Praful Chopde with his rooftop tent Praful Chopde with his rooftop tentThey are among a growing tribe of campervan travellers or overlanders that has grown into a 1,000-member strong community.
He now makes caravan conversions for others, setting up Pro Camper India in 2023.
But I’ve also converted Maruti EECO vans between Rs 40,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh.
Others like Praful Chopde, a senior section engineer of Western Railways from Mumbai’s Virar, have chosen a DIY approach.
I now cook chole by caramelising onions and jeera with water and devised my own zero-oil cooking,” she says.
Retired marine engineer JS Sethi, 79, and his wife Indu, 76, fell in love all over again in an apple orchard tucked away in the folds of the blue hills with the starry skies above them. Chancing upon this Van Goghian spot on a driving holiday at Solan, Himachal Pradesh, in 2007, they just froze in the moment. There was no hotel, inn or even a village nearby except the hut of the orchard keeper. “Indu said if only there was a washroom and bed in the car, she would have her own sunset and sunrise for life,” says Sethi. Then began his labour of love.
That’s when Sethi, who had travelled the world with the Merchant Navy, built his own motorhome. “There were no rules for RV (recreational vehicle) in India then. I bought a Tempo traveller in 2010, stripped it down to its shell, insulated it, installed a bed, a kitchenette, marine toilet, a shower capsule, extra battery, an AC/DC alternator and a water tank in the undercarriage. Indu did the upholstery for the sofa we fit in and put pinewood panels, just like our home. Ever since, we have never missed this spot.” That’s how this travelling duo want to walk into the sunset, having completed a 52-day sojourn of the Northeast last year. Meanwhile, back in Palakkad, 29-year-olds Sangeeth VV and wife Kavya are writing their own story. The young IT professional and the dairy scientist – “working from a remote home” – have been on the road for 410 days, waking up to a different sunrise every day.
Praful Chopde with his rooftop tent Praful Chopde with his rooftop tent
They are among a growing tribe of campervan travellers or overlanders that has grown into a 1,000-member strong community. Overlanding is a travel experience of camping at places that are off-the-grid with a motorhome and owning the journey as well as the destination, without a tour plan. It is about a life unscripted, usually with an SUV, a bus, a sedan or a hatchback, which is a mini home with conveniences. “A bus is like a one-BHK, complete with beds, loungers, storage cabinets, kitchen, oven, bathroom, cassette ACs, low-power refrigerators and even washing machines, all powered by solar panels,” says Dhruv North, who began overlanding with a 30-year-old Matador he bought in Tamil Nadu. He now makes caravan conversions for others, setting up Pro Camper India in 2023.
Advertisement
“A big build with a high-end vehicle could go up to Rs 50 lakh or more. But I’ve also converted Maruti EECO vans between Rs 40,000 and Rs 1.5 lakh. And they last years,” says 35-year-old North. Others like Praful Chopde, a senior section engineer of Western Railways from Mumbai’s Virar, have chosen a DIY approach. The 40-year-old has folded the back seats of his TUV 400, levelled them with a bed bench all the way to the boot and balanced it on a kitchen box beneath. This box reminds you of picnics in the colonial era with slide-out drawers that hide a gas stove, small LPG cylinder, utensils and dry rations. “I have an extra battery which gets charged when the car is running. We eat fresh, so we don’t need a mini fridge. The awning attached to the car fans out to a porch of sorts. We carry a foldable toilet tent which can be placed over a pit and a pop-up tent on the roof for extra sleeping. With solar LED lights and folding camp chairs and tables, you can actually manage a conversion within Rs 20,000. And do a 10-year trip with it,” says he.
It is this jugaad spin that is prompting the itch for camper vans, democratising travel among the masses and turning the neighbourhood carpenter and welder into innovative fabricators. A foreign-made four-wheel drive isn’t the thumb rule. The plebeian Tata 407, Maruti, an Ashok Leyland chassis, anything works. Click on YouTube and you would find a new breed of van lifers, be it a Nano owner from Jhansi who travelled to Leh or Vivek Sharma, a documentary maker from Ajmer, who spends six months on the road with his family, homeschooling his children in the outdoors — in his words, “the best classroom in the world.” At the cost of a vacation package at a retreat, a camper traveller can find a virgin spot with the best vantage point and explore at leisure for 10 to 15 days.
PASSION WITH A PURPOSE
Age becomes just a number for overlanders. “In a life guided by conditions and compulsions, this is one way everybody can reclaim their life with their own means and find a higher purpose,” says 52-year-old Vishwa Kiran, president and founder of the Overlanders Association and a software professional. He converted his Isuzu truck into a camper and rigged it with tents and canopies. “Travelling solo, I realised life could be stripped down to the bare essentials and you need very little. You put life in boxes till the end, but its bigness is out there on the valley floor you find by the bend,” he says.
Campers gather for a ‘home-cooked’ meal in Vivek Sharma’s motorhome Campers gather for a ‘home-cooked’ meal in Vivek Sharma’s motorhome
North (who took on his surname after a northern pole star), is now a father of two, and lives with his family off-the-grid for six months. But there was a time in 2016 when his cyber security firm tanked. “I lost everything, my home too. So I converted my Datsun and lived on the road. I took to tea trading, which took me on a six-month journey to the Northeast. My perspective changed as people there didn’t have egos. On the road you are just another passerby, where you are judged by your behaviour, what you become, not what you own. So when my son was born in 2017, I bought the Matador, the only thing I could afford back then, and designed it myself,” says North.
