Okay, #vanlifers take a seat, get comfortable; let’s talk about weather.
The topic of this week's blog post is heavily influenced by last weeks shenanigans in Albanian thunder storms, and the fact that on Thursday, we got stuck in what I can only describe as a snowstorm...
To give you a little context, I seem to have a somewhat unhelpful habit of directing us headfirst into snowy mountainous areas. For example, When we went through France, I was adamant that I was to see the Verdon Gorge. ‘Look how pretty it looks on the pictures!! Pleaseeeeee can we go?! I begged’, and since it was in the direction of travel - Alice didn’t really have a choice but to agree. To cut a long story short, the road put Stevie (and Alice) through her paces. Snow is fun; but less so when you’re driving a van on mountain roads, in foreign countries, that are as thin as they are windy. We came out alive and when we came out onto the other side, the snow was nowhere to be seen and the Verdon Gorge was wonderful (and actually got some great pics!).
Consequentially, every time we can see any sort of terrain that might resemble a similar uphill struggle, I humorously point out: ‘looks like we’re heading towards those big snowy mountains again’. Usually it looks far worse than it is... except this time; this time it was a lot worse. I wish google maps would a) understand that we are a camper converted van and b) have a weather feature that lets you know when you’re heading into 2 feet of snow (or in last weeks case, a thunderstorm). Turns out that (or at least it seemed so to us) there are 3 routes through the mountainous terrain of central Greece: around them either north or south; which we couldn’t do because of time restrictions or through them; which I’m sure on a warm summers day in July causes limited problems.
We certainly underestimated the difficulty of our task! We simply put the desired destination into our trusty reliable navigator and thought nothing more of it. We’d been driving for around an hour and a half when I ironically pointed out ‘look, we seem to be heading for those snowy mountains’. Thinking surely there would be a road THROUGH as opposed to over, and with no indication from google maps as to how crazy the road conditions actually were, we carried on. For a long time, the roads were clear despite the snow; until they weren’t... and we were skidding down a snow covered uphill road... we couldn’t go forwards, because the van tyres couldn’t get any traction, we couldn’t turn around because a) the snow was too deep either side of us and b) we had no clue where the edge of the cliff was (barriers were not in place). The only solution then, was to reverse back down the mountain, during which a large proportion was spent having an awkward windscreen-to-windscreen experience with a Greek man driving forwards in the same direction. Finally, after finding an appropriate place to turn around, we drove 2 hours back the way we came, in search of another more suitable road to get us across mainland Greece.
As we did, I thought a lot about how the weather really influences the experiences you have in regards to Vanlife. Maybe I have a predisposition, because even back in England, I find the bad weather/cold/darkness of winter quite obviously impacts the quality of my mental health. But I thought back to how great it was when we were in Portugal back in December; parked up on the beach with the back doors open in my t-shirt. Van life seemed a little easier and more pleasant then in comparison to last weeks thunderstorms which caused day long confinements and this weeks unsuccessful driving strategies.
#Vanlife certainly connects you to nature in a particular way, and it’s not always sunsets and campfires. Sometimes it means sleepless nights because the rain is so heavy on the roof or wasting diesel having to drive 2 hours back the way you came. But that’s what makes those sunset moments so great - because they make treacherous moments completely worth it. We found a spot for the night and in the morning, we woke to the bright morning sun and after much deliberation, opted for the toll road to get us across mainly Greece. The €7 that it cost to get from Alta to Vergina was certainly worth it, if not for the stress elimination!
Let me know the worst way weather has impacted your #vanlife experiences?
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