Living Alone in the Mountains in My Van

Many of us are scared of the idea of being alone and we're told that to be alone is to be lonely, to have failed in life or even that there's something wrong with us if we seek solitude over the company of other people. But how can we ever know who we really are if we're constantly surrounded by distractions, adjusting our behaviour to fit in or living up to others' expectations? In reality, it's in these quiet moments where we go inward that true growth happens, when we strip away the noise and reconnect with who we really are and what truly matters to us. And that's why I find myself here, alone in the mountains. If you're new here, I'm Jessica and I travel full-time around Europe in my campervan Frodo with my puppy Heidi. Two years ago, I quit my job, sold most of my possessions and started living a simpler life, guided by the seasons, learning about wild foods and folklore on the way. Join me for a glimpse of everyday life here in the mountains in my tiny van, where I reconnect with nature and grow roots in the wild. Hi everyone, I hope you're all doing well. I'm still in the French Alps and I'm currently parked at 2,000 meters elevation, overlooking this beautiful reservoir which is fed by local mountain streams. And I feel like I'm really getting into the flow of doing solo van life. The drive here was really scary to be honest. I would say I'm a really confident driver and I'm good at maneuvering, but it was like a really steep and narrow and winding mountain roads and I was really worried I wouldn't make it around one of the corners. But the upside is that it's pretty quiet, there's not many people here because the drive is quite difficult and for the most part I had the spot all to myself, which is super nice. So in the last few weeks, a lot of people have asked me, is it not scary traveling by yourself? And I do have to say yes sometimes, but for me it's really important to not let that fear stop me from doing the things I love and I don't want to have to rely on my partner to do those things. I do however have my first scary solo van life story to share which really creeped me out. So the other day I was parked in the mountains and it was the kind of place where there's only one way up or down the mountain and usually I'm pretty confident parking those sort of places because being in nature is so much safer than being in a town generally and I was there for a while, not many people passed by and at dusk as I was kind of settling down and getting ready for bed, a guy parked next to me in his Land Rover which was quite a distinctive vehicle, had like some decorative stuff at the front and there was a picnic bench, he had two beers with him, a lot of food, a mixing bowl and basically like spread out there and he was just staring at me the whole time and Heidi was really antsy, normally she doesn't really get anxious when there's people around the van and yeah she was really anxious and my gut feeling wasn't great and I trust her gut feeling definitely, so I felt like maybe I was gonna sleep somewhere else, there was a town kind of down the mountain where I could park safely and as I was getting ready to leave the guy started trying to convince me to stay and said weird stuff like I even brought a beer for you which made me think hmm was he here earlier and noticed me, I was just like no thank you I'm leaving blah blah blah and he was like see you later and I thought he didn't mean anything by it so I left and one minute into my drive he was behind me and I instantly recognized his car because it had this really distinctive stuff at the front and it was just really scary because he must have packed up all of his stuff from the picnic table so quickly to follow me, I mean it could have been nothing of course it could have just been a really weird set of circumstances but a lot of my alarm bells went off and he followed me for quite a long time which made me really uncomfortable because I was kind of going a weird route, I started driving down the mountain a bit quicker as quickly as possible while still being safe and eventually I kind of managed to lose him and parked in a town there was a really lovely local couple who kind of gave me tips on where to stay and where to get stuff and I exchanged numbers with the girl which was really nice so yeah that was a little bit scary, the guy was just really creepy and the he then started following me so quickly after you know making himself comfortable at that picnic table and not even touching his food that was just really weird this kind of stuff doesn't happen super often but it's just a reminder to listen to my gut feeling hasn't really put me off wild camping I did want to share this story because this stuff does happen and it doesn't happen very often for now I'm going to finish my coffee and then I think we're going to go on a little hike around the lake lately I've been reflecting a lot on my relationship with time on the one hand I'm terrified of time passing because there's just so many things I want to do and places I want to see and life can feel incredibly short when you've got the whole world on your doorstep but on the other hand I like to take things really slow and savour every moment almost resisting the temptation to fill my days with too many things or be productive even I made so many plans for what I wanted to do while I'm in this region but in reality I found myself leaving the van just before midday and not returning from my hike until dusk having smelled every flower admired every waterfall and taken in all the views and to me that slowness in itself is so much more satisfying than taking off a long to-do list I like to stay parked up in one spot for as long as possible and after a few days I tend to start running a little bit low on electricity and water so on evenings like this one I tend to cook outside and use my jerry can which I use as a backup water tank I built this camper van to allow me to stay off grid for as long as possible and avoid staying in towns around too many people and although that kind of lifestyle does come with a few impracticalities the peacefulness of living in places like this one is more than worth it for me okay so I know that many of you are interested in seeing the more boring aspects of van life like chores so I'm going to take you on a town run today I need to empty my toilet refill my water tank and buy groceries because I'm