I’m sure the idea of heading out around the country and sleeping in the back of a van has crossed many outdoorsy people’s minds, and for me, this seems pretty perfect. In fact I’m so drawn to the idea that I’m hoping to eventually move into a van myself and live the full-time van life. Thankfully, a few weeks ago I got to experience staying in a van for two nights, and it’s just reinforced the idea in my mind.

I had been chatting to my friend, Steve from uni, about maybe catching up at some point and climbing some hills when he’d bought a van and if it was wet we could stay in that. I got so excited at the prospect of the van that the idea of hills kind of left my thoughts. Steve told me that another good uni mate, Iain, was up for joining on the trip. I haven’t seen either of them for maybe 5 years so already it was looking like a good trip.

The planned date rolled around and all the weather reports were looking pretty terrible, but as we had set a date and we had a dry place to sleep, we headed off anyway. Steve and Iain turned up in the village a few hours late with a newly insulated van and a freshly stitched up Steve (He’d sliced his thumb open cutting said insulation). The sky was already dark but we set off towards the west coast.

Steve’s gammy thumb

Arriving in Inveraray, we found a discrete car park that wasn’t too far away from a lively pub, set up our beds for the night and headed for some local pints. By the time we got back to the van, the idea that we’d be sleeping in a car park became the funniest thing and there was a lot of laughing as we all got into our sleeping bags.

The hilarity of a car park camp kicks in

In the morning the weather was still looking threatening so we decided to cancel all mountain plans and just have ourselves a road trip. After a roadside breakfast we headed over to the Fyne Ales brewery for the tour. Sadly the tour wasn’t running but the shop/bar was open so I had a wee half pint and we headed onwards.

Steve cooking some eggs

We headed northwest, with the half-goal of reaching Oban, but just enjoying the countryside. Even though my village is surrounded by natural beauty, it’s easy to forget how stunning Scotland can be. While staring out the window I spotted some standing stones, so we headed out to investigate and found this burial cairn, the perfect moment for a photo.

The Cairns at Kilmartin Glen

We continued on towards Oban when Steve decided we should go have a look at the Isle of Seil, an island accessible by road on a single lane hump-backed bridge. I’d been to Ellenabeich before on a college trip but as we were treated to some fantastic sunshine this time, it felt like a completely different island. We headed down the road to Cuan Ferry and sat in the bay watching the sea. Due to the narrow but deep channel between Seil and Luing, the tide creates a very fast and threatening flow of water that’s pretty spectacular to watch. We decided we had to stay there that night but headed along to see the rest of the island. Arriving back at Ellenabeich it was a bit of a shock, there were so many tourists and shops and things happening, I hadn’t realised how used to the quiet we’d got. We spent some time soaking up the sun and relaxing before heading back to Cuan Ferry for the night.

Sunset over Mull

As it got darker, we headed around the coast a little to watch the sunset over Mull. It was really nice to sit on the rocks watching the sunrays with some old friends. We headed back to the van, had a small campfire and relaxed until we got rained back into the van. The novelty of sleeping in a van had worn off a little, we were a bit soggy and a little cramped but without all the giggling of the night before, we all still fell asleep pretty quickly.

A small fire before bed

The next morning we cruised up to Oban for breakfast before quickly popping into the Hollow Mountain. It’s a hydroelectric scheme built into the inside of a mountain. They run a tour where they shuttle you into the hillside in a minibus and reveal the turbine hall. It was pretty sweet, I’d seen it before as a kid but hadn’t been able to really appreciate the amount of work and the scale the project.

We were running a bit low after that and all had things to do in the afternoon so we headed in a straight line back to the village. Steve, Iain and I sorted the back of the van out, tidying all the gear and working out whose stuff was who’s. They headed off and I threw myself in the bath.

All in all, a pretty good few days and a brilliant way to catch up with old friends. Steve and Iain, thank-you for the fantastic trip!