#cabinlove
What didn’t look like a promising sunset at first turned into this spectacle a few minutes later, with a the sun bursting through a thunderstorm in the distance… Patience always pays off.
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ph by the kindness of nature
dirtandglass
cabin vibes
This is our home. She’s a 2002 LDV Convoy, once a minibus, now a cosy cabin on wheels. She’s taken us to places that no minibus was ever designed to go. She’s travelled tens of thousands of miles with us over the past four years. She’s survived roads many 4x4s would cringe at.
Sure she wobbles and squeaks and moans and the brakes constantly fail and the rust is eating her inside and out, but she’s done us proud this humble van.
Her roaring engine turns heads wherever we go as people stop to stare and read out the letters L… D… V?
It never ceases to amaze me that the simple combustion of fuel that drives our engine can propel our little home all over the world. Our van is both the heart of our adventure and the very thing which enables it.
She’s taught us everything we know about mechanics, roadside repairs, replacing parts, and everything we know about building a home too. The constant problems that come with an old van are both a source of frustration and a motivation to learn, but they sure make for some interesting travel tales.
After all, it wouldn’t be an adventure without a few bumps in the road.
Living in a van for us has only ever been about one thing: adventure.
It’s not about living the dream on a beach somewhere, it’s not about having the most aesthetically pleasing home we could build, it’s about taking that home on wheels out into the big wide world and seeing how far we can push it to its limits.
Our van is a vessel for our photography as we travel around seeking out documentary projects and video opportunities. It’s a place to rest our heads at night before we continue our exploration the next day. It enables us to travel to far flung corners of the countries we visit and encounter locals wherever we go.
Our van to us is so much more than a van; it’s our home, it’s the heart and soul of our adventures, and it’s taught us some valuable lessons along the way.
Whether we’re camped up beside the most serene and peaceful lake or bumping and crashing down a dirt track mountain road praying the suspension doesn’t break she’s there with us, our constant companion. We might be thousands of miles from where we began in a country where we don’t speak the language or broken down by the roadside but we will always have the comfort of our home on wheels to return to standing right there beside us.
Living in 6m² of space really teaches you to prioritise what you need in life.
Before we started living in our van Ben lived in a small flat and I lived in a house full of clutter. During uni he moved into an even smaller caravan, and I eventually joined him. Downsizing came naturally to Ben, but it took me years to rid myself of all the junk I’d collected.
By the time we moved into our van we had just a handful of possessions each, only the bare basics; clothes, plates, blankets, our all-important camera gear. Yet still we continued to minimise, leaving behind anything we hadn’t used in the past few months, choosing between spare parts and extra shoes and selecting only the most essential items for our trips.
When we came to embark on our third long roadtrip we were surprised at how empty the back of our van looked- had we forgotten something? Where was all the stuff that had once filled that space? Were we just ultra minimalists now?
Having just a few cupboards and shelves for storage has forced us to live minimally, but it’s also taught us what few essentials we really need. It seems frivolous to need more than one pair of jeans, several sets of cups or heaps of items for “just in case”.
We’ve mastered the art of having just enough and we feel happier for it, our shoulders lighter without all these pointless possessions to weigh us down. Everything we need fits inside this van of ours, and everything we want is waiting right outside our door.
We knew nothing about converting a van when we started, not a single thing.
There was no guide, no manual for what we wanted to do; just an idea between us of travelling around the world in a camper van.⠀
We couldn’t afford one outright, certainly not the dreamy classic VW camper everyone imagines themselves driving off into the sunset in, so we built our own.
We bought a cheap van halfway up the country and drove it home through the night; we didn’t care that it was rusty and covered in tie-dye spray paint, we were just excited to see this tin can sitting in the driveway and the whispers of freedom she promised.
It was a long, arduous 10 months converting it over the winter, with many trials and errors and the bad weather against us. We faced many setbacks; leaks, holes in the metal floor, a saggy roof, but we had so much still to learn back then.
Summer came around and with it our first break for freedom; we thought it would last forever. But all too soon it was over, we returned home to save some more pennies and set about rebuilding our van with newfound confidence. This happened once more before we ended up with the van we have today and we do love it.⠀
It’s got character and charm, a few dents and scrapes but a lot of stories to tell. But most of all it’s the product of skills learned and perseverance, and the tenacity to follow our dreams even in the face of challenges.
If you want to learn more about how we built our van then pop over to our YouTube channel to watch our van tour
99% of the time our van is not as tidy as it looks in photos.
It’s a tiny space, but it gets messy just as quickly as we can tidy it again.
Camera gear, shopping and clothes end up scattered across the floor, cupboards open while we’re driving, things fall over and smash on bumpy roads.
We squeeze as many days as we can out of our bedding and clothes before we have to wash them again, probably a few too many. When the cab’s not filled with puddles from the rain it’s usually coated in dust and mud.
Living in a van is far from the idyllic few minutes in which we snap the photos for our feed, before the mess overwhelms us again.
It’s challenging living your life in a 6m2 space shared between two of you. Our bed is our sofa, our office, our dining room; our kitchen doubles as a bathroom, a washroom, a hallway.
But that hour in the morning when all the clutter is cleared away, ready for the day’s adventure ahead, and those moments when we crawl into a freshly made bed with clean sheets from the laundrette, it’s little moments like these that seem somehow amplified and make us appreciate the simple things in life all the more.
Lately, if we could sum up our emotions in one word, it would be thankful.
Usually upon returning to the UK after many months of stimulating, enriching travel, with more experiences under our belts than we could put into words, it would be with heavy hearts a deep sense of melancholy.
This time however, we’e feeling relieved to be back on British soil. We’re grateful not to be trapped abroad with no means of supporting ourselves. We’re grateful we have a safe place to stay. And we’re grateful to have found work in these trying times doing something positive for the community.
Our hasty return to the UK was a long and epic tale of border crossings and breakdowns, but that’s a story we will tell in due course.
For now we’re safely tucked away in our little cosy home, living on the bare minimum as always, patching up the rust holes and mending broken parts after another incredible adventure.
Stay safe out there, you guys.
[We will continue to post photos and stories from our travels until our feed is up to date as we still have a huge backlog ]
Tell us: what have you been doing this weekend in isolation to keep yourself occupied? We need some tips!
Hunter moon campfire serenade swoon. Happy weekend friends.
# campfire #guitar #cabin #cabinlove #fullmoon #weekend #outdoors #boholife #relax #wishyouwerehere #whpfreetime (at The Glass Cabin)
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And then the sun came out❄️
#windows #snowstorm #crystals #amethyst #crocus #stainedglass #artofig #handmadehome #glasshouse #recycledhome #oldwindowframes #repurposed #cabinlove #cabindecor #finecraft #traditionalcrafts #oneofakind #uniquehomes (at The Glass Cabin)
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So cold. ❄️So beautiful. ❄️And so much fun in the snow today. ❄️Stay cozy, friends.❄️
#snowday #winterscenes #outside #winter #cabinlove #cabinporn #shackitecture #madetocreate #outside #dslooking #makeithappen #putyourheartintoit #staycozy #cozy #lakemohawk #pursuepretty #flashesofdelight #livecolorfully #cozyhome #abmlifeisbeautiful #goexplore #livefolk #stayandwander (at The Glass Cabin)
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Dreaming of that rustic life
About this weekend…
