A couple of months ago, I came across a post online seeking a winter caretaker for a small plot of land. The tiny caravan and shed, refered to by the owner as a farm, was completely offgrid (and probably completely lacking the planning permission necessary for its very existence) and conveniently located miles from nowhere,… Continue reading The Backwards Van meets The Sometimes Shed
This is Ireland, and this long grey inland chunk in the middle? This is County Cavan. Dixie the Backwards Van rolled into Cavan with little expectation really, just full tanks of both diesel and fresh water (and thankfully empty tanks of everything else), we were looking for a week off. A week off what, I… Continue reading This Is Cavan! (Vanning, Planning & Shelter from the Storm)
As our first full year of vanlife drew to an end, we celebrated the waning summer with family in Dublin, dawdling on the driveway until the time came for Dixie to make the many airport runs required to dispatch my family for the usual winter diaspora. When the opportunity arose to escape the city (for… Continue reading Louth: A Week in the Wee County (and Where We’ve Been Since)
One of my most memorable vanlife moments occurred in late September 2017, about a month after we had moved into Dixie the Backwards Van. We had just dropped my only daughter off at university, understandably an extremely happy/sad moment for any parent. We had spent two nights very nearby 'just in case' (actually, we slept… Continue reading Dixie Says Relax! (How we found the Horse on the Hill)
Vanlife is the epitome of freedom, we live wherever we want to, go wherever we like, we explore when we feel like it and we sleep when we're tired, there are no rules but the ones we set for ourselves and there is no giant thumb we are toiling under. Choosing to live in a… Continue reading How To Own Less Stuff (Minimalism, Vanlife and Living Lightly)
We in the Backwards Van don't have jobs. After almost 11 months living in our van Dixie and travelling over 25,000 miles, we may have forgotten entirely how to even have a job at all as the very idea of work, of a structured daily routine and the stuffy, serious cubicle life all disappear in… Continue reading The Unfortunate Cost of Living (or, The Four ‘F’s of Vanlife)
After lending a hand in a smooth and successful housemove, we said our goodbyes to the uni-kids, to the tree-lined streets of red brick houses, to the hustle and bustle of York City and hit the backroads in the direction of the scenic Yorkshire Dales. Just before the Dales Proper is an area called Nidderdale,… Continue reading Why Brimham Rocks (or, What’s in the Bag?)
Another day, another excuse to bake something here in the Backwards Van as we cruise slowly but steadily around Scotland, in and out of all the nooks and crannies along the way. We crossed the Firth of Forth over the brand new Queensbury Crossing and swung a hard right, shunning the busy M90 in favour… Continue reading The Unconventional Oven: Dundee Marmalade Chocolate Cake with Oaty Orange Sauce
Hungry? Run out of bread? Feeling a little... exasperated after spending £95 on the most expensive fuel stop of your life to date? Parked up indefinitely in a tiny town with not a single shop open even if you had any money to spend? We did, and we were, all of those things at once.… Continue reading The Unconventional Oven: Williams Pear-fectly Light & Fruity Soda Bread
Recently in the Backwards Van, we had a little cause for celebration. Williams birthday was upon us, his first one living in Dixie and not wanting to let the occasion pass unmarked, but equally not wanting to spend a lot of money, the birthday boy himself decided to bake a cake, from our leftovers, without… Continue reading The Unconventional Oven: Fruity Chocolate Vancake in a Tin Can!
the backwards van 