Hobo Living and Hiking Mountains
-My Summer Van Adventure Across Europe-
A document of my Spring and Summer solo travels in 2021 in my self converted van
I spent the early part of my 20s lost, unknowing of who I was, what my passions were and lacking ambition. So in early 202 after a friend suggested converting a van and with the looming possibility of a lockdown on my shoulders I made the plunge and bought one. When the lockdown inevitably hit, I had one goal in mind; a European roadtrip and to spend my summer hiking and taking photos of my journey.
That summer I spent every weekend ferociously determined to complete the build and have the van ready for the following year.
I knew my driving factors for why I was travelling, but I never expected the solo travel to be such a transformative experience. One of immense personal growth, confidence and clarity of where I wanted my life to lead.
I embarked in April 2021 and headed immediately south over 3 days of driving to the Pyrenees, this is where my journey begins.
France // The Pyrenees
Foolishly I arrived in the Pyrenees thinking that the temperature would get warmer the further south I drove, but after my first night hitting such low temperatures of -6° inside my van on the first night, I had to quickly readjust my expectations for the month.
Mentally unprepared for so much snow and cold weather, with hiking gear I had purchased in a rush before leaving my first challenges of the trip were that of blisters and cold. Facing a new prospect of having to problem solve myself out of them in an area of the country were people hardly spoke English, and for the first time I was completely on my own.
This build up of mental fortitude would later come in useful after a hiking accident, and a hasty first aiding and trip to A&E.
Airing on the side of caution my hikes at the start of my trip were low lying paths to lakes and along rivers, with my oversized shoes battling me with every step as I trod into the deep holes of hikers gone before me. I longed for snow shoes but also knew that my time in the snow would be short, as I had 2 weeks here before heading over the border to Spain.
Little did I know my hiking ambitions, slowly ramping up in daringness would be cut short in one abrupt moment. After setting off early for a hike to explore the area around Breche de Roland, I reached my turn around point earlier than expected. I was debating with myself to continue or not, and after seeing a group of hikers continuing onwards I believed I had the ability and was sensible enough to continue the loop, knowing there was a point ahead where I could rejoin the ealier path.
When I reached this point I felt that I had begin to understand the patterns in the snow and would follow some more hikers up the steep incline towards the summit.
At the point of the refuge I could now see the summit, and to my surprise the towering stone was instantly recognisable to me from a trip a few years ago from the Spanish side of the mountains, and so believing it was fate, I summited the mountain, completing the most amount of altitude Id gained on a single height before.
As with most hiking accidents, it wasn’t on the way up that it occurred, but 5 meters from re-joining the path which was the other side of the snowline. Here striding towards in triumph my foot broke through a thin layer of snow and I tumbled immediately sensing a great pain in my calf.
On inspection I could see my crampon had punctured the inside of my leg, enacting a quick first aid application whilst the adrenaline was high, and a 2 hour limp back to the carpark.
Spain // The Pyrenees and North Coast
After crossing the border into Spain, the landscape changed dramatically. The boundary of the Pyrenees in trapping moisture towards the North was apparent as the landscape here was arid.
Having been to hospital for my leg injury I was already faced with the situation of being unable to exert myself in hiking as to allow my leg to heal in the 2 weeks I had until I would be flying to Morocco, which was my way of working around the new visa situation for British citizens post Brexit, and I desperately didn’t want any complications to happen in Morocco.
As I had come to terms with this and being a roadside photographer my next big complication happened.
My camera broke.
The many views and change of scenery crossing the border into Spain
Luckily finding a Sony repair centre my plans changed to leave the Pyrenees and head along the North coast to Santander to leave my camera, head to the Picos De Europa until the 10 days were up, then collect my camera on the way to Barcelona to catch my flight to Morocco.
Initially rather disappointed that my hiking and photography trip had now been reduced to a trip involving neither, I was still determined to use this as an opportunity. So I decided to continue recording my journey, but doing so through my phone camera and drone, both of which I had neglected to use as I had been so reliant on the camera to capture my journey.
