VAN LIVING
I sold everything I own to live in a van – haters throw rocks at my home but I don’t work & my bills are next to nothing
Watch the video to see Kathy speaking about the haters attacking her van.
A WOMAN has revealed that she experienced hate for her van life but she’s "never looked back."
Nine years ago, Kathy Adamson, also known as Gypsy Kath, thought “there’s got to be more to life than working my butt off, paying bills and then dying.”
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Her response was to buy a van online that she’d never seen before, "pack up [her] house," and sell or donate all her belongings.
But during the pandemic her van life was far from smooth sailing.
Kathy, who's Australian, had rocks thrown at her van in one town in New South Wales.
In another town she was isolated and forced to live under a lamp post where cows were kept.
She was approached by an “unbelievably rude” person and thinks “everybody just went off the charts.”
Kathy says this hatred was far from logical since nomads like her barely encounter other people on their travels.
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Despite outsider dislike of her lifestyle, Kathy claims the shift to van life was the “best gift [she] could have ever given [herself].”
Before living in a van, Kathy had a “very, very good income” but she was working 12-16 hours a day, 5-7 days a week, finding this regular routine monotonous and “mundane.”
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She was in a “spiral.”
Although she lived in a beautiful home with “everything that [she] could possibly have needed”, Kathy was far “lonelier and more isolated” than she is now.
While we might assume high incomes gives us freedom, she says it actually takes freedom away because you're locked in working long hours.
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The death of her beloved pet was the catalyst for her lifestyle change. The life she was living “just didn’t cut it” anymore.
Kathy stands firmly by her decision, noting all the positives. One is “the privilege of really, really living in the present.”
Kathy even gets tearful in some moments as she drives along, realising the freedom and connection to natural beauty which she can harness whilst inside her van.
What are the rules on living in a van?
Living in a van is legal in the UK but there are certain rules you must follow.
You must have the legal right to live in the UK.
You need to ensure your car is road legal, taxed, and the MOT is up to date.
You can’t just park anywhere.
You can use apps like Park4Night and websites like Britstops to show where you can park for free in the UK.
You can also consult The Highway Code guide for where you can park.
Parking rules differ between local governments.
In Scotland you can park anywhere on public land free of change but in Cumbria, for example, there is a ban on wild camping.
No laws explicitly prohibit van dwellers from parking on the street, but you also don’t have the ‘right’ to park here.
From April 2022 wild camping was prohibited everywhere in UK if you don’t have the landowner’s permission.
She recognises that part of the success is because she is single, with no dependants or a pet so her decisions don’t affect anybody else.
Despite her lack of van-mates, her van is stocked for gatherings of plenty. Whilst other van dwellers she knows have a small draw for food that is just “full of two-minute noodles”, Kathy claims her pantry is always fully stocked and would “feed half a dozen people for three or four months.”
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She doesn’t need to visit the shops very often, only requiring visits for fresh fruit and vegetables occasionally, all of which she buys seasonally.
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Kathy has four water tanks, carrying a total of 250 litres of water, which allows her to shower and wash dishes for “an incredibly long time.”
Although this lifestyle is loved by Kathy, she thinks people that “are very, very nervous” and “do not like being on their own” should “not do this.”