When, aged 60, I turned the key in the ignition of my motorhome in September 2019, I did not envisage that I would become part of a growing trend of women – many in later life – joining the van-life community.
Increasingly, women are grouping together online, writing books, creating communities and talking about their experiences. Facebook groups such as Solo Female Travelers, Solo Women Campers Meetups, Women with Campervans, Caravans, Motorhomes & Tents UK and Single & Widowed Ladies Camping and Caravanning as well as These Girls Van Instagram community have tens of thousands of members among them. As I set off on my new, nomadic life, I was about to join them.
To get there, I had made a drastic lifestyle change. I left a good job at the BBC, got rid of my flat and possessions, left family and friends, to focus on finding a better way of living. In my mid-fifties, I was overwhelmed with life – family bereavements, feeling voiceless and marginalised at work, struggling with the menopause and hating the empty nest after being a single mother to my daughter Sammy, for many years. I wanted to find my happy place, something that I’ve since found a lot of women can relate to.
For no particular reason, I felt a motorhome was the best way to do that, despite never having holidayed or driven one.
However, finding one that I knew I would be happy living in long-term was going to be an adventure in itself. I was not impressed with the very masculine feel of a lot of the vehicles on offer.
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Motorhome design is changing to reflect the broadening demographic of owners. Barefoot Caravans, for example, produces some colourful and beautifully styled vans.
My Auto-Trail had all the mod cons: cooker, microwave, fridge-freezer, a good-sized shower room and heating that ran off both gas and electric. I handed over nearly £40,000 and christened her “Dora the Explora.”
I admit I was scared when I embarked on what turned out to be a life-enhancing trip. Along the way I have had to overcome many fears, including how to drive the big vehicle along narrow country lanes and motorways. There was also getting to grips with the basics of life on the road – filling the water tank, emptying the loo, finding places to stay while being acutely aware of the risks of being a lone female van-lifer.
I always go with my gut feelings, if I do not feel safe, I do not stop. I know that some women are happy with wild camping and pulling up on the road side for the night, but for me, that’s a step too far. I use smaller sites affiliated with membership organisations such as The Caravan and Motorhome Club and The Camping and Caravanning Club that take a maximum of five vehicles. They are often basic, but set in lovely surroundings.
My plan was to have no plan and to go with the flow, see where life would take me. Four years later, that is exactly what I have done. I’ve navigated Great Britain and Ireland, and I now feel that I have become the woman that I always felt that I should have been.
My van-life adventures have showed me that my inner voice was attainable. Now when I say “Yes” I mean “Yes”, when I say “No” I mean ‘No”. I have lost that feeling of fear and not being good enough. I have become a warrior and mistress of my own destiny.
My travels have also given me a sense of female empowerment, something I hope to pass onto other women. I am a firm believer that women, particularly in midlife and beyond, want to feel alive and to push the boundaries. Vanlife seems to be the answer for an increasing number of us who see it as an affordable means of doing just that.
Siobhan Daniels will be part of a panel discussing female adventure at the Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show at the NEC Birmingham, 21-26 February.
Her book “Retirement Rebel: One woman, one motorhome, one great big adventure” is published by Vertebrate at £9.99.
Follow her at shuvonshuvoff.co.uk, @shuvonshuvoff on Instagram, @shuvonshuvoff on Twitter and shuvonshuvoff.blogspot.com