Advertisement
Sangeeth and Kavya, who redesigned their Force Gurkha with some help from friends, were determined to break barriers of identity. “Everybody in India asks which state you are from. We now say we are from everywhere and from nowhere,” says Sangeeth. As a dairy scientist, Kavya makes it a point to teach vilagers about rearing and caring for milch cattle. “With villagers offering some vegetables and milk, we manage to keep our daily expense to under Rs 200, apart from the fuel refill of course,” says Sangeeth.
AN UNCONVENTIONAL EDUCATION
But, for all the freedom it offers, van life has its own discipline. Kiran drives over the weekends and parks himself in the middle of a farm for the rest of the week, running an online office. For Sharma, 40, the outdoors are about responsible parenting. Although he has all the creature comforts with a 550-litre water tank in his Eicher truck, home-schooling is about spartan discipline for his children, 10 and 12. “I have to complete their curriculum in time for their annual tests. But more importantly, I tell them education in the real world is not about chasing jobs. Here they have better social skills, playing with the village children and sharing chores with adult campers,” he says. For North, camping is all about survival skills which will hold his boys in good stead.
Sangeeth and Kavya with their rig Sangeeth and Kavya with their rig
Adults learn, too. “You have to be a plumber, electrician and mechanic rolled into one,” says Sharma. Indu learnt to thaw frozen water trapped in feeder pipes at Sela Pass. “You forget about your fears and you become alert about life,” she says.
REAL PEOPLE IN A REAL BHARAT
There are questions about safety undoubtedly, for friends and family. But for these travellers, they only have stories of warmth and local hospitality to share. “There is no criminal intent in these parts as people are self-contained. I parked myself nearly a month at this village called Dawki on the Meghalayan border with Bangladesh, paying a nominal fee to the village pradhan. In return, villagers shared the produce of the land every other day. By Day 3, they had made me one of their own. There was a rivulet with crystal clear water and a foliage so dense and varied that it was like Thailand on steroids,” says Kiran.
Advertisement
Read Also | Caravan Culture 101: Insider Tips For Getting It Right
The Sethi couple always get help. “The village dhobi washes and sun-dries our clothes for a small fee. Dhaba owners cook food with the oil we give. In Kanyakumari, where he had parked our camper in between beach palms, very close to land’s end, a coffee seller would wake us up with a steaming brew. At one time, we parked some 20 km outside Srinagar, amid reports of stone pelting there. A young boy volunteered to repair a puncture and fix some minor mechanical problems. He was on roza and refused money or food. So I gave him some chocolate and dry fruits, saying he could break his fast with his family at home. Now every time we return to the Valley, he meets us. Perhaps, it is our silver hair but we’ve only been loved,” says Indu.
Vishwa Kiran with his kitchen setup Vishwa Kiran with his kitchen setup
While Sangeeth and Kavya were once unprepared to see a leopard prowling around their campervan in the dead of night, it was a village in Madhya Pradesh that turned them into a celebrity of sorts. “They were surprised by our camper as they did not even have the conveniences we had inside. They pleaded with us to stay and talk about the world beyond the highway simply because nobody, neither politician or official, had ever visited them,” says Sangeeth.
Sharma was touched by an incident near Tehri lake. A villager insisted that Sharma’s mother and their kids sleep in a room he had cleaned out. “His chappal straps were tied with a wire because he couldn’t afford a new one but he was thinking about the comfort of others,” he says. Having met so many generous givers, he hopes awareness about overlanding destinations can set up a micro economy for those who have slipped by the wayside.
THE SPEEDBREAKERS
But there are challenges. While caravan travel is allowed in the country, in the absence of a rulebook, each state has its norms. “Regional traffic offices (RTOs) in Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra are cooperative about travel permits and licences, others are not,” says Kiran. But the biggest problem is dumping black and grey water tanks, that carry the refuse of the camper, into a sewage drain. “With not enough camping parks in India where you can unload and reload tanks, we have to find sewers on our own,” says Sharma.
Advertisement
North says that though the Ministry of Tourism has a caravan park policy in place, the land provisions are severe. “Caravaning is a seasonal activity. So till multi-use of the land is allowed, private players won’t be as invested in them,” says North.
With parks now lacking primary medical centres, the Sethis, who are hypertensive, make sure that they are not too far away from a hospital and always carry their medicines. That’s why caravaners organise community meet-ups to understand these problems and are now working with policy makers to make codes that are implementable.
STILL A HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN
The road may challenge your limits. But you end up being a forever student from the unpredictability it throws at you. Indu was never too much into cooking. “Once I had two eggs which I stir fried with some salted biscuits and onions, and we got a new recipe. I now cook chole by caramelising onions and jeera with water and devised my own zero-oil cooking,” she says. As Chopde recommends, even a 30-km drive away from Mumbai, there’s a beach. Find a tranquil spot, lay out your tent, feel the breeze and sip wine. “That takes just six hours of a 48 hour weekend. Who says you have to camp big?”
