Wanted: Travel Mate for a Radvanture
(Mar 10 2014)
Lone Canadian backpacker searching for a free-spirited and open-minded passenger for a 2-4 week campervan road trip, a rad van adventure — a radvanture! Must have a positive attitude and bring good vibes to the van. Must be open to spontaneity and a minimalist approach to trip planning. Shared food and fuel costs, all sleeping and camping gear provided. No previous experience required. Map interpretation and basic navigation skills would be an asset. Position available immediately! Please no pessimists, control-freaks, or backseat drivers.
After three terrific weeks, my current travel companion and I have decided to part ways. For the past few days, I have been shopping for someone to take her place. I posted an add through couchsurfing.org (for those of you who don’t know, this is my favourite social networking website, designed to connect travelers with each other and with locals worldwide…I will be writing a blog entry about it soon). My add on couchsurfing.org attracted more responses than I expected. So far, I’ve heard from four interested travelers — a Finnish girl, a Scottish girl, a French guy, and a Belgian girl. They all seemed great, but had either timelines or travel routes that did not match my own rough plans. I thought it might be a better approach to network in person, so I booked into a backpacker’s hostel for a night in Nelson last week.
Considering I have been sleeping for free in Rad Red for nearly three weeks, paying for a night in a hostel felt like a splurge! I made sure to pick the best hostel in town — it had a pool, hot tub, beach volleyball court, table tennis, pool table, free breakfast every morning, free unlimited wifi, and free soup with bread every night at 6pm. Jackpot! (not to mention hot showers…a luxury I have not enjoyed often since I moved into the van).
I had 24 hours in the hostel to I talk to as many people as I could and find out their travel plans. I was looking for someone who either had no plans at all, or very loose plans for traveling the south island. I am a firm believer that when traveling, no plan is the best plan. I do have a rough idea of what I’d like to see and a logical route that I’d like to take, but nothing specific or mapped out. I like having the freedom to just start driving and stop wherever looks or sounds cool, and stay for however long it suits me and whomever I am with. I wanted someone who could be flexible and spontaneous with me, which is a bit hard to find!
I think I might have found that person. Her name is Aurore, she is from France, and after an hour of chatting over our free breakfasts in the hostel, it was clear that we had similar non-plans and attitudes. We both left the hostel in Nelson to enjoy the Golden Bay area for a few days, and we will reunite in Nelson tonight. Our adventure together starts tomorrow. I am looking forward to it. How do you think we will fare? Stay tuned to find out!
