Van life

MEET MARY By Jayne Snell Editor-in-Chief, Menopause Life Magazine the Campervan!

My husband and I have always loved camping and caravanning. When the kids (Matt and Jess) were young we started with a trailer tent, oh my goodness how it creaked and groaned in the lightest of wind, so we soon changed that for a caravan. The freedom that comes with camping, not only for the adults but also for the children is beautiful. They made new friends, played games of tig, swing ball, ball games and splashed about in streams and would be outdoors from dawn to dusk. We ate simple foods, had barbeques, and toasted marshmallows before they fell into bed, rosy-cheeked and exhausted from their day of playing. Wonderful!!

The caravan gave us many family adventures, travelling the length and breadth of the UK. I have been going to Cornwall every year since I was a little girl and when my children were born, we continued going with my mum and dad, and then my brother and his family started to come too. We eventually sold our caravan (I didn’t like towing) and bought a large 4-man tent.

Matt and Jess who are now 26 and 24 moved out last summer, I think everyone, myself included, was worried about how I would cope. I am quite a ‘mumsy’ mum! I have surprised everyone, and once again myself included because I have been absolutely fine, better than fine. I’ve been looking forward to Martin and I having our own adventures and rekindling the couple we were before children.

Last year our traditional annual jaunt down to Cornwall still happened and there are now 12 of us as their partners came too. It fills my heart with love and gratitude to see us all together and I know I am very lucky.

Part of my armour in coping with an ‘empty nest’ has been to look forward to Martin and me having our adventures. As part of planning for our future, we thought about what we love to do. We love to be in the middle of nowhere, with no people around! Don’t get me wrong we are very sociable, but we do love the peace of being in the countryside. We love to be with our dog, Bobby (it took me 17 years to persuade Martin to get another dog, and now he doesn’t want to holiday without him!) Bobby was a huge part of me being ok when Matt and Jess left home. We are happiest when we are out walking him and taking into consideration everything we like to spend our time doing, we decided to buy a campervan!!

Our first adventure was to Bempton Cliffs (Bempton Cliffs Nature Reserve, East Riding of Yorkshire - The RSPB), which is not too far away from where we live. It’s on the East Coast of Yorkshire and is home to around half a million seabirds during March and October, who gather to raise a family on the chalk cliffs that stand majestically overlooking the North Sea. The main lessons learned from our first trip were to take fewer clothes and we need to be ultra-organised! That said, it was wonderfully relaxing and confirmed that we had made the right decision. We couldn’t wait to start planning our next adventure.

Since buying the campervan we have been to Cornwall for more precious moments with our family and witnessed the most beautiful sunsets. We also named her on this holiday, she is called Mary!

We have explored our home county of Yorkshire, from the beautiful village of Lealholm in the North York Moors National Park, once voted the prettiest village in Yorkshire by the Sunday Times, to the coast and Staithes and Runswick Bay. We’ve seen the sea and the sky turn pink at sunset at Fraishthorpe again on the East Yorkshire coast, we’ve visited the best view in Britain at Sutton Bank and we’ve had a stunning weekend staying near Brimham Rocks. Brimham Rocks were our favourite day out when Matt and Jess were young. We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary in Mary! It wasn’t exactly our plan A, but life and ‘things’ happened and so it became our plan A!! We walked and climbed to the top of Roseberry Topping for fantastic views over the North Yorkshire Moors. We did have a wonderful long weekend away and will always remember how we celebrated 30 years of marriage!

I sometimes long to escape in Mary, there’s no cleaning to do, no complicated meals to prepare, life is simple and it’s easier to just ‘be’. I’ve even done my yoga moves in the middle of a field with not a soul around while Martin snoozes in the open air and that feels pretty awesome.