Australia with our kombis

(First published in Issue 6, September 2022) Our first go at van life started in 2016, just a few months after we started dating. We decided to travel around Australia in our two Kombi vans, named Vera and Anna. While we had a loose plan for how long we would be away, it quickly changed when, three weeks into the trip, Anna broke down. Anna was at the shop for a week—luckily, it was in Airlie Beach, QLD, a tropical paradise right on the coast.

We had decided to spend the summer in Tasmania, working on a cherry farm and living on Solomon’s parents’ property to save up for the next stage of our travels: crossing the Nullarbor to Western Australia. Unfortunately, while we were in Tasmania, Anna broke down again. This time, she required a top-end rebuild of her engine, which ate through half our savings. We managed to get her engine sorted before heading off again at the start of 2017. Barely halfway to Western Australia, we had to top up our funds again by working at a vineyard in South Australia.

By the time we arrived in Western Australia, it was the middle of winter and freezing cold, so we immediately headed north in search of warmer climates and coral reefs for snorkeling. Coral Bay, one of the most amazing places we visited, was initially meant to be a one-day stop. Instead, we stayed for a whole month. It’s a beautiful, tiny town right on the water, where you can snorkel directly off the beach.

We finally started heading north again, hoping to make it to Broome. But as fate would have it, we got barely 1,000 km (620 miles) away before Vera broke down. With the temperatures starting to rise, it was getting too hot for our Kombis’ air-cooled engines. So, we decided to head south to Perth and save up some money again. The rest of the summer of 2017 was spent working in a small town, saving so we could head back to Tasmania to get married.

Fast forward four years: we spent the year after our 2018 wedding living in Brisbane, saving money and getting qualified for a few different jobs while trying to decide what to do next. In early 2019, we decided we needed another trip. We couldn’t handle the 9-to-5 grind after spending so long on the road. But unfortunately, COVID-19 had other ideas. We both lost our jobs, and since we couldn’t travel anywhere, we had to start new jobs and wait it out.

Now, in mid-2022, we are finally just one month away from leaving for our second lap of Australia—this time with just one Kombi (Anna) and a new addition to the family: a vintage folding caravan that’s yet to be named. We can’t wait to start this trip, which is going to be epic.

If you are traveling around Australia and see us on the road, come over and say hello. We love meeting fellow travelers and hearing everyone’s travel stories.