Original subtitles

Hi, I'm Kate and I'm from the Isle of Lewis.

One of my favourite things to do is sea swimming.

I've been doing it for as long as I can remember.

One of the biggest obstacles I face with sea swimming,

is the temperature...it is Scotland, after all.

The dog is worried for me.

I find that if you try and keep your mind off it,

then it's not so bad.

If you keep thinking about something else, keep moving, keep...

..swimming, keep running, keep doing whatever you're doing,

don't think about the temperature.

Once your hands are in, you need to try and keep them in.

If you take your hands out of the sea, they'll get much colder.

But if you give it about ten minutes,

your body will adjust to it, or at least mine does,

and then it's not so bad.

When you first put your head underwater...

..it's like someone smashing the back of your head with a hammer.

Other times that pain never goes away.

Here we go.

The colour of your skin changes to a healthy bright red.

Some say I'm mad.

But it's good for the soul...

..is what I like to think.

So that's about 35 minutes now.

Think it's time to get out.

Actually, I'm quite warm.

Here's my loyal dog waiting for me.

Being in the ocean brings me back to my island roots.

It connects me to nature and it gives me a sense of perspective.

I am, I guess you'd say, drawn to the sea.

Colours, the cold, the animals, the atmosphere.

I love the sea and there's nothing that can keep me away.

This van's been to Berlin and back, it's been to Holland and back.

It's been everywhere, this van, so I trust it

and I hope that it would get me places.

My name is Caitlin Minnie, I'm 25 years old,

from Kirkintilloch originally, live in Paisley now.

I grew up with a caravan up in Fort William.

I always loved it and really wanted to have my own growing up.

I really enjoyed the fact that everything was just in the one

little tiny place and you could fit so much in it.

I used to, like, pretend that I would have a car

that had a bed in the back of it when, like, playing

in my mum and dad's cars when I was a kid.

And I really loved that, and always was like,

"Wonder if you could get a caravan that drives?"

But once I got older, I kept the dream.

The reason I wanted to get into van life is because,

I've been living in a flat in Paisley for about four years and...

..it's not the best.

I have so much stuff as well, and I just want

to condense my life and live minimalistically...

..rent free.

People I know are too concerned about having a huge house

with all these things that they work so hard to have,

but they never get time to use.

And I just didn't...didn't understand that.

Recently I took the van to Holland and...

..it was, overall, like, the most positive experience.

I felt very empowered, er...

..in my life, in my personal life.

Felt like I was doing something for me and for my dog.

And, you know, we just had such a great time just driving.

We didn't really know where we were going, we just kept driving.

It was so good, it was so liberating.

It was extremely lonely, and I wish that there had been someone there

to, like, talk to and things.

It sometimes can be quite hard to actually, like, push on by yourself.

But, you know, you have to, I guess, so...

At night, I think it's a lot worse because you're, kind of,

sitting in silence.

I'm not really scared of being alone at night, though, in my van.

I know a lot of women especially, of course, are.

But I've never been scared at night and I camp alone

most of the time by myself, so...

My family are somewhat supportive.

They like that I have that kind of mentality.

You know, I'm not just hooked to my phone constantly, just living,

like, a normal life, I guess I'm a bit more out there

and have crazy dreams, which they quite like.

But as for going away and living in a van, they are very traditional.

I don't think that they agree with that,

but it's my life, I guess, so.

Over the winter, I hope to put in the rest of this van,

like the kitchen and a small bathroom and some storage idea.

And I plan to hopefully travel in Europe with it

for a good couple of years, I would hope.

It's a challenge, you're pushing yourself.

You question, like, "Why am I doing this?"

But once you get to the top of a Munro, it's a great feeling.

It's a sense of achievement.

It's a really good experience, once you've done it.

My name's Ross Cunningham, I'm from Glenrothes in Fife,

and one of my favourite hobbies is to go hiking

up Scotland's mountains.

In August and September 2017, I went through depression.

It's something that I hadn't gone through before

and it's something I thankfully haven't gone through since,

but it's obviously a really hard time.