This ended up teaching me so much about composition and inspiring me to take photos of the smaller moments, the ones where it was much more convenient to take out my phone and capture, than to take my camera out of my bag.
The downside however, is less high-quality photos from this stage of my trip, but I still have the memories saved in low resolution jpeg’s.
After picking up my repaired camera, I visited some of the semi deserted areas of North Spain on my way to the airport.
Sunset over the North Coast of Spain as I journeyed east.
The famous rock feature at Bardenas Reales and one of the many impressive mountaintops I saw on my drive fringing the Pyrenees.
France // The South Coast and Alps
My journey through Morocco deserves it’s own post, but to put it simply, the 6 weeks I spent there completely changed my outlook on life. I had been the most confident, charismatic version of myself and I was excited but equally fearing returning back to Europe as I desperately didn’t want this improved version of myself to be left behind and return to my old habits.
So, during my first week back I made a conscious effort to socialise and put myself out of my comfort zone as much as I could, which resulted in some laid-back travelling along the South of France, specifically in Marseille.
It was after this that I decided it was time to head North and continue the mission of hiking mountains after all the time off.
The Camargue, a wetlands area in the South of France where you can see Flamingos in the wild.
The Calanques of Marseille. My first hike back after 6 weeks of backpacking Morocco.
The first stop on my way towards the Alps was at the Verdon Gorge, which had been on my bucket list for a long time. After spending mostly a day of long driving I parked up in what was a contendor for favourite parkup. Perhaps biased by the cloud inversion which happened in the morning, a complete surprise to me thankfully being woken up in my van by the unexpected light, and being in the right place to run down the road and capture it.
My park-up for the night and one of the more bizarre views as I left the Verdon Gorge
Ramping my hiking up whilst also easing my freshly healed leg back into action, I spent the following week in the French Alps, bagging Rocher de l'Yret and Mont Aiguille before riding out a weather window to do an incredible hike across the Rochers de la Peyrouse.
The main section of the walk was crossing diagonally along the towering cliff face and followed with a climb up and out on loose rock. This was such a unique walk and gave me a taste of something a little more challenging that the previous hikes.
Switzerland // The Alps
My time in Switzerland was a time of contrast.
The mountain themselves were breath taking, but to my surprise, incredibly commercialised and lacking that feeling of isolation and untamed wilderness which draws me to them with cable cars and gravelled trails.
I was however excited to be reunited with one of my friends I had met the month prior when backpacking Morocco, who’s family owned a chalet in Sion. So we spent the week hanging out and exploring the immediate mountainsides. This was a nice introduction into the country and a blessing to spend some more time with a friend.
Departing Sion and heading west it become glaringly obvious for me though that the breakneck speed I was progressing through Europe - as I had a time frame when I’d have to be out the country for because of my Visa - I was only really scratching the surface of each country. I was doing the famous hikes which were all pretty accessible for the reasons mentioned before, but it was only after meeting other travellers that I realised the true beauty was from taking your time and getting off the main trails in search of isolation and the lesser walked paths.
A lesson that has stuck vividly with me since.
Views from the road as I travelled further into Switzerland.
It was standing atop Rosenlaui Glacier that the next disaster of the trip occurred.
Having been so weighed down by the difficulty of logistics of Switzerland, with it feeling like taking the public transport was a necessity for hiking and the strict rules in place not allowing campervans in the majority of places I had been feeling excluded and low. Which had manifested into a lack of enthusiasm for hiking and photography.
But after a stern talking to myself I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself, take out my drone and set off on a hike.
After hitch hiking a ride to the start to avoid a €26 bus fare, I began the incline up sections of large boulders aided with ropes. At the refuge at the top I got out my drone to capture some aerial video of the glacier below.
Admittedly this next part is my own fault, and I think this is why I was particularly angry with myself.