running pretty low and to be honest when I first started traveling solo in this van I was terrified of leaving the van behind because literally all of my worldly possessions are in here and my dog as well of course so before I set off on this trip I installed this security camera by Reolink who are very kindly sponsoring this video Reolink are a globally trusted brand for security at home in businesses or like in my case traveling off grid this is the Reolink Go Plus which has been absolutely amazing for van life it's completely wire-free runs on a rechargeable battery and it doesn't need any wi-fi because it connects over 4g so it always works no matter where I park up installing it was super simple I mounted it here on the cab side of my shower wall but most people mount it on the roof so you can just go with whatever suits your layout best and if you do want to mount it outside you can use one of Reolink's solar panels which makes the camera fully off-grid the video quality is impressively sharp so I can actually make out details instead of just fuzzy outlines it also comes with smart detection which can recognize people vehicles and even animals so you're not constantly interrupted by false alarms there's also two-way audio which means I can speak directly through the camera if anyone comes too close and everything records safely onto a micro sd card all of this also links up through the Reolink app which I have on my phone so I can check in on the van anytime anywhere even when I'm out on a hike and it also sends me instant alerts if something moves near the van which gives me a lot of peace of mind traveling solo. My Reolink has made me feel so much more comfortable about leaving the van parked up in new places and I also really love that I have full control over when it's recording so I usually just hit record when I actually leave the van and yeah I really recommend it for anyone traveling solo, living off-grid or just looking for a reliable outdoor security camera. If you want to check it out head to the link in the video description and you can get 5% off all Reolink products with my code JESSICA5. Thank you so much again to Reolink for sponsoring this video and now we're gonna go and do some chores and then drive to Mont Blanc. This road is so wiggly! If you've been around for a while you will know that while I lived in the UK for nearly 10 years I like to spend most of my time in mainland Europe not just because I'm European and feel more at home here but also because van life is so much easier and cheaper here. France especially has these little stations called airs where you can empty your toilet, bins and refill on water which is just so convenient. Traveling in a van full-time means that you have to be flexible. Sometimes you can do all of your chores in one place and sometimes you have to move from town to town a bit which is what I'm doing today because this place doesn't have water or an organic supermarket which is where I like to get my groceries because it's actually really cheap in France. I really like the saying of how you spend your days is how you spend your life. It's really easy to get annoyed with chores when you live in a van because they can take slightly longer than living in a city apartment for example but I like to see them as an extension of the slow lifestyle instead of an interruption of it. So whenever I have a chore day I take my time, I take breaks, stop to enjoy a nice view, go for a little dip in a river I happen to drive past and kind of just let things happen at their own pace. Last night I stayed just outside the town I got my groceries from because the sun was setting and I didn't want to drive up a steep mountain road in the dark and I'm really glad I did because in the morning I was greeted by the most amazing snow-capped mountain views and vast expanses of hilly forests and many times on this drive my mouth fell wide open in awe at the beauty I was experiencing. I've made it to Italy. You guys are not going to believe the view from my back door so let me show you. I found myself parked up at 2200 meters elevation with a direct view on Mont Blanc which is currently hidden in the clouds and the crisp mountain air filled my lungs with an aliveness I haven't felt in a very long time. Many people think that to be alone is to be lonely but I really believe that everything in nature is filled with spirit and that here surrounded by the mountains, wildflowers, insects and wildlife I am never truly alone. I just found a huge patch of wild blueberries on our walk and I don't know how many there are because it's quite late in the season but I still saw a few around so I ran back to the van to grab my foraging basket and the weather's cleared up as well now which is really gorgeous so yeah let's see what we can gather. I'm originally from Eastern Europe and in my culture bilberries are seen as a traditional remedy for colds or an upset stomach and back in my childhood my family and I used to stay in a tiny mountain hut in the forest and go out foraging buckets and buckets of bilberries which is one of my most treasured memories and in pagan practice bilberries are often seen as symbols of protection, enhanced vision and prosperity. Across Europe bilberries are thought to be imbued with protective and luck-bringing qualities and dried bilberry leaves for example were used in protective powders and talismans in folk magic. So I've been foraging for about an hour and I think Heidi is getting impatient with me and also the weather is supposed to turn later it's gonna rain and thunderstorms are forecast so I've only got a small basket of bilberries but I'm gonna head back to the van now and make something with these before the weather turns. I think it's enough for a small pie or something. Okay so I've rinsed the bilberries and I have a lemon that needs using up and a little bit of coconut yogurt left over so I think I'm just going to make a simple lemon and bilberry pie and have the coconut yogurt on top. Right it looks like the weather is starting to turn the clouds are really coming in from the distance and the temperature is supposed to drop quite dramatically tonight as well so I think I'm gonna settle into the van close up and light a little fire. Thank you so much for watching if you enjoyed this video make sure to leave it a thumbs up and subscribe so you don't miss our next adventures. Until next time take good care of yourselves, bye.