Rocky road and love

(First published in Issue 8, March 2023) Travel has always played a major part in our lives, even before we met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia twelve years ago. At the time we were both traveling for work. Barry was the Asian Ambassador for Glenfiddich Whiskey and Tamara was a TV travel show host. When we met, we realized we were two like minded souls and that travel and adventure would continue to be an important part of our life, only now we could experience it together. Since then, we have visited more than forty countries and lived in five across three continents and seven cities.

We first became obsessed with nomadic living and vanlife in 2015. We packed up our lives and our pets in Sydney, Australia and moved to Copenhagen, Denmark. The plan was to buy a car and a caravan and travel around Scandinavia. A three month trip turned into a year as we lived and worked full time out of a tiny vintage 1988 Adria caravan. At the time people thought it was either cool or crazy that we chose that adventure and brought our pets along. For us there was never a question. They are our family and we have a responsibility to love and care for them throughout their lives.

This was our first time fully experiencing travel with pets and living together in a very small space. It introduced us to vanlife and the freedom it brings. From that moment on we were hooked. After our caravan adventures in Denmark, we returned to Scotland. Sadly, after living abroad and traveling for so many years, Scotland did not feel like home anymore. Something felt missing and we longed for the open road. During the lockdown we felt even more restless, so we bought a van and spent six months building it. As soon as the borders opened, we left and hit the road. An adventure for four feet and eight paws. We drove from Scotland across and around Europe and made it as far east as Gaziantep, a city in southeastern Turkey near the border with Syria. We traveled sixteen thousand miles across two continents and twenty countries. So far our journey has been full of joy, excitement, adventure and many mishaps.

Our greatest joy arrived in Romania in the form of a small stowaway. Two weeks into the Romania leg of our travels, while we were wild camping along the Râul Arieș river in Turda near Cluj Napoca in northwestern Transylvania, a stray kitten appeared out of nowhere. He had followed Hamish back to our van.

We fed him and did not know what to do. Our first thoughts were that he had wandered away from his family and would soon return to them. We worried that if we brought him into the van for the night, he would become lost, so we left Hamish’s cat carrier outside with food and water so he had shelter if he needed it. We had a sleepless night, tossing and turning in our warm bed while worrying about the kitten outside in the cold. Around three in the morning Barry went out to find him, but in the darkness it looked as though he had gone. When we woke, all we could think about was the little kitten. We were devastated that he had disappeared, just a small little man out in the frightening world trying to survive. We wondered where he had gone and if he was safe. It felt like there was nothing more we could do and that this was the end of it.

While sitting with our morning coffee and looking over the river, we suddenly heard it. The faint cry of a cat. Such a small sound created a wave of relief. In that moment we knew the kitten had not left us. Instead, he had climbed up into the mechanisms under the van and made himself a comfortable hiding place. We were so happy to see him. We brought him inside at once, fed him, bathed him and gave him a warm place to rest. Over the next days we took care of him, introduced him to Leo and reacquainted him with Hamish, and took him to the vet. All our travel plans were halted as we made caring for this tiny stowaway our top priority. While waiting for animal shelters to reply, we potty trained him, played with him and gave him love and attention. It is fair to say that we fell completely in love with him in the weeks that followed. When the shelters finally got back to us saying they could not take him, it did not matter anymore because he was already one of us. Another adventurer had joined Jungle Jim’s pack. We named him Rocky because he is a survivor. Since Rocky arrived, he has brought excitement and energy to every journey and destination. He fits perfectly into vanlife. He already loves to walk, hike and explore the outdoors, when he is not napping with his two big brothers, of course.

Every mile we travel now is filled with so much more love and joy. Jungle Jim is a tight squeeze, but what we lack in space we make up for in love.