Slow Autumn Days Living in My Tiny Campervan

If you're new here, hi I'm Jessica and I live in my tiny camp of Anfrodo with my puppy Heidi, traveling solo and full-time around Europe. Two years ago I quit my job and sold all my belongings for a life of simplicity off-grid in nature. Join us for this next chapter, Hiding Away in the Welsh Hills, where we reconnect with nature and grow roots in the wild. This video has been made possible by isim.sm Autumn has settled into these hills with a cold chill and the first storms of the season have been shaking my tiny home in the windswept nights. But if I'm completely honest, one of my favorite things about living in a van is that it gets more difficult in the colder months of the year. I have to be aware of extreme weather, keep a fire going most of the day to stay comfortable and make sure I'm stocked up on firewood and cooking gas for those weeks where the sun just doesn't make an appearance at all. But I really like to embrace these inconveniences because they make me feel more connected with the world around me and grateful for the little things like warmth, food and shelter. Good morning friends, I hope you've been doing well. I'm in my favorite place in the world which is the middle of nowhere and just had a hot chocolate in my big autumn mug which I thrifted at the local charity shop. And yeah, I've been in the Welsh Hills which has been super nice because I used to live in the area so I know it quite well, I know where the good park hubs are and I've just been doing a mix of visiting Rissi in town where he's doing his masters and spending time with him and coming out here and enjoying the peace and quiet because doing van life in a town is not my favorite to be honest. And yeah, autumn is in full swing, the colors are absolutely stunning and it's raining almost every day so I'm hoping to go mushroom foraging soon. I even bought this book the other day which is all about mushroom folklore and traditional medicine so I've been reading that a little bit which I've been really enjoying. And yeah, I'm also starting to think about winter because winter van life does come with a few logistics and prep that I'll need to do on the van so my thinking is that I'm going to go to Scotland for a few weeks and then the French Alps, Italy and eventually Greece, fingers crossed. So I'll be passing through quite a few different countries which is exciting and on this note I want to take a minute to talk about the sponsor of today's video and a long-time supporter of the channel esim.sm. With winter coming it's really important for me to have reliable signal in case of an emergency because most of the time I travel alone in this van and I'm also often in very remote mountain areas. And of course I also want to stay connected with my partner because we are long distance until next summer and we really like to send each other voice messages and texts, pictures, all that sort of stuff to know what the other person is up to throughout the day and we also FaceTime most evenings. So reliable data is crucial for my lifestyle but it can be a bit tricky when you're wild camping and living off-grid full-time and especially with the shorter winter days I also need to turn off my 4G router in the evenings to conserve solar energy. Since Brexit my UK phone provider also stopped offering unlimited data in the EU which I know has been a huge headache for travelers which is also why I switched to esim.sm and they've been honestly amazing. I've been using them for six months now and it's made traveling between countries a lot easier. esim.sm offer coverage in over 190 countries with unlimited data options and because it's all digital you can just scan a QR code and you're online. There's no waiting around or swapping sim cards. I'm on their global plan which covers 155 countries on one single esim so I can use my laptop, make whatsapp calls and keep working on the road without worrying about data limits or patchy signal. It's also really affordable which is important when you live simply like I do. After my trip to Scotland I also probably won't return to the UK until next summer so having reliable coverage between countries gives me a lot of peace of mind. You can have a look at their offers via the link in the video description and you can also get 15% off your esim with my code ROOTS15. Thank you so much again to esim.sm for sponsoring this video and supporting the channel and now I think we're gonna drive to town, have a little brunch with Rissi and then get on a walk in the woods. When I used to live here this used to be my daily lunchtime walk. I worked multiple jobs back then to make ends meet and I really struggled to navigate the working world so this place was my sanctuary where I could be in silence and feel And wherever you look there are countless folk stories embedded in the land, from the submerged forests hiding the remnants of a Welsh Atlantis, dramatic coastlines with mermaids living in the rocky coves and remote caves, to the meeting of the two rivers in the sea at the foot of a haunted mountain. These woods are said to be home to the Talwith Teg, a type of fairy that was near human sized and could either be kind or vindictive with a moral code quite different from that of humans and there are countless tales of people accidentally stepping into fairy rings and reappearing decades later unchanged by the passing of time. It seemed that the Talwith Teg had already nibbled away at the edible mushrooms so my basket remained empty today to make sure that there's enough left for the other inhabitants of the forest and it was time to return to my little traveling home. Good morning friends, I ended up staying in town last night. I went to a folk gig with my friend and I wanted to spend some more time with Risi so I parked up right here by the sea on the edge of town and it's very stormy. I've had a few waves clash against the side of the van and it was just so nice falling asleep to the sound of the waves I'm actually parked just a few meters from where Risi and I first met at the bottom of the hill which is really nice, it brings back a lot of memories. It's supposed to clear up later so Risi and I are hoping to do the hike that we did on the day we met which is from this town to the next one along the coastal path so we'll see. For now I've been warming up by the wood fire and I might go for a little sea dip. The sea is quite rough but the water looks very inviting and it is calming down a little bit so I might venture outside. By the time I made it out to the beach the wind had picked up and big waves started rolling in. Swimming was not really a safe option in the stormy weather so I just stood in the refreshing spray of the waves with the wind chilling my skin and the cold air filling my lungs and honestly it made me feel more awake than any cup of coffee ever could. It would take a few more days for the weather to calm down enough for Risi and I to go on a hike and once the storm had passed we decided to go despite the gloomy sky. But one thing about Wales is that you can experience four seasons in one day here and as we walked up the coastal path the sun broke through the clouds and made the sky and sea shimmer in the most gorgeous shades of blue. And this little plateau where we had a picnic is actually where Risi and I first spoke over five years ago on a hike organised by our university. It is a strange feeling to return to places from the past which have barely changed while you have become a very different person. Everything looks exactly the same but it feels different and we see these places through new eyes and appreciate them in different ways. The entire time I've been back in this area I felt incredibly nostalgic and I've been both grieving the slow passing of our youth and feeling grateful for the path life has taken us on and I think it's okay for these things to co-exist in our hearts. Thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video make sure to leave a thumbs up and subscribe so you don't miss our next adventures. Until then I wish you the most beautiful and cosy autumn season. Take good care, bye.