Drawing upon our lessons from living life on the road can help see us through some uncertain times
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This period of lockdown and Covid-19 can seem like unchartered territory, but there are experiences we can draw upon to help us through these unfamiliar times.
Rising with the morning sun followed by a day summiting mountains or pedalling along the open road, before turning in for the night, in a rather modest tent. This is the life J and I like to lead. It’s a simple existence – often your basic needs are barely met – but it offers the lure of being able to spend the whole day outside, in the natural world.
Living life on the road strips your day of all unnecessary tasks and routines. You recognise what things are really essential in order to keep yourself fed and safe, and can then focus on immersing yourself in what’s really important to you. This way of life requires you to be self-reliant whilst also considerate. You realise that sometimes you have to just get the job done yourself. Other points teach you that making compromises and adjustments are necessary, even if not preferred. You appreciate the world and encounters around you, finding that small gestures of kindness can have the most profoundly positive effect.
This lifestyle can also mean your plans completely change due to weather or logistics, your home is wherever you pitch your tent and meals are limited to what you can find at the closest vendor and cook on a camp stove. Choices are often limited and resources sparse, things might not go according to plan and you’ll live in confined spaces alongside others (I’m still learning to put up with J…), but it’s at these points, where you’re forced to adapt, that you learn the most. And it’s these lessons that are invaluable to a vagabonding lifestyle.
These are some of the life lessons we’ve learned from living life on the road. Turns out they can be applied to your daily-life sticky situations too, and are surprisingly useful for this damn pandemic – awesome!
1. You don’t need all that crap
Carrying your home, kitchen and worldly belongings in your rucksack, panniers or raft puts life in perspective. You realise what you really need to survive and whittle down your gear to only the bare essentials. However you travel, be it cycling, hiking, hitching, etc. you learn to prioritise food, shelter, navigation and the experiences around you. Once you’ve got the items to make the first three a possibility, anything surplus just feels like extra weight. It’s not needed.
Making sure you have somewhere to sleep and something to eat at the end of a strenuous day is paramount, resulting in other worries paling in comparison.
You come to see it doesn’t really matter what’s the latest trend or number one song, instead being warm and fed has never been more important than when in the wild. Without the convenience of local shops and electricity, you have to plan ahead, considering how much ground you can cover in a day, where you can pick-up supplies and finding somewhere safe to sleep.
Days being filled with less unnecessary tasks, such as scrolling social media and worrying about what to wear, also makes you realise just how trivia these worries are. Survival then enjoyment are what begin to preoccupy your mind and you realise what you really need and want from your life. The rest is redundant.
Should have seperate section for not needing much stuff, and then what things really matter e.g. social media etc
2. Life is too short to eat bad food
Eating delicious grub is always fantastic but it’s after cycling 120+ miles a day that you realise food is your fuel. You can feel the benefits of a wholesome meal that nourishes your body and gives you energy, compared to a heavy meal which leaves you feeling lethargic and crashing not long after.
Days begin to revolve around mealtimes and as places to get supplies can be rare, planning ahead becomes key. There’s a fine balance between stocking up when you can and getting all you need. J and I sometimes disagree where to draw this line. I’ll say it’s dependant on how hungry and how much space you have, as to whether shoving a second 2ft baguette and tube of mushroom pate into your pannier is justified. I’ll leave that up to you to decide. The point remains that sometimes, with little room or choice, you have to get creative with your camp stove feast. It turns out that sometimes all you need is a stock cube to whip up a culinary masterpiece.
Health and nourishment become key as you can feel that your body thrives off a good meal. Filling your bod with plenty of goodness means you can spend more time focusing on the adventure at hand and enjoying the journey.
3.
When living life on the road you are at the mercy of the elements and unfortunately, they don’t care if you’ve had a long day. The last thing you want at the end of a gruelling day cycling in the rain, is to pitch your tent in the rain but sometimes there are days when there’s just so much rain.
You need to be prepared and have a plan for when the weather takes a turn, sometimes it might even mean switching to plan b. When your home is made of canvas and you’re on a human-powered expedition, there comes a time when you have to sit this one out and weather the storm (sometimes figuratively or literally).
Just remember that all storms will pass, even when you’re stuck on top of a snowy mountain in a blizzard concerned for your life. It will pass, it’s how you weather them that counts.
4. The importance of practicality and quality – delete
You don’t need to spend long in the outdoors to realise that there’s no room for nonsense. This is never more apparent than when it comes to gear. It’s no good having a coat that looks the part with its plethora of pockets, if it doesn’t keep you dry in the rain. Investing in quality equipment that you can rely on means you can focus on the journey ahead rather than worrying about whether your bike is up for the challenge.
It’s during these times, when you’re sweaty and muddy in the midst of reaching the summit after a strenuous climb, that you don’t want to be carrying around anything unnecessary. Having your world in your bag means there’s no room for junk and everything you take is added weight which slows you down. So unless something serves a purpose, it’s not coming along.
Check out some of our adventure gear guides to make sure you have all you need but none of the nonsense:
5. How to spend money mindfully – C
With less pressure from the media telling you to buy this and that, you whittle down your spending. As long as you have somewhere to lay your head and something to fill your tum the rest of your spending can be for adventure. You can do the things you really want to; visit that temple, rent that kayak, learn how to dive, pay that mountain guide. You spend more mindfully, aware of your budget and how long it has to last you. It can make you realise what you would consider a necessity before which now seems pointless.
