Ian Usher, 61, gave it all up to start anew, flogging almost all of his worldly possessions to do something truly special – live off the grid in a remote jungle
(Image: PA)
A bloke who sold his entire life on eBay to buy a remote jungle island has revealed that he finally found a place so nice he has settled there.
Ian Usher, 61, from Barnard Castle, decided to start afresh, selling nearly all of his worldly possessions to do something truly extraordinary live off the grid. He’s since flogged the island but still lives by many of the key principles it helped him establish, using housesitting as a way to globe-trot on a budget – but now there’s a basecamp.
“We’re living in France now, we’ve been living in France for coming up to four years,” he said. “We were travelling around France at the end of 2020 and got caught in the lockdown. We were looking after a friend’s home in the Burgundy region and just fell in love with the area.
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“Obviously the wine is number one. It’s very laid back and very rural. Having lived in off-grid places in the past I prefer that now… It’s mainly cows around us.”
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Ian is currently working on setting up an off-grid home in the region but continues to travel extensively. He “tries to travel as much as possible. For winter we always try and escape somewhere. Last winter we went to Mexico and Turkey. This winter we’re going to South Africa for three months,” he revealed.
Ian and Vanessa have become savvy globetrotters, trading in the traditional home for a life of house-sitting. They’ve toured the globe living rent-free while building relationships worldwide, even launching their own publication, House Sitting Magazine.
He enthused, “We always try and fit in housesits… we always try and fit in as much travel as possible.”
When they’re not jet-setting, Ian and Vanessa are busy helming their mag, created to dish out tips to folks itching to mimic their nomadic blueprint.
Their magazine’s content is heavily pet-oriented, which Ian declares is a cornerstone of the house-sitting universe.
His decision to live on an island made headlines, and while many were likely green with envy over his daring move, Ian has confessed that there are some hurdles with such a lifestyle. “There really is a mixture of ups and downs trying to do something that far off. In Panama, I didn’t speak much Spanish at all so I had to immerse myself in that. I had to learn how to handle a boat. I bought an island – you had to go to the supermarket via boat, and see your friends via boat.”
He added: “I had to learn a lot about building and wiring and solar systems… it was a really steep learning curve. I learned that I’m happiest when I do have a challenge, something to really get my teeth into. I’ve just gone through life from one challenge to the next.”
Living in isolation, as Ian did, may raise a number of security concerns for many people.
“It felt reasonably safe,” he noted. “The biggest issue was theft if you weren’t there to monitor your stuff. There’s a local Indigenous people who live there and the concept of someone going on holiday was an alien one to them, so if you disappeared for a couple of weeks they must have thought ‘Oh that guy doesn’t need his roofing material, his furniture, he’s gone.’
“So there was what I always called a very active recycling programme [on the island], as soon as your back was turned your stuff would start disappearing, so rather than feeling it was dangerous in a physical sort of way you had to maintain an awareness about property.”
His need for security bred a house-sitting habit. “That’s where I became aware of housesitting, I needed people to look after my place while I was away and I met a couple of house sitters in Panama who were looking after people’s properties… It set off a bit of a bit of lightbulb for me.”
He faced some hairy moments boat trips with bulky logs and being caught in storms were common risks. “If we fell in, no one would know we’re swimming here, you know.”
Ian and his fellow islanders enjoyed a good life, but their unique lifestyle came with its own set of logistical challenges. He reminisced about the laid-back Sundays, saying, “You’d always go out for Sunday afternoon Sunday was the big day and everyone would get together in the local pizza restaurant in the jungle and sometimes you’d leave it a little bit late, you’d think ‘I’ll just have one more beer. It would get a bit dark and I had one night pottering around in the mangroves thinking ‘I haven’t a clue where I am now.'”.
He shrugged off the dangers of their way of life: “The worst that was going to happen was sleep in the boat and get bitten by mosquitos, wake up in the morning and drive home in when I could see what I was doing. [These are] the challenges of living in the jungle.”
Ian expressed his disdain for conventional living: “I’ve always wanted to live the most exciting, most interesting life. I’ve never liked the idea of a 9-5 job and 40 years of that, it’s never appealed. I’ve always looked for a different way of doing things that doesn’t mean you’re trapped in the rat race.”
He shared his philosophy on life: “You get one go at this, so for me, I want to give it the best go I can, and have the most fun I can. I’ve always looked at how I can live without working a 40-hour week to pay the mortgage to have a place to live… the hampster wheel of working to pay off the mortgage.”
Ian, a seasoned traveller, sold his island to another wanderlust soul and found a new place to call home. He shared, “Once I sold the island and discovered house sitting and combined that with an online-based income a lightbulb went off you can live a travel-based lifestyle without a mortgage, without debt, with access to cheap accommodation and work online to bring in the income it’s given an interesting lifestyle.”
For those desperate to ditch the daily grind, Ian’s prime tip?
Ditch your debts!
He counsels, “Just try and unburden yourself from debt… anything you borrowed money on, you have to unburden yourself from that, it’s the biggest anchor that impacts upon your freedom to having to have the job and having to be in the place.”
He’s quick to acknowledge it’s no cakewalk but credits his own liberty to shedding fiscal chains: “Obviously I appreciate that’s not easy to do… that was my focus for a long time: get rid of the debt and then I was free to think ‘Right, now what do I really want to do with my life?”