It can feel like you're drowning and it could feel just...

It's a really horrible thing to go through and a lot of the hobbies

and things that you have, you just kind of lose interest in them.

Doing exercise helps you really to try and get into a better place,

kind of, mentally, there's lots of endorphins and things

that come from exercise. That was really beneficial.

And so when I got into that, my friend recommended

that join her to go hiking up Munros,

and that's how I got into Munro bagging.

So Dex is my eight-year-old dog, he's a Westie,

and he loves hiking, he's the one that's dragging me up

the mountains half the time.

He's a wee dog, he's got wee legs so as much as he wants to do

the whole walk, there's times I've got to lift him up,

rescue him from falling into a bog, or I've had to carry him

over a river while I'm getting totally soaked,

but just so he can make it over OK.

He's a great wee character and I think a lot of people quite like

to see pictures of him when I post them on social media,

especially Instagram, to see him at the top of some Scotland's

highest mountains with some beautiful landscapes

in the background, I think a lot people quite like that.

From getting into hiking, I've really been getting out

most weekends, a few of my friends that have came along

have been getting into hiking themselves as well.

So it's nice to pass it on and encourage other people

to get involved in it.

Over 2018 I managed to get to the top of 70 Munros.

It's a long way away getting to 282 Munros,

and I'm still over 200 away from that final target.

But I think once I do it, which I will, I think the next challenge

would be to do more mountains, not just in Scotland.

Living in Scotland, I've realised how lucky I am,

and how lucky people in Scotland are to live in one the most

beautiful countries in the world, which Scotland clearly is.

I would encourage people to get out and explore Scotland, to see parts

of it that they've maybe never seen before.

Hiking is a great way to do that, and sights you've never seen before,

there's some beautiful landscapes up Scotland's

mountains that you just simply wouldn't see,

you need to the top of a mountain to see it.

For anybody that's going through things like depression,

it's just a great escape. It's going to help you,

and it's going help you clear your head.

If you're going to live in a tent, you have to get the proper tents.

None of this weekend stuff.

You have to know where you can pitch a tent to make it safe,

because even the most robust tents

won't put up with the storms.

They have to be in certain positions to put up with it.

There's no telephone signal down here.

There's nobody passing, so if you did have something wrong...

..you're stuck, you're on your own and there's nothing else you can do.

Even although it's a ten mile round trip walking

and a 50-mile train journey, that's quite easy to get supplies in.

It wouldn't be for the normal person,

but that to me is easy, it's the easiest I've found.

You know, I've chosen to do that.

There's other places I could go to, which would be easier

to get help, you know.

But, no, I just choose to be down here and I'm happy.

I've got it down to a T, I know exactly what do,

I know what to survive in, I know what to do.

I've suffered. I've suffered from hypothermia and I know

what to do if I get that.

You must keep yourself spotlessly clean.

No shirking on washing.

That means cleaning your teeth every day, washing your hands.

Having a bath every day, not washing your hands and face every day.

Wading into the water every day.

You must keep yourself clean every day and then you won't

get any infections.

As I said, I'd normally be naked doing this,

but you're not getting to see that.

Two years ago, we had snow down here.

It was... Nobody would have got down, not even the stockers

got down in their vehicles.

There was nothing would have got down here, not even the snowcats.

You couldn't walk in it in snowshoes. It was three,

four feet deep around the tent.

I was stuck down here for three weeks.

Visibility is down to about 100 yards now.

I dug paths so far just to give me some walking space.

And I dug a path down to the loch to get water

so that I could still wash and get water for cooking.

Just at the end of 2007, I started getting problems with my breathing.

And I went...

One day I woke up and found I was pretty ill.

Went to the doctor's and they thought I'd had a heart attack.

So I was treated for a heart attack.

But I was pretty ill.

Got a heart scan and they came up with that I had

dilated cardiomyopathy, which is a life-threatening condition.

And I was told I needed a heart transplant.

So I told them I didn't want a heart transplant.

I wasn't wanting considered for that.

And I thought, right, well, if I've got only a short life expectancy,

I'm just going to come out and live in the wild.

