave me a taste of the freedom of travelling in a van. Unfortunately, our relationship ended and I found myself working my remote 9-5 in a house in the sticks of Norfolk where the countryside was mostly made up of pig farms! I decided there had to be more to life than this, so I started looking at getting my own van, big enough to live in with a fixed bed and shower! After a day at the Norfolk Campervan and Motorhome show climbing in and out of every possible van, I had a list of non-negotiable features I wanted.

Three months later I was on the train to Lincoln to collect my first ever motorhome, a Roller Team 746. Now Ill be honest, I was a bit apprehensive about the drive back, apart from a short test drive accompanied by the sales guy, the biggest vehicle I had ever driven was the odd hire van to move house! After successfully drive back to Norfolk, I spent 5 days packing up my house and piled everything into a moving van and the motorhome and gave the keys to the house back!

I spent the next few months largely at my Mums farm in Essex where I went through a very steep learning curve, there was so much work out and understand, from how everything worked via 12v power, installing starlink, learning to ration my water usage and adding some extra security features.

Four months after starting this journey I set of for Europe and spent a month getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road, exploring from cute towns to remote vineyard park ups and snowboarding in five different countries!

Since then I haven’t looked back, tweaking and modifying the motorhome to be the perfect home on wheels, including adding a roof rack for my kayak, decorating the inside, adding more power/solar and a bespoke desk to work from, to allow me to venture to more countries and push myself out of my comfort zone.

The irony is that at school was bullied for being a “gypsy”, my family bought a farm with 15 acres of land and stables for over 10 horses, but I got picked on for living in the double static caravan that was there when we first moved in before we built a house. Now I am more of a gypsy than I ever have been and feel for the first time in my life that I am absolutely where I should be.

I would love to hear from anyone going through the same journey and am happy to share any advice from lessons I have learnt (some the hard way!)

Here are some of my favourite photos from my first few years of life on the road.

Jodie & Echo x