SOLO FEMALE Converts VAN into TINY HOME to TRAVEL
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Anna French spent the last seven years travelling around the world, living on five different continents, really just trying to explore other cultures. She was working on different education and health care projects in different communities so that was a primary focus of her work while she traveled. She did a lot of backpacking along the way in Africa and South America, Australia, New Zealand, a little bit in Europe. She was doing that for work mostly, but it's always her passion. The Vanlife idea helped her find a way to be able to keep traveling, but also explore her own country, because she felt like she hadn't done enough of that.
The van she landed on, which has since been named ‘Casper’, is a 2016 Ford Transit cargo van with a low top and a standard length. She bought Casper for about $24,000 with 18,000 miles on it and she’s put about 10,000 on it in the last few months. She installed a Fantastic fan onto the top and she also installed two 160w solar panels. For her battery she has a Goal Zero Yeti 1400, a lithium solar generator that includes a charge controller, battery and inverter all in one. Currently it's running the tube lights in here and it's also charging right now from the Sun and it runs her fan. She keeps all her camping gear and her chuck boxes in the back, which is where some of her more valuable electronics and things are stored. She designed the space so that she could have access points from three areas in the back. This makes getting items out of storage super easy.
At the front of her van she has her kitchen/bathroom area. She’s got a mini fridge where she can store some of her perishables. Her pantry and inside stores her dry food, as well as a breadbox that she stole from her mom's kitchen. Behind that, got her pots and pans, her kettle, so it all fits pretty snug and a tension rod helps keep it in place while she’s driving. In fact, she uses several to keep items from moving around her van, like the fridge, as well as contents inside the fridge.
She’s got a really useful three-in-one coffee pot, toaster oven, and hot plate breakfast station which she uses on a daily basis. She has some air plants just to give the area a little bit of life, while staying low maintenance. She installed a sink with a hand pump which is fed from a 5 gallon water storage system underneath. In the same compartment she stores her cleaning supplies and cooking utensils.
Underneath the front section of the bed she has her stool and a little bit of her wardrobe. The stool is helpful when she’s cooking or working on her laptop because she can't stand up in the van. Designing the space in a way that she can do everything she needs to while sitting makes the space a lot more comfortable. Since it’s technically a small ottoman she stores some of her clothes in there as well. Behind that she stores her one burner butane stove, which she uses for cooking. Behind that is another, her larger pantry, got dry food and then her dresser behind that and camping gear, so it's fully stocked.
Her toilet is also easily accessible from the front portion of the bed, which she only uses in emergencies. Behind it she stores some toilet paper and cleaning supplies. This area is completely walled off from the rest of the storage space so that if anything happened it would be a contained issue. Her bed also converts into a dinette, which she was able to do by cutting up a queen size six inch memory foam mattress with a bread knife. For insulation she used Reflectix. On the floor it's just Reflectix and then about a half inch of plywood and then this vinyl on top, and then the walls are a layer of Reflectix and then R14 fiberglass and then just wood panels. In her cockpit area she has her world globe, which reminds her and keeps her grounded in her roots, which are in Arizona.
She thinks it's really important for females to travel by themselves and she thinks we’re living in a time where it's the most doable. There's this misconception that it's really dangerous or scary, but it's not really either of those things and she thinks traveling around the world as a solo female really helped give her the courage and the knowledge that it's a lot safer than the media would have you think. While she was a little bit nervous to travel in a van by herself, she went for it anyway. She’s never felt in danger, and thinks it's important to do it on your own. You shouldn't wait until you have someone to do it with, because you never know what's gonna happen in life.
Everything changes in a second and you don't want to lose your opportunity. If you're in a place in your life where you can do it now, she think it's a great way to get a better idea of what you're capable of and once you can live in a van by yourself or travel to another country by yourself you have this courage, this strength, that no one can ever take from you and you feel like you can do anything. She really wants to inspire other people to take more risks and go out and try that thing that they've always dreamt about doing. Not waiting because life doesn't wait for you. You have to just kind of make the decisions and the rest kind of falls into place. You don't have to have it all figured out.
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