10 Things I’ve Learned from Life on the Road

Posted byJacqueline Lambert @WorldWideWalkiesPosted inAD (After Dog), Balkans, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Never Mind The Balkans Trip, Overlanding EuropeTags:, , , , , , , ,
A picture of super large ladies' underwear blomers on a washing line with the caption Pack Light but never ever skimp on Underwear, with Jacqueline Lambert Author's logo and the world wide walkies travel blog logo

My husband, Mark and I, packed up our life in 2016 to embark on a 3-year trip in our caravan (RV trailer.)

Nine years into that 3-year trip, it seems we underestimated how addictive travel could be.

So here we are, still touring, but in The Beast, a rather more rugged 6×4-wheel drive ex-army vehicle we converted to take us even further off the beaten path. 

When we set out, we were complete newbies, but in the intervening time, we’ve picked up a few tips. Here, I want to share with you some of the lessons we’ve learned from life on the road.

A picture of three children, including author Jacqueline Lambert as a child in the centre, standing at the front of an old fashioned 1960s home built caravan
My brothers & I with the caravan my grandad built.
When Mark & I started out, this was the sum total of our caravanning experience!
  1. Never Miss An Opportunity To Pee: From 25-years as a field sales representative to my days as a permanent nomad, I’ve learned the importance of seizing bathroom opportunities whenever they arise. Failure to accept this truth invites a three-hour traffic jam and a rock-solid guarantee that when you get there, the next convenience will be out of order.
  2. Value Experience Over Stuff: In 1994, a rafting trip down the Zambezi taught me a valuable lesson: that happiness comes from ENJOYING LIFE – not OWNING THINGS. I spent a week sleeping under the stars on riverside beaches with only two sets of clothing – wet and dry – yet I’ve never felt so happy or fulfilled. These days, nearly everything I own is in the truck. I don’t feel weighed down by possessions I don’t need or use. There’s nothing I want, and nothing I could own that would make me any happier than I am. Having ENOUGH – and being satisfied with it – is rather a fine way to exist.
  3. Pack Light – But Don’t Skimp on Underwear: With general clothing, you never need as much as you think. I considered it a huge fail to return from a trip with unworn clothing in my suitcase. On our honeymoon to Costa Rica, however, I discovered my new husband didn’t share this belief. “I backpacked for four months around Australasia with two t-shirts and two pairs of shorts!” I mocked as I chucked things out of his rucksack. Unfortunately, in Costa Rica it was too humid to dry laundry, so we both ran out of clothes… Nevertheless, it is a truth universally acknowledged that you can never have too many undies – which probably saved my nascent marriage from me and my minimal packing. Whatever life throws at you, it will never seem so bad if you’ve got a clean pair of undies!
  4. Embrace the Unexpected: Some of our best adventures have come from saying, “YES” to random things. Once, we set off for Spain, but turned left and went to Romania – which remains one of our best ever trips.
  5. People Not Places: I have visited over 50 countries and six of the seven continents. However, when I’m asked which country was my favourite, it’s curious that what I remember most vividly is not spectacular landscapes, architecture, or wildlife, although this is clearly a big part of it. It’s almost always the people. The kindness of strangers and connections with fellow travellers is what makes our journeys memorable.
  6. Decide For Yourself: Make decisions based on your own experiences and research. The horror stories we’ve been told about countries we plan to visit almost always come from folk who’ve never been there. Almost always, the hearsay and speculation are entirely wrong.
  7. Never Trust A GPS: After towing a caravan across two cornfields and along a footpath in Romania, I can say this with great conviction. It’s why we renamed our satnav ‘Naffsat’… Although our paper map also claimed the footpath was a road.
  8. Hope For The Best: Plan For The Worst: When things go wrong on the road – and they definitely will – preparation is key. Carry spares of anything that is critical to your trip, be it a camera, phone, satnav, recovery equipment, or mechanical components for your vehicle. A spare phone that is ready to go with all your contacts, apps, passwords, and photos of key documents loaded could be a lifesaver. Remember the explorer’s adage: ‘Two is one and one is none.’
  9. Lose Your Temper: Lose The Argument: This was one of my Dad’s empirical truths. He was a mathematician, and his sanguine logic used to drive Mum mad. Obviously, Dad never lost an argument… However, during stressful situations on the road, keeping calm and problem-solving together is far more productive than yelling and finger pointing. When things go wrong, even if it is your companion’s fault, blaming and arguing won’t solve the problem. It simply delays the solution.
  10. Home Is Where You Park It: I’ve always been a restless soul. Although I lived in the house where I was born until I left for university, aged 17, I’ve never felt a strong connection to a particular place. When I met Mark, aged 35, I had moved house 22 times! A fellow traveller once asked me, “What does home mean to you?” My answer, “It’s wherever Mark and The Fab Four, my four fur babies, are.” So, and I really mean that: Home is Where The Heart Is.
A picture of The Beast, a 6x4-wheel drive Volvo N10 ex-army truck converted into a camper with author Jacqueline Lambert standing in its doorway in a yellow dress with her husband Mark
Home is where the heart is! Mark & I with The Beast on the shores of Lake Ohrid in Albania

So, next time you hit the road with your loved ones, remember these wisdoms, and embrace the adventure that awaits.

