I’m here!
In 2020 I was living in Sydney in the beachside suburb of Manly and alongside my husband Andy have converted a delivery van into a weekend getaway on wheels. I’d even come up with my own hashtag (not terribly unique) #advanture. But if you want to try and be an influvancer you need a punny hashtag.
There’s even a pun generator available to help you uncover a name for your van; Spider-Van, Iron-Van, To Boldly Go Where No Van Has Gone Before… we are yet to decide.
With a career in both broadcast news and a top-rating breakfast show, rising well before the sun and crashing on the couch before it set, I had moved into more sociable hours, as the co-host of The World Nomads Travel Podcast and worked as the senior producer scouring the globe for travel bloggers, experts, and authors to share their stories.
COVID-19 (Coronavirus) hit the travel industry hard, including the company I worked for. Initially my hours were temporarily dropped but sadly in March 2021, with the travel industry still under enormous stress I was made redundant.
There is a lot of talk about what the travel landscape will look like, indicating we will be travelling more slowly, ethically, sustainably and safer than before. On this site you will find posts relating to conversations around the ‘new normal’ with links to the episodes.
But, what to do when there’s a global pandemic and your partner has managed to hang on to full-time hours, yet yours has been cut to just two days a week (because you work in the travel industry, and we all know what happened there)?
Maybe I could start a cottage industry making chilli jam? My neighbours loved it. Or learn to knit? Who was I kidding? Without an adventure on the horizon, I would slowly go mad. The only answer was to chip away at my husband, already working remotely, to convince him now was the perfect time to hit the road.
We were already enjoying mini getaways in our newly converted LDV G10 diesel delivery van when I suggested ending our lease, selling much of our stuff, and turning what had been a stressful year into something worth celebrating. Andrew, my husband, not only began to warm to the idea – he agreed to give van life a go.
Our van isn’t big, but I like to think it’s pretty fancy. It not only has a pull-out kitchen, with two burners and a sink, but also a 12-volt battery, a socket for a fridge, and USBs to charge our devices. Everything we needed to live and work comfortably!
LIFE ON THE ROAD GETS REAL
The first few days on the road were full of promise. Andrew had taken some leave and we decided we’d use the time to begin the Great Artesian Drive, embracing seven hot Artesian bore springs, beginning in the opal town of Lightning Ridge in NSW.
Once we arrived and had set up for the working week, it then became obvious living from a van and working from one had separate challenges.
Firstly, we had to have 4G coverage and a lot of the places we wanted to visit along the route, didn’t. This meant we couldn’t be as spontaneous as we’d like. And, because Andrew was constantly on Zoom calls, we needed a quiet spot to park. Which wasn’t always easy in caravan parks when your site was right next to the swimming pool where the kids would play Marco Polo from sunrise to sunset.
For me, as a podcast producer and host, I was happy for some ambient noise in my recordings, which I did from inside the van on my two days a week. Given I was talking about my adventure in our episodes, it made sense to hear the birds, passing cars or pelting rain on the roof.
When I wasn’t working, I’d go exploring on my own, arriving back at the van with supplies for dinner. We both enjoy cooking and were determined to be more creative at mealtimes than a simple sausage in bread, after all we’d gone to the trouble of packing chopsticks. So, we’d sit down at night to a Thai green curry (as an example), plug in our USB fairy lights and chat about the day.
Along with the chopsticks I packed cushions, pot plants, the mat from our lounge room and my essential oils diffuser. After all the van had to feel like a home.
IN THE SWING OF IT
Each Friday we would pack up and, without worrying about coverage, go off the beaten track.
One of the places we visited was Goodooga, known for its bore springs and once voted Australia’s most boring town until the local bowls club took out the state championships putting the place on the map. My favourite thing about travel is connecting with characters and this town didn’t disappoint. There were roadworks happening nearby so the truckies would bath in the bore springs at the end of the day and we’d listen to their stories and join in their conversations.
Another highlight was the Three Pubs in the Scrub, in the middle of the Grawin Opal Fields, and including the Glengarry Hilton. Legend has it someone flew there thinking it was part of the Hilton Hotel chain, but in an area described by visitors as post-apocalyptic, they must have received a huge shock. The fields are still being mined so it’s best to not have too many beers and head off to explore.
My absolute favourite place was Silverton, an outback town where many movies have been filmed, including Mad Max. The pub there is iconic, and you’ll find yourself sharing a cold drink with either a pack of horses, a donkey or an emu. Could it get any more Australian?
OVER TOO SOON
Spending time in these remote places was as if the pandemic didn’t exist. Obviously, we were encouraged to social distance and sanitise our hands, but otherwise it was like we had found our utopia. No rent to pay, only petrol, and apart from park fees no other financial overheads – plus, we were continuing to earn without an office in sight.
Of course, 2020 being what it was, it wasn’t long before we were not only chasing phone coverage, but border closures too as Australian states worked quickly to isolate themselves from places with COVID cases. We were happy to live and work from our van but facing the prospect of being in lockdown was a compromise we were keen to avoid. What we do? We had no TV for a start, so bingeing Netflix wasn’t an option.
Sadly, as the second wave hit Europe and a return to travel as we knew it not on the cards for some time, this was when I was made redundant. We had made it to Tasmania when I got the news so, after seven months on the road, we decided to pause here a while. I had a career to rebuild, and Andrew relished the thought of 4G whenever he wanted it – a home base of bricks and mortar made sense.
Saying that, if my husband were to lose his job, I wouldn’t hesitate to hit the road again full-time, and neither would he. For now, though, it’s enough to take off for weekends exploring some of the country’s most spectacular countryside and breathing the cleanest air in the world.
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