This lifestyle makes you think about what you need compared to what you want. When you carry everything on your bike or back, space is precious. The battle for what gets packed is decided by whether it’ll keep you alive, or bring enjoyment enough to warrant bringing it. Living by this ethos grounds you a lot. It makes you realise what a consumer-throw-away society we live in and that you don’t need all that stuff you once thought you did.
6. Who is important to you – C – keeping important people close to you
When you’re thousands of miles away from home, feeling disconnected from your former world, you think of those you want to hear from the most. The ones that you truly miss and just want the chance to see their face and hold them.
There are some people you’ll be in communication with more than others and you realise it’s because you want to be. You could just as easily message or call someone else but you don’t. You call and message the people you do because you want to. And vice versa you notice who makes the effort to stay in contact with you and cares about how you really are. These are the relationships you care about the most.
7. Protecting the planet is our responsibility – C
Spending so much time in the natural world makes you realise how just how darn incredible it is, and how precious it is also. You get to bask in the feeling of the morning sun on your face, the gentle breeze that feels like heaven when you’re profusely sweating or that exhilarating feeling of a winter dip. It’s for experiences like this why we choose this lifestyle and being in these environments makes you realise how valuable they are. You feel compelled to protect them and you get to see the destruction to such landscapes first-hand.
We build these manmade structures surrounded by thousands of others, then destroy the planets natural resources to power these concrete jungles and in doing so can feel pretty far removed from the worlds natural order of things. But being on the road full time changes this perspective. You come to see your direct impact on your surroundings and in turn think a little hard about your actions.
8. The importance of patience and tolerance – C
Living in confined spaces in close proximity to others for prolonged periods of time, teaches you a lot about patients. You have to consider your needs alongside your companion(s) and sometimes compromises have to occur. There are times when you and your partner will be on the same page and that’s great, but of course they’ll also be times when you completely disagree and you’ll have to work around this.
When you travel with someone you might need to adjust your pace, sacrifice some food or make allowances for a hangry dig in the heat of an argument. Independent living can get you quite used to your own agenda but living in a tent alongside someone can mean that you need to have a little more patients and adaptability.
It’s not just your travel companion you have to make allowances for, but being hosted by locals may mean you have to compromise a little and be mindful that different cultures may have different customs. Being in the company of others full time makes you aware of your own manner and to be considerate of others around you. You quickly learn a lot about yourself as you see how your mood impacts those you’re with and you’ll find your mind opening up with a little more patients for the rest of the world.
9. The power of kindness and small gestures – C
When travelling through far-flung places, life on the road can at times be pretty solitary. You can cycle for miles and miles, sometimes passing settlements but not interacting with another soul. So when you finally find civilisation and spark up a conversation with a local, who is fascinated by your bike load of possessions and where you’re going, it uplifts your day. People’s inquisitiveness to find out about your journey, offer you some water or food, perhaps even a place to stay overwhelms you with positivity.
On our journey, we’ve experienced these token of kindness from strangers as grand as somewhere to stay to someone shouting words of encouragement as they zoom past in their car on a mountain pass. These nuggets of kindness extended from a stranger can at times really save you from a sticky situation, or put a smile on your face when it’s really needed. Of course you can experience random acts of kindness wherever you are in the world, but there’s something about being on the road full time that makes these gestures so much more meaningful.
They’re often more valued as you become vulnerable when your life is on your bike and the fact that people recognise that, wanting to help makes you really appreciate the kindness of strangers.
10. We were made to explore and wander – C
Living life on the road makes you recognise that we humans were made to wander. Experincing the rawness of the outside world makes you cherish the sounds of the birds in the morning and the refreshing feeling of the breeze through the midday heat. As you drift off to the sounds of nature from the comfort of your tent, you feel in tune with your surroundings.
Encountering new cultures, foods and real people enriches your soul and opens your mind. You learn so much just from exploring and immersing yourself in alternative ways of life. It makes you realise how sheltered a life staying in one place can be.
Us humans were made to wander and the outdoors gives us a sense of well-being and clarity. Absorbing yourself in the outdoors and the journey ahead gives you a sense of freedom unlike any other and opens up literally a world of possibilities. Leading this lifestyle ignites that inner explorer within and once that fire is lit, you can’t put it out.
Encountering new cultures, foods and real people enriches your soul and opens your mind. You learn so much just from exploring and immersing yourself in alternative ways of life. It makes you realise how sheltered a life staying in one place can be. Whereas now we’re experiencing the flip side of having no choice but to stay put.
Now more than ever we’re seeing a rise in people eager to lace up their boots and head for the mountains, recognizing what a positive effect the outdoors can have on their physical and mental health.
At the moment staying home is crucial for the welfare of ourselves and the world. But when this storm passes, and it will, the outside world will still be there, ripe for exploring.
Living life on the road teaches you a lot about yourself and the world. Leading a minimal lifestyle enables you to recognise what and who is really important to you, allowing you to focus on your passions. Sometimes things don’t go according to plan and compromises need to be made, which may require a lot of patients from your part. But, it’s all part of the journey and being resilient through the more difficult patches makes the highs even better.
Although we’re not able to pursue our desires of living life from a tent at the moment, we can all draw on these life lessons from our time exploring.
It’s important to remember that all storms will pass, it’s how you weather them that counts.
