Travelling the world, doing helpful things and admire the beauty of exploring, this of course also includes coming across wonderful graffiti. Would be a dream! The two world explorers Thomas Adventurer and Diana Beekvelt aka NOMADS ON WHEELS live this idea to the fullest and also show others how to do it. It is possible to travel the world and also to save the planet, as well to document the wonderful nature, to meet interesting people and to encounter grandiose urban art!
The NOMADS ON WHEELS are cruising around the world with their VW LT28 van since years, at the same time they are on a mission. During their travels, they clean up beaches, they draw attention to ecological grievances, they bring up climatic problems. At the places they stay, they do their thing. And we all have to do something as well, they are setting a statement. Clean it up! They show in an exemplary manner how dealing with your life without mass consumption can be. The exciting stories that happen to them, the wondrous events, also funny and heartful, but mostly interesting situations and projects, they document it on their channels.
The two are continously travelling the world with a strong committment to nature and environmental protection, which they try to get more attention to in their postings. They inform about interesting areas and they clean up those areas. That’s how you should visit a place! Since a while especially their photos of urban art are also available on our Vagabundler platform, the different places are listed below and we also did an interesting interview with the NOMADS ON WHEELS.
Interview with Nomads on Wheels
We spoke with the enthusiastic world travellers in an interesting interview and asked them some questions. Check out those background information with answers to some whys and hows and whats. After the questionaire there is a gallery with all the meanwhile included graffiti spots in many different countries around the world.
How did Nomads on Wheels come to live? When did it start and how did you develope the idea?
In October 2018 I started the project Nomads on Wheels because I wanted to travel more and work less. So I bought an old camperbus to drive through Europe to meet like minded people. The project NOW focusses on people in Europe who travel, live and work on wheels. In this project we are driving with a bus to document these group of people. Why do nomads choose for this mobile life style and what do they need to proceed? This project is to provide an answer to the main question: is Vanlife a trend or the future?
When did each of you start traveling yourselves? And how did you find each other then?
I, Diana, was born with travellers blood. My grandma and father where born in a gipsy trailer and some of my family are still working at the lunaparks in Europe. When I become older I travelled all over the world. Wanted away again when I just got back. Worked for more than 60 hours a week as a freelance graphic designer to finance my travels. I needed to change my way of living! Working less and travel more, so the idea of Nomads on Wheels was created. I made a business plan with one year preparation, bought a bus, clearing my house and in October 2018 I started my road-trip. In January 2019 I have met Thomas in Malaga in Spain. He was escaping the Christmas time in Germany with a small transporter bus including a motorbike and racebike. We fell in love and travelled since together in my van.
Why the decision with the van? It has many advantages, but also disadvantages. What excites you about it, what annoys you?
Traveling with a van is an outdoor and minimalistic way of living. Living close to the nature makes us feel very happy. Not having much stuff makes your head clear and you can enjoy the little things much more. We experience everyday new adventures, what we have seen with our van is really unbelievable. You wake up with sunrise at the beach and the next day you are in the Rocky Mountains seeing vultures in the sky. Of course there are some little disadvantages, for example with the weather. If it is raining for four days the van is a tiny place of 10 m² to hang-out. And if there is something wrong with the van or you are sick these a hectic moments. We experience an explosion of campers after Corona in 2019, there are so many vans on the road whith wild parking which become a problem. Lots of nice places are forbidden for campers by signs and barriers. The future of vanlife is changing…
Through which countries are you currently travelling and which countries are planned?
We travel in Spain this winter (2022/23) and lots of countries are on our bucketlist as UK, Scandinavian and the Balkan. There are lots of places we want to see.
Tell us more about your sustainable mission. You not only travel, you also try to mediate. Tell us why and how you do it.
During our travels we found lots of garbage on the beaches. In Italy it was so bad, we started with our first beach clean up. Writing the word HELP with trash to ask for attention to the plastic problem in the area. We got a lot of feedback with our actions which motivated us to keep on going. In Marokko we got on television with our message and reached a lot of people. Also what we do is helping nature, saying thanks for our stay and most of all it is a good fitness for our body. We cannot clean the whole world but every kind of effort is most needed. You can also help to stop single use plastic, reduce your consumption and recycle as much as you can. Every minute two garbage trucks of plastic are dumped into our oceans. Currently 8 million metric tons of plastic winds up in the oceans. Time to change NOW!
Through your channels I always get very beautiful stories. Coincidental experiences, how one thing leads to another and fate falls into place.
Every day we are experiences so many things. Every sunset is not the same and we never get bored of what nature brings. We try to enjoy every day as it is our last, cause life is too short to waste. In our Facebook and Instagram we photograph and write our daily adventures, so follow us and enjoy reading. On my website dianabeekvelt.smugmug.com you can order easy landscape photos to bring natural places in your environment.
Tell us also some negative experiences. You want to draw attention to the climate changes, the accumulation of garbage and pollution visible everywhere.
Like I told before, it becomes more and more difficult to find a nice parking where you can enjoy the silence of nature. We are sent away by police during the day or at night. Sending us to supermarkets or campings to sleep what is the last place you will find the silence of nature. We like to share our passion for the nature and that is why we do clean-ups to help nature to recover. We see a lot of trash on the beaches from fishing. Like nets, containers, fishing lines and styrofoam. After seeing the documentary „Conspiracy“ on Netflix, we decided not to eat fish anymore. If we stop consuming, you can make a change to save the nature. Everybody breath, drink and eating daily plastic. The amount of a bankcard (5 gram) we are consuming every week. Every one of us! Microplastics are already found in our blood system. Mother’s feeding unborn babies microplastics through the placenta. Plastic pollution is a big problem and we are not knowing what it can do for our health on the longterm.
How can we do more? What would be your tips. How can we avoid garbage and damage the environment less? And how can we help clean up and repair the damage?
There are so may things you can do to help saving Mother Nature. It starts all with awareness. Like I told you before stop single use plastic, using plastic and recycle to cut the overload of garbage. Another thing I didn’t mention before is the overconsuming of drinkiable water. Did you know a toilet visit costs 5 liter drinkwater? Or taking a showing is costing 1 liter drinkwater per minute plus the energy to make warm water? An average washing machine is taking 65 to 90 liter of water to clean your laundry. Every action you do to spare is so helpful. Take a minute of time to see what you buy in a supermarket. Don’t buy apples from Argentina but buy local products which are available in the time of the year. I want you to hit the breaks in over consuming and buying plastic stuff you will throw away afterwards. We cannot save the planet alone but together we can make a difference.
Nomads on Wheels – Global Graffiti Collection
INFOTHEK
Photographers: NOMADS ON WHEELS – DIANA BEEKVELT & THOMAS ADVENTURER
Website: https://nomadsonwheels.eu
Website: https://dianabeekvelt.smugmug.com/Portfolio-Diana-Beekvelt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nomadsonwheels.eu
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nomadsonwheelseu
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thomasadventurer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dianabeekvelt
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nomadsonwheels4095
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