Which is what I was going to do when I retired.

You know, now that I'm 65 and been out for 12 years,

that's what I would have been doing now anyway.

I would have sold up.

I got a heart scan two years ago.

And my heart scan showed that my heart wasn't dilated any more.

So I came off the medication

and all of a sudden I became as fit as a fiddle again.

But unfortunately, in the last four weeks,

I've had another heart scan and it's come back again.

So there's been a relapse and it's quite serious at the moment.

So I'm on to a different medicine, but the heart's relapsed again.

But fortunately, I still feel pretty fit.

But I know it's quite a life-threatening thing I've got.

I don't know what will happen to me.

I might not wake up one day, like!

Which would be the ideal situation, I suppose.

But I'm happy as Larry.

I'm really contented with what I'm doing.

It's just a getaway. It's the freedom.

It's not being stuck in the same place.

It's so much better than being in a house for us.

Although it's such a small space.

But we make the best of it.

I'm Laura, I'm 23.

I'm from Glasgow.

And I go to college to do professional cookery.

I'm William, I'm 28.

I used to work on mechanics

but I've just started studying photography.

We've been together for three years now.

When we got the van, it was not great.

No running water, the insulation wasn't great.

Just things like that.

Since we got it we've added...

We've got solar panels, a new ledge for batteries.

We've got the sink.

That's the third different sink that's been in it.

I'd like to get a bigger van, but a taller van.

So it's for standing up.

I'd like to add a shower cubicle to a bigger van.

So that's probably the plans for next year, maybe.

Privacy to use the toilet. That's the plans!

For her, the toilet was such a big deal.

Yeah, I'm really weird with that.

And then I was just like, right, I just need to do this in front of you

because I can't hold it in any more!

So, yeah... It's just you need to give each other privacy.

Yeah, like, don't look! Close your eyes!

Turn the music up!

It's just one of them things.

It's not something we wanted to... Or that we even thought about

until you're in that situation and you're like, I now need to pee!

You get a lot of freedom. It's a given.

But your upkeep of the van... You're in it every day.

Even like a heater.

The diesel for the heater.

Diesel for running, servicing.

Everything comes... It's a lot quicker.

It's eight months we've been here and we've done 25,000 mile in it.

Even just your fuelling costs with that.

Obviously we've done big trips and everything.

But if you take away the trips, it's still a lot of miles.

Your fuelling costs, everything...

It's not as cheap as a lot of people think it would be.

It's not just a case of, "I'll live in a van, I've got no expenditures."

Yeah, you definitely still do.

It's not a cheap way of living, but it's a cheaper way of living.

Scuba diving plays a massive part in my life.

Unfortunately, I've been diagnosed with anxiety problems.

And this offers me a release from it all.

See in films, when you see the likes of James Bond

rising from the sea like Poseidon himself?

That's a load of crap.

See if I can come out frae a dive

and I don't have snot running down my nose

and my cheeks aren't as red as a skelped arse?

That's a good day for me.

Just remember, folks, scuba diving can be a hazardous sport.

I'm a master scuba diver with just under 200 dives.

And if you do want to give it a go,

make sure you find an experienced instructor to learn with.

Dive days don't just happen.

They take a good bit of planning.

And like everything else in Scotland,

the first thing you need to take into consideration is the weather.

It's not the rain that's the problem.

I mean, let's be honest - you're getting wet anyway.

It's the wind I find the problem.

When you're trying to drag your soggy arse out of the water

with the weight of a small person on your back

and the waves are buffeting you frae side to side,

you do begin to rethink your life choices.

So once you've checked the weather,

you have to think about what you want to see.

I don't mean used shopping trolleys!

Are you looking for a shore dive or are you looking for a boat dive?

Are you looking for a rocky reef or are you looking for a wall dive?

Or are you actually looking for wrecks?

Here in Scotland we've got it all, pretty much.

So today we've headed up to Loch Lowes

and a dive site called Athriums.

So here you've got your weather and your dive site picked.

Now it's time for the kit.

Trust me, there ain't nothing glamorous

about getting into a dive suit.

