Travelling Aus in our $100 van

The story of how we are traveling Australia in a $100 van.

A few years ago, Rob and I bought our first house knowing that it wasn’t our forever home; but a safety net for the adventures to come. We soon after started a ‘van life’ bank account, putting away money each week to be able to afford our home on wheels.

One night after work, Rob told me the story of a van that was sitting on a co-worker’s farm and had been that way for a few years collecting dirt and rust.

It all started with a woman who was also traveling Australia, she ended up having a crash, having to take the van to Rob’s future workplace (panel shop). It sat at the shop for a year as she didn’t have enough money to get it repaired at the time. After collecting the money to fix it, she went back to be told that it now had a storage fee; ending in her not wanting to pay for it all. So the lady and the panel shop owner made a deal – he kept the van and she was debt free.

A few years later, the owner of the shop didn’t have any cash to buy beer for the work Christmas party so Rob’s future co-worker, Dagger, and the owner made a deal. Dagger would buy the booze and in return he’d get the old van.

Fast forward another year or so and Rob started working there as an apprentice, he was talking to Dagger about wanting to travel Australia in a van, as Dagger had travelled Australia when he was younger, when he explained the story about this van now sitting on his farm that he then offered to Rob for $100!

So our growing ‘van life’ bank account was used to purchase this van for $100, leaving us money to be able to deck it out and pay for anything major that needed fixing.

All up it cost us around $700 to get her road worthy and a couple of grand to turn it into a camper. We are now living and traveling in her full time; even after all the questions of whether she would make it to the top of the state without breaking down, let alone the top of the country (well up to the Daintree as she definitely can’t go 4x4 wheel driving!). We made it all the way to the top with one break down and $1000 later.

If I could give you some advice from this experience it would be that you don’t need to spend an arm and a leg when wanting to live on wheels.

It doesn’t have to be the most luxurious, aesthetically pleasing space; you will learn when you’re on the road that less is more, and all the pretty stuff takes up space for essentials. You don’t have to have everything all worked out before you go, you will learn what you need when you’re gone.

It’s been really good to go back home after a few months and unload all the stuff we didn’t use and fix some stuff that we needed, so when we left again everything was working with a much better system.

Your dreams are not too far out of your reach. Most of the time in our mind we just romanticise situations and put really high expectations on our dreams, making them appear too far out of reach that we never feel ready to jump.

So here I am, telling you to take that leap of faith and chase your dreams. You’ll never be 100% ready, so do it now instead of looking back and wishing you had.

And once you get clear with what you want, as I’ve mentioned in my previous blog about the tool of manifestation, your mind will now deem this information relevant to you and you’ll likely find it comes to you, just as my $100 van came to me!