As I was zooming ahead my drone app on my phone displayed a warning message that my SD card was full - you see I hadn’t taken the time yet to backup and wipe my SD cards from Morocco. So I switched to the internal storage on the drone - this had the same issue of being full. It then switched to the storage on my phone, which, as you can guess, was also full. Changing tab to delete some items on my phone, the drone disconnected.
And so it plummeted to lie in rest somewhere thousands of meters on the glacier below.
It was after this that I was determined to do multi-day hikes, which proved challenging but some of the most enjoyable ones of the trip, with incredible sunsets and sunrises from the tops of mountains. Carrying my rucksack full of my camping gear, food and water really tested me at times but from the month prior of hiking I was feeling stronger than ever.
It was a bizarre feeling, sweating and exhausted with a huge backpack, summiting a mountain to a crowd of tourists all dressed smart and clean - clearly having got the transport up there, wondering why on earth I had decided to hike 1800 meters when I could have gotten the train.
In the end, even though I had had so many mixed feelings from my time travelling Switzerland, I was sad to be leaving as it felt like there was so much to explore but I didn’t have the time. I had learnt a lot and challenged myself with my hikes, but I also acknowledges that really the type of hiking I wanted to do, proper alpine mountaineering, I had lots I needed to learn, so I decided Switzerland would be best left until that another time when I was better prepaired.
Some of my favourite sunsets from Switzerland, taken from my camp spots.
Austria // The Alps
It was after leaving Switerzland that I had a race against the clock to get to Croatia where my plan was to spend 6 weeks until my Visa had effectively refreshed - though this plan ended up changing.
Visiting Grossglockner, Austria’s highest peak turned out to be one of the most important parts of my travels.
Venturing beyond the viewpoint and the crowds I found myself at the foot of a small glacier with an amazing view of the behemoth that is Grossglockner. Here being surrounded by such magnitude made for a time of refelction on my trip so far, what I had achieved and overcame, but also where I wanted my life to go from now on.
It was in the moment I realised that I was ready to return home. I knew how I could reshape my life to fit within a set of parameters which would mean I could live near the mountains, and now it felt like any more time travelling was just getting in the way of this goal.
This moment of clarity is rare for me so I knew I had to hold onto it. So I changed my plans to see through my route to Croatia but to treat this like a holiday, to relax and not focus so much on hiking or my photography, before I returned home and put in the real work.
After spending so many days hiking, a some time to reconnect with myself was needed. Gosausee lake was just what I needed to sunbathe and recharge in the bowl of the mountains surrounding it. I also decided that Id do one final sunrise hike before having to leave and was treated to an incredible display of light in the morning.
The view as I left Grossglockner
Slovenia // Bled & Triglav
After a little detour to visit another friend in Vienna I had 2 days to explore Slovenia. Originally deterred by the threat of fines for anyone caught sleeping in a van overnight, I booked a campsite for my duration and explored the area around lake Bled and Triglav National Park.
I wanted to do one last big hike before my “holiday” in Croatia begun and I’ve always dreamed of the idea of seeing a mountain in the distance and deciding with nothing else but that feeling, to climb it.
So this is what I did. With 2000 meters of ascent and descent this ended up being a colossal 10 hours of hiking and was a race against the clock to get back to my van before the car park closed and I got a fine.
This was a long but rewarding hike, and an end to this portion of my trip.
After hiking almost daily for 2 1/2 months I was so ready for some rest.
Upon reflection I will always look back on this trip fondly, for the first time in my life I felt free and at peace. Living out the back of my van, showering in car parks and cooking basic food brought me back to the basics and showed me all I really need to be happy. All I lived for was to hike and take photos with no worries about work, no stress of making money, just following my passion full heartedly.
Of course this is an unsustainable way to live and I was burning - slowly - but surely through my savings to do this, but it taught me that there are so many lessons to be learnt in leaving your comfort zone and perusing your dreams.