2025: Miles, Moments, and a Van That Finally Clicked

Some years are loud.2025 wasn’t.

2025 rolled. Smoothly. Deliberately. Confidently.

It was a year where travel stopped being about escape and became about alignment — places visited at the right time, pauses taken without guilt, and a campervan finally being used exactly as it was always meant to be used.

This wasn’t a year of ticking destinations.It was a year of doing things properly.

February: Rome, and Starting the Year Calmly

The year began in the best possible way: winter Rome.

February stripped the city back to its essentials. Fewer crowds, softer light, and streets that felt lived in rather than staged. Walking everywhere. Eating like it mattered. Standing in places that have existed longer than most ideas.

Going to Rome with Fiona set the tone for everything that followed — relaxed, curious, unforced. No rushing, no pressure to “do it all”. Just letting the city dictate the pace.

Rome didn’t overwhelm.It quietly reset the mind.

That calm stayed with me all year.

March: First Taste of Scotland

March was when Scotland first got its hooks in.

Travelling north up the east coast from Berwick-upon-Tweed, you feel the change gradually — the land opening up, the air sharpening slightly. Stops at the Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel were reminders that engineering can be as awe-inspiring as scenery.

Then came Glenfinnan Viaduct.

Standing there, staring at that curve of stone against the mountains, it was impossible not to imagine the Hogwarts Express thundering across it. A proper cinematic moment — one that stays with you long after you’ve driven away.

That trip planted a seed. Scotland wasn’t done with me yet.

April: North Yorkshire and the Joy of Familiar Ground

April brought North Yorkshire, and with it a reminder that you don’t need distance to feel properly away.

Rolling countryside. Big skies. A slower rhythm. A stop in Whitby for fish and chips — the kind that tastes better because you’ve earned it. Some genuinely lovely campsites too, the sort that make you linger longer than planned.

North Yorkshire felt honest.Comforting.A place that doesn’t shout, but always delivers.

May: The Peak District, Then Cornwall

Early May stayed closer to home in the Peak District — Castleton, Chatsworth House, and Dovedale. Timeless scenery. Proper walking. Landscapes that never feel tired, no matter how many times you see them.

Then, late May, the big seasonal shift.

Cornwall, perfectly timed.

Before the summer chaos. Long days. Cooperative light. Coastlines doing exactly what coastlines should do. Tintagel, Boscastle, Port Isaac, Godrevy, St Michael’s Mount, Mevagissey, Looe — not rushed, not conquered, just absorbed.

Cornwall in late spring has a way of insisting you stop. And I listened.

July: North Wales and a Night on the Great Orme

July delivered one of the quiet highlights of the year.

North Wales — dramatic, unapologetic, and endlessly rewarding — and a night spent completely on my own, parked up on top of the Great Orme in Vanilla.

No noise.No timetable.Just the van, the sea far below, and absolute silence.

That night felt perfectly balanced. Simple. Peaceful. Right.

One of those moments you don’t photograph much because you don’t want to interrupt it.

August: Norfolk, and Time Folding In on Itself

August slowed everything down.

Norfolk brought wide skies, flat horizons, and a pace that gently forces you to stop filling the gaps. Big space. Long light. Thinking becomes easier there.

But Norfolk delivered something rarer than scenery.

Meeting Gerry DeFalco, an old Royal Navy shipmate I hadn’t seen in forty years.

Two lives that had gone in completely different directions, intersecting again as if no time had passed at all. That’s the strange magic of shared service — you don’t reconnect at the surface, you reconnect underneath everything that’s happened since.

Norfolk wasn’t an escape.It was continuity.

Festivals: CamperJam, Dubbed Out, and Music in a Field

2025 wasn’t all solitude.

CamperJam and Dubbed Out Festival brought the social side of van life into play. Fields instead of lay-bys. Music instead of silence. Vans parked far closer than ideal.

Dubbed Out delivered a proper moment too — seeing Alison Limerick live and hearing Where Love Lives, one of my all-time favourite tunes, sung in a field surrounded by campervans.

That one landed perfectly.Music, memory, and vans — exactly the right mix.

Later in the Year: Scotland, Properly — The NC500

Then came the trip everything else quietly orbited.

Scotland again — this time properly.

The NC500, driven anti-clockwise, as it should be. East coast handled efficiently. West coast savoured with intent.

Tongue. Durness. Scourie. Clachtoll. Ullapool. Gairloch. Applecross. Fort Augustus.

Huge landscapes. Single-track roads that demand patience. Light doing impossible things. Mornings where the kettle waited because the view deserved first attention.

This wasn’t about completing a route.It was about rhythm.

The NC500 didn’t entertain.It recalibrated.

Vanilla: Used Exactly as Intended

Threaded through all of this was the quiet success story.

Vanilla worked.

Driven properly. Parked thoughtfully. Slept in comfortably. Heated when needed. Powered sensibly. Cooked in. Lived in.

No drama. No panic setups. No bodges.

Just a system that had been thought through, refined, and then trusted.

Pull up. Settle in. Stay longer if it feels right. Move on when it doesn’t.

That freedom shaped every trip.

Recent Upgrades — and Why 2026 Feels Different

And now, looking ahead, there’s genuine excitement about what’s next — because Vanilla’s had a few key upgrades, and they’re exactly the right ones.

The new headlights have transformed night driving. Cleaner beam, better spread, and far more confidence on unfamiliar roads — especially useful for long European days that don’t always end when the sun goes down.

The new wind-out awning changes how stops work. Quick to deploy, solid when it’s up, and perfect for turning a park-up into a stay. Shade, shelter, somewhere to sit with a coffee — instant living space, no faff.

And the new Alpine speakers? Massive upgrade. Clearer sound, proper depth, and music that finally does justice to the miles. Whether rolling through mountain passes or parked up somewhere quiet, the soundtrack now matches the journey.

None of these upgrades are flashy for the sake of it.They’re practical. Confidence-boosting. Purposeful.

They make long trips calmer — and that matters.

What 2025 Really Was

2025 wasn’t about doing more.

It was about doing things better.

Better timing.Better pacing.Better stops.Better use of the van.

Less rushing.More noticing.

And the best bit?

2026 is already shaping up with proper European adventures for me and Vanilla. New roads, new borders, new coffee stops — same approach.

2025 didn’t shout.It rolled confidently forward.

And it set the bar exactly where it should be.