Especially when you've got use lube to help you put it on.

The kit itself weighs about 50 kilo.

And believe it or not, you still actually have to add weight to get yourself down.

There cannae be many sports

where you have to actually add weight to do it.

And unfortunately, you cannae add weight by eating cake.

I wish you could. That'd be right up my alley.

Just a wee bit does me.

But diving in Scotland opens up a whole new world.

You're not going to be finding Nemo.

But what you will find is a world that's rugged, that's untamed

and is just as beautiful under the water

as Scotland is on the surface.

As I said, I suffer from anxiety issues.

Scuba diving might not seem like the best activity to do.

The deep ocean.

Limited supply of air.

Risk of drowning. Risk of decompression sickness.

Actually, maybe I should just go for a massage.

Controlling your breathing is a massive part of scuba diving, as you'd expect.

During a dive for 50 minutes, all I need to think about is my breathing.

There's my dive buddy.

And the beauty that I'm surrounded by.

So we may not be the Maldives

and we may not be the diving capital of the world,

but Scotland's certainly got plenty to offer.

And we've not even actually started talking about the wrecks yet.

What I do is not hugely weird.

Like, I'm a normal person, I have a job, I pay tax.

You know, I do all of these things.

I just also don't have a brick and mortar house.

My name is Emma. I am 35.

Unfortunately!

I came from Aberdeen, where I worked in the oil industry

and then I decided I was moving to Edinburgh

and I became a barista.

So, yeah, I now work in a little coffee shop full-time in Leith.

So my normal day in the van,

I get up reasonably early, depending on when I'm working.

I usually get up about six-ish.

I walk the dogs, give them their breakfast,

and then I obviously don't have a shower in the van.

So I have to go to the gym.

And I try and do exercise at the gym.

But quite often I'm lazy and I just go in and have a shower.

And then...

Yeah, then I... Then I go to work and I work Monday to Friday

and then I come home and, again, I walk the dogs.

We often go to a pub or whatever to see friends.

And then, yeah, I end up coming back

and maybe reading a book or watching Netflix.

I have a TV so that's always nice.

And yeah, it's a really nice place to come back and relax

after a long day of working.

So I had a flat in Edinburgh for a while and it was lovely.

But it was really difficult once I gave that flat up

to find a dog-friendly flat.

I now have two dogs.

So it was tricky.

Somebody I know lives in a van and had said,

why don't you think about it?

And so I looked into it and I started researching it.

And here we are!

I don't have to worry about accommodation.

You know, I just take the van and I park outside my friend's house

and I can sleep in it.

It's... Yeah, that element of freedom

and not having to spend money where you don't need to.

You know?

I can go on a day trip to anywhere

and all I have to pay for is my fuel.

And it's great.

I never really got to travel when I left uni,

so at the end of 2020 I plan to do a road trip.

I'm going to start off in Europe and see where I end up, really.

I haven't planned really very far.

I'd like to do some work-aways.

I'd like to just travel around and meet new people.

And I am slightly nervous of travelling alone,

but I think travelling alone has become a lot less dangerous

these days than it used to be.

So I'm sure it will be OK.

People often ask me what do Muslims do to have fun

or what do Muslim women do to have fun?

Now, I can't speak for every Muslim but one thing I love to do is...

..hike in the Scottish Highlands.

Today I'll be hiking up the Pap of Glencoe.

Glencoe is one of my favourite spots to visit in Scotland.

The views are stunning

and there are lots of special places to hike and to discover.

The Pap is considered a Graham and is 2,349 feet up.

It's not a Munro but a little challenging nonetheless.

For the hike I'm wearing waterproof hiking boots and an umbrella abaya.

An abaya is the dress you'd often see Muslim women wear.

This one is cut in a way where there's no restriction to the legs,

although you still have to be cautious

when hiking in a home garment.

As well as making sure I have enough food, water

and the trusted first-aid kit,

I also need to bring a prayer mat and a compass.

Muslims pray five times a day and on a hike like this,

at some point I would need to find a safe place to do so.

So now we're at the bottom.

