Live Your Life – Your Way!

After 4 months on the road and over 3000km travelled, we can now comfortably say we have figured out the ins and outs of vanlife and worked out what works for us! Yes, we are always still learning and new things pop up, but we have found harmony and balance, which is a beautiful thing.

Before embarking on our journey, when we were still in the planning and daydreaming phase, we looked to social media for inspiration and an inside view of what life may look like for us on the road. Palm trees, hammocks, white sandy beaches, rainforest hikes, living out of the van, back doors open, taking in all the scenery, not a care in the world. This was the picture we had painted in our minds. Yes, it has and is absolutely this. The things we have seen and experienced are incredible, awe inspiring, an absolute feast for the eyes and soul. We have already grown, learnt, experienced and appreciated so very much that this wonderful country (and life!) has to offer.

There is however another side to every story and one that is reality. We’ve had so many beautiful starry eyed upcoming vanlifers from all around the world contact us with questions, asking for advice, information and our thoughts and feelings on our experiences thus far. My advice remains the same. Vanlife is a very personal journey and experience and most certainly not a ‘one size fits all’.

It’s all about finding a balance, tailoring an experience that suits each person’s individual wants, desires, personality and budget. I’m not sure that this can be completely 100% worked out until you get on the road. We had an idea of how we might live our life (and a healthy $12,500 budget in mind) but that very quickly changed (and funds diminished!) as we set off and starting experiencing vanlife first hand.

As I’ve said before, it is such an unusual, rollercoaster of emotions, high and lows and an experience that really strips you back to your core values, your core personality and what makes you tick. Perhaps more so for us as this isn’t just a holiday, where we have a home and job to go back to. This is our life right now!

So getting back to the balance. There is perhaps a slight misconception that you can “free camp” anywhere you like, all around Australia. This isn’t necessarily true. For us, we like to be very respectful of each town we are in, the locals and our country. If there is a sign along a magnificent beach that says “NO overnight staying”, we don’t stay. We just don’t feel right doing that. Sure, we could just pop down a side street and stay there for the night, but in reality, that means driving around for sometimes an hour to find a spot that is a little out of the way, that is flat, not on a hill, not near houses, doesn’t have parking restrictions, spending the whole day out, coming back at dark (so people don’t see us getting into what pretty obviously looks like a house once the side door is open!) trying to cook dinner with doors shut (not great for ventilation) then trying to be quiet (no happy hour and Uno/movie night) keeping the lights dim (so people can’t see inside) trying to stealth feed/wee/poo the dogs, then getting up at the crack ass of dawn to reverse that process and start our day. Not our idea of a holiday! Or, we could literally crawl out of bed, get into the driver seat, drive back to the beach fling the doors open, pull out the deck chairs and cook breakfast in the carpark (cringe….how awkward) as all the locals come for their morning surf and either say hello, or more often than not, look disapprovingly as though we are freeloading.

So, this has meant for us, that we stay in registered free camps, which are relatively few and far between, but atleast this way we can have the door open, have the deck chairs out, let the doggies roam, enjoy our space and feel like we can be free. Or, we stay in vanparks, where we can safely leave the van, come and go throughout the day to check out the sites, frolick at the beach, forage for shells, run the dogs then come back and cook a beautiful meal and enjoy our evening as we choose. This is the balance that works for us. Yes, there have most certainly been times that we have done the “stealth camping” but this has been because we genuinely haven’t been able to find somewhere to stay, or, because we’ve really wanted to check out a city – like Brisbane, where we managed to (very respectfully) park in New Farm with Harbour Bridge views!! But, the price for this was that we ate out every meal for 3 days and only used the van to sleep.

Being Melbournians at heart, we do love urban culture and have also found that the majority of our budget goes into our tummies! This is a personal choice and again one that works for us, but, as I’ve said, each vanlifer needs to tailor their experience to suit them. We have heard of some people that are spending $150 a month on food…..say whatttt?!!!!! This makes us cringe at the thought of going through sometimes $150 in a day or 2. But, it makes us cringe more at the thought of having to potentially eat really really basic unhealthy food (like 2 minute noodles!), just so we can save money to stay on the road longer. We’d rather really enjoy our time and have a balance of healthy, nourishing, tasty van cooked food, with the ability to have coffee and treats out when we like. And just to confirm for those of you that have asked, no, we are not “working” as such, although, being the entrepreneur types, we always have something or another in the pipeline 😉

It also helps that we have a van that we genuinely enjoy spending time in. We are so comfortable being able to fully stand up, stretch out, have a full kitchen, bathroom, sitting area and bed. It really is a home for us and has all the creature comforts, which is lovely to come ‘home’ to after a big day out exploring. This suits us. For some vanlifers, their space is a lot smaller, where they can’t stand up inside, don’t have the internal space we have, do all of their cooking outside and really spend the majority of the time in their van either driving, or sleeping. Which I’m sure suits them. Perhaps that’s the more outdoorsy types, which we are – to a certain extent.

So, while we have spent a lot more money on vanparks than we thought we would, a lot more on food than we anticipated, we are genuinely and whole heartedly now living the dream. The dream just looks a little different now than it did then, but we wouldn’t change our journey for anything.

We really are living life – our way!

JT xo