‘Our drive in search of freedom’
Finally free from family responsibilities, Tracey Colley and her husband set off to seek adventure in their camper van.
Clearing out the family home was a cleansing process. Twenty years of photos, drawings, and memories spilt out, and my husband Simon and I laughed as we sent our grown-up daughters pictures of themselves as toddlers via our family Whatsapp group. We were decluttering because we were going on an adventure. With Jade and Joanna settled, and the recent deaths of my father and Simon’s mother, we were, for the first time in nearly three decades, dependent-free. We had paid off our mortgage and saw an opportunity to travel. We decided to rent out our house and take it.
In early 2017, I gave notice at my job as an account manager at a cheese distributor. In the decade since we’d owned our VW camper van, we’d only been as far as the south of France but we dreamt of taking it further. We plotted a trip to Greece, driving through France, Spain, Portugal and Italy. We set ourselves a daily budget using the rental income from our house in Shrewsbury and the night before we left, drank Champagne and toasted the challenge ahead.
In June we caught the ferry to Spain, finding camper van parks via apps. The first few weeks were madly exciting, pitching up and exploring local neighbourhoods. Every day, I’d wake up and see blue sea and sky – it gave me a lift before I’d even raised my head.
For all the wonderful experiences, though, there were times when things got hairy! One campsite manager in France
[continued from previous page] insisted everyone did a chore, and we had to clean her toilets! In Provence, we stayed at a park with boy racers, who rode motorbikes all night, while stray dogs scraped at our van door. We were far from home, with only our VW for protection.
Simon and I have always been a team, but we did worry that being in the camper van together would drive us mad. We had our moments, but we actually got on really well.
I did have a dip three months in to the trip. The weather was colder, I missed the girls terribly and the van felt claustrophobic. But on the ferry to Greece my mood lifted. The sunshine made me feel light again, and we threw ourselves into activities. I swam in the sea, did yoga every morning, and played tennis. For the first time in decades, I truly looked after myself. It was a heavenly, restorative time. The sense of freedom was overwhelming.
After seven weeks in Greece, we journeyed home through Europe. In Belgium, I went into a gift shop packed with festive trinkets and felt a pang of longing – I was ready to be home. I wanted a proper sofa and to see Joanna, Jade and our friends. But I also knew how fortunate we were to be doing this.
Our reunion with the girls was fantastic and I’ve since started a new job at the Academy of Cheese. It’s demanding, but the trip taught me about work/life balance! I’ll treasure the memories from our adventure and would like to travel again. My motto has always been ‘live for today’, but children, ill parents and careers meant it hasn’t always been possible to follow. Our camper van adventure showed me that each of us is in control of our own destiny. My advice? Go and make those dreams come true.