Van Life 2nd Anniversary

What a difference a year makes. After a whole year of travel in the van in 2019 to ten countries across Scandanavia and Europe and a winter of two months in Bali, I found myself stuck in the U.K. under lockdown for my first year van life anniversary. Obviously, not where I had been planning on being. But it was a beautiful Spring in south east England in 2020 and I enjoyed my time in the wonderful Sussex countryside and being around my children and friends. After three months, once lockdown was lifted and the borders across the EU were reopened, I managed to escape on June 30th sailing from Portsmouth to Santander headed to Portugal.

You can see the beautiful route that I took through the mountains of Northern Spain and Portugal on my blog https://mindfulvanlife.com/how-i-made-it-to-portugal/ and my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2tFGyTYmbL9-s5kjMvMcqg

I have now been in Portugal for nine months and you can watch all about my time here on my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2tFGyTYmbL9-s5kjMvMcqg

My latest video is Spring in Portugal https://youtu.be/VZ95oHVWzrQ

It has been a wonderful time here in Portugal and it is really beginning to feel like home and I definitely feel like I made the right choice to leave the U.K. when I did. I have been having one to one Portuguese lessons online and slowly I am beginning to understand a little more and to be understood when I speak the language. I have never been very good at languages but I seem to be doing quite well despite being told constantly that Portuguese is a difficult language to learn. But I am loving the challenge and maybe I am finding it easier because I hear it spoken all day long and listen to Portuguese radio and tv when I’m in the mood. I am now even speaking English in a different way!

Since November I have been renting an apartment right next to the Arrábida Natural Park, which is approximately 20km’s south of Lisbon, the view and the sunsets are simply stunning. Van life came to a halt because I needed to officially rent somewhere for a minimum of six months so that I could apply for my residency and when the power in the van failed it seemed like the perfect time. I have been able to spend the wetter colder months (yes it does rain and does get colder in the winter) in a cosy apartment and with the lockdown that started in mid January it has been the perfect location, because I can walk or cycle straight from where I am into the natural park.

Because I missed my appointment to attend an interview for my residency before Brexit, (I was not allowed to board my flight as I was not a Portuguese resident!), I have now applied for Portuguese residency under the Brexit withdrawal agreement. I am just in the system waiting for my application to be processed but because of Covid everything is taking much longer than it normally would. I am still unsure as to when I will finally be a resident, and then it will only be temporary residency for two years, after which time I will need to extend it. After only just managing to get back into Portugal after Christmas, because of the new entry rules, I cannot risk leaving here again until I am a resident so I am unsure as to when I will be able to fly back to the U.K. again to see my children. Thank goodness for video calls.

My rental agreement finishes at the end of May so I hope that I will have my residency by then and not need to extend my rental. I am eager to get back in the van and explore more of this beautiful country. We are currently easing out of lockdown and I am now able to travel freely during the week so I am already planning my first mini trip. However, in January a new rule came in to force regarding overnight sleeping in vehicles. The new rule stipulates that you are not allowed to sleep overnight in a vehicle from 9pm – 7am unless you are in a designated place (campsite, small parking zones, service stops). However, I think this is mostly going to be enforced in the Algarve region because of the sheer number of vans and mobile homes wildcamping along the beaches, so we shall see how my wildcamping goes.

I finally finished my book ‘Let Go Fly Free’, (two years in the making), and I am expecting the first printed copies to arrive here in Portugal this week. I am very excited to finally see it in print. I will be publishing a link to the audio of the book Preface soon on all my social media channels and I hope it will be available to purchase on Amazon by the end of May and also as an e-book.

Join Me

Thank you for reading my blog and if you would like to follow my journey please subscribe at the bottom of the blog page. In the ‘Follow Us’ box you can also select to follow me on facebook, instagram and YouTube.

It would be great to have you along.