Ollie the vancat

(First published in Issue 7, December 2022, updated to reflect the author’s past perspective) Our traveling circus once consisted of me, a Dutch girl, the partner I was with at the time, and our ginger cat Ollie. After two and a half years traveling back and forth between the Netherlands and Switzerland in the name of love, we still did not have a clue where to settle down. To convert our Opel Movano van was the only way to delay this decision.

Our goal was to travel to Iran or Japan, but by then our route planning looked like a drawing of a two year old. However, we had already traveled one and a half years around Europe, including doing some seasonal work in the snowy Alps. And who knows, maybe the answer to our question where to settle would be a lifelong search.

My travel partner at the time was an outdoorsman who was always seeking action. In his happy zone he was kiting, mountaineering, ski hiking, climbing, snowboarding, ice climbing, or wannabe fishing. He had worked as a landscape architect before and his eye for detail could be found in the van build and design. Without him, Ollie and I would have been forever hungry or living on pasta with pesto.

I was studying to be a cognitive psychologist, so I was an advocate for not showing only happy life on social media but showing life in its fullest. I had worked as a project manager, which was still my daily job or rather state of being. I was the travel planner, secretary, finance chief, digital manager, van hostess, managing the alcohol stock, Ollie’s agent and party planner. My hobby was "fröbelen" (Dutch for crafting or tinkering). The chance of meeting me in my panther print, neon pink, or Feyenoord Football Club related outfit was 99.9 percent.

Our cat Ollie who you would most likely spot on our dashboard was the star of the show.

Ollie loved cheese so much he could open any fridge. He could do a lot of tricks for food. He loved to hunt because of food. He could be cuddly if you gave him food. He napped a lot to process the food but Ollie had the gift some people might be jealous of.

He did not get fat. As much as Ollie seemed like the perfect travel cat, he was totally not. He was never going to be the cat who was fine with putting on a shark shaped life vest and getting wet on a SUP board. You can look it up on YouTube, this really exists.

We made small steps to get him adjusted to vanlife, which sometimes lasted weeks and always included the element of food. With food and loads of patience we got him used to the van. We visited the van for a few minutes, we spent dinners or even nights in the van while standing still, slowly started introducing car sounds, drove short trips, then built it up to longer days.

After 18 countries we would say he was more relaxed and happier than ever. We could give him endless attention and he spent loads of time in nature chasing grasshoppers and lizards.

Even if we turned the motor of the van on he jumped to the front to put himself into driving position. We got the question a lot if we left Ollie alone in the van. Yes we did for a few hours but with many safety measures. During our van build we made sure we could control the temperature at its best with good insulation, air circulation, a diesel heater, and a backup 12V air conditioning. We also built in his cat toilet and an automatic feeding machine. We made sure Ollie had many safe spaces where he could sleep in peace. If we left the van, Ollie wore a GPS tracker. So if the window got smashed and he escaped, we could find him back. We of course did not leave our van behind in shady places. We also had a note on the front window saying Ollie lived in this temperature controlled van with a number to call if anyone had questions.

As you might notice I could have written a whole book about my travel buddy. While writing this piece his leash got tangled up around a tree again for the thousandth time. I took this as a sign to finish writing and start enjoying our Greek clear blue beach park up again.