And don’t forget to pack extra undies.

Trust me, you’ll thank me later!

For Tips on Planning A Trip – See These Recent Posts

Read About Our Adventures

If you would like to know more about our adventures since we quit work to hit the road, follow my blog, or check out my seven bestselling and award-winning road trip memoirs on Amazon.

Dogs ‘n’ Dracula, which describes the trip around Romania we undertook when we turned left instead of going to Spain, won the Chill With A Book PREMIER Readers’ Award and was a finalist in the Romania Insider Awards for ‘Best Promotion of Romania Abroad’.

A picture of Jacqueline Lambert's series of 6 Adventure Caravanning With Dogs road trip travel books overlaid on a sunset road background, with the caption Some Dare to Dream, Some Dare and a checklist of 1. Give up work 2. Buy a caravan 3. Rent out the house 4. Hit the road with four dogs
Adventure Caravanning with Dogs Series & Pups on Piste: A Ski Season in Italy
A picture of Jacqueline Lambert's book Building The Beast: How (Not) To Build An Overland Camper with its three awards, overlaid on a background of a sunset picture of The Beast, a Volvo N10 Camper conversion at lake Vidradu in Romania, and the camption 2024 Winner The Wishing Shelf Book Awards
Building The Beast – my latest award-winning true life tale

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A picture of The Fab Four, author Jacqueline Lambert's four cavapoos (fluffy dogs) on a moorland with blue sky behind.

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Published by Jacqueline Lambert @WorldWideWalkies

AD (After Dogs) - We retired early to tour Europe in a caravan with four dogs. "To boldly go where no van has gone before". Since 2021, we've been at large in a 24.5-tonne self-converted ex-army truck called The Beast. BC (Before Canines) - we had adventures on every continent other than Antarctica!

23 thoughts on “10 Things I’ve Learned from Life on the Road”

  2. That sounds like very good advice. I will remember not to overpack but you need spareparts and underwear, and never miss an opportunity to pee. I loved this clever sentence “Nine years into that 3-year trip, it seems we underestimated how addictive travel could be.”

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  3. Tips that are handy for little trips as well.

    Travel means different things, but I am always amused when hearing people actually say ‘Can’t remember which country it is, but the hotel has a swimming pool.’ Or a friend said to her neighbour ‘Italy, oh I love Italy, which part are you going to?’ ‘No idea, we’re just going to relax by the pool.’

    Your journeys are the ultimate in ‘real travel.’

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    1. Tee hee hee! We’re all different, I suppose, and we all travel for different reasons. Some people just want to go abroad to have the ‘Britain – but with Sunshine’ experience. On Fuerteventura many years ago, before it was developed for tourism, I met a woman from Birmingham who said, “I don’t loik it here. You can’t get chips.”

      That’s never been the reason I travel – I LOVE experiencing different cultures and cuisines (yes – even bulls balls and lamprey, in a way… At least I now know never to have them again!)

      Thank you for dropping by, reading, and commenting Janet, and I shall look forward to your next post from my adopted home town. I do enjoy the sense of connection while I’m on me travels 🙂

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      1. You’re welcome, funnily enough I never started blogging with the intention of putting photos on, let alone taking people on little walks, but my phone never stays in my bag for more than a moment before I spot something bloggable to photograph.

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  7. Hi Jackie,

    Great post! I can relate to many of your tips. Luckily, we all travel with a bathroom, so that shouldn’t be too big of an issue anymore. When we separate our truck and camper and are on an exploration trip with just the truck, I forget we don’t have our house in the back with us. Then the bathroom problem can arise.

    Mark once bought me a quick-dry pair of undies for my birthday. They look awful, but they could be a solution when needing to travel with few clothes. Mark and I always travel light. Last summer, we each had one carry-on bag and a personal item, no checked luggage, for a three-month trip back to our home counties. Now, towels would be at our destination and so were washing machines. 🙂

    “Lose Your Temper: Lose The Argument” I love that quote and it’s the one out of ten I personally need to work on. So much goes wrong on the road…

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    1. Quick-dry undies are definitely a way forward! My sartorial choices these days are much more about practicality than style!

      Access to a washing machine and drying facilities is a game changer! As I say, I backpacked for months with just a couple of sets of clothes!

      I apologise in advance to your Mark who is going to be in for some devastating applications of logic during future arguments… 🙂

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  11. Oh, I absolutely LOVE everything about this post. And after four years of almost full time travelling (I say ‘almost’ because we went back, sold our home, sorted out stuff etc) we couldn’t be happier.

    Amen to every single one of your tips and wisdoms. All very true. And I had to laugh at number three. So timely. After putting away my laundry today hubby says “are you sure you have enough knickers” to which I replied “you can never have too many pairs of undies …” I have at least two weeks worth! 😁

    So a big thanks for the smiles and head nods. Here’s to home and life on the road, wherever we park it! Happy travels!

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    1. Hi Miriam,

      I am so glad you enjoyed my post! It was a fun one to write – and the undies one is definitely pertinent. I have more than a couple of weeks’ worth and was down to my last pair last week… You could say we got to the launderette in the knicker of time!

      Happy travels – it really is the best life, isn’t it? 🙂

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