I'm going to start going up.

Being religious does not mean leading a boring lifestyle.

Everyone's priorities and enjoyments are different.

I love hiking because it's a healthy activity

that takes me out of the city and into the beauty of nature.

It also helps me to relax and reflect on life.

We are climbing. No more hiking.

We're just climbing up the top now.

As a modest Muslim, I refuse to compromise

what I choose to wear for what I love to do.

But I also refuse not to do what I love because of my cause.

There are lots of fun things I enjoy doing

and hiking in my beautiful country is just one of them.

GORDON: The first thing you think of, having a van,

is to travel and be away from a place,

but it's once you're in the van and you've realised

you've got so much time, there's just no rush to do anything.

You can just switch off from the hectic kind of life of uni

or working life or being in a city, even.

And just go out to a remote place and relax and slow down.

My name is Gordon Yule, I'm from Bishopbriggs, Glasgow.

I'm 24 years old and I'm doing environmental geography

at Stirling University.

So I bought the van in November and then I just started clearing out

what was in the van previously.

That was probably the hardest job,

actually, was getting stuff out of the van.

And once that was out you've just basically got a shell

of where you just kind of start building.

But the building process, I basically didn't plan much in advance

of where everything's going and what to buy and what to do.

Everything was planned very last minute.

So first thing, insulation, I needed that.

So bought that, put it on the walls and insulated everywhere that I needed.

And then you're just, mostly through YouTube,

figuring out what I need to do next,

what I need to buy and throwing stuff together.

And it's surprisingly easy to build a van

if you just do a tiny bit of research.

Watching stuff on YouTube, I've seen van life kind of videos.

And I kind of wanted to be part of that,

so did a quick research online, found this van, bought it,

and yeah, started converting it.

So I guess I always have a kind of drive to travel.

I wanted it mainly for the freedom that a van gives you.

You know, you've got everything here, it's a kind of enclosed,

self-containing unit where you've got your sink, cooking facilities,

you've got your bed.

And it means you just have the ability to put a few things in

and you can go for a weekend or longer, if you wish,

and just get out of the cities and into the countryside.

I've not really seen that much of Scotland yet,

so having the van just gives you that ability

to leave on weekends and go for weekends away.

That is my initial kind of travel plans for this term at university,

to try to see as much of Scotland as I can

cos it's right on your doorstep

and it's not far at all to get out into the country.

ANDREW: As a wildlife film-maker,

I spend a lot of time away from home.

I'm not complaining.

The adventures were one of the reasons I wanted to do this job,

but it does mean I spend a lot of time away from the family.

Even when I am back home, days off can be a bit of a rarity,

so I often take my son to work.

If you can call it work.

It's a nice way to spend time together.

Plus, childcare is bloody expensive.

My son's also getting to that age

where he's coming in handy for lugging kit.

I try to get him involved in the film-making process,

doing a bit of sound here and there.

He talks too much to be a sound recordist, though.

HE GIGGLES

Wildlife film-making can demand a bit of patience, to say the least,

so like any juvenile, after sitting still for half an hour,

he's bored out his nut...

..but it's nothing a punnet of sugar can't handle.

But not everything always goes to plan.

Sometimes there's a wee accident,

or four...

Can you jump? Yeah.

..but Mummy doesn't need to know about that.

It's pretty important to me that he gets to see a bit of his own country

and the natural world.

I'm not the kind of parent who wants my child to follow in my footsteps.

He can do whatever makes him happy when he's older.

He might be an erotic dancer,

a sandwich artist,

an actual Pokemon,

whatever the kids are into these days.

I would, however, like him to have an interest

or at least feel comfortable in the natural world.

It's a subject which needs to be exposed more to kids, I think.

And it's much more relevant than algebra, let's be honest.

Anyway, he'll be going to school next year

and he won't be able to come out with me as much,

but I do hope the adventure and outdoor stuff

is rubbing off on him a bit...

Hello! ..because even if he grows up to be a wee shite,

he'll always have a friend.

What do they say? If one becomes acquainted with the wild...

..one will never be alone.