December 2, 2024 • 69 mins
Join your hosts, Tourist The Bus and Coasting Outback, as they dive into the highs, lows, and everything in between of life on the road. In this fun and candid podcast, these two road-trip buddies, who met while traveling, share their stories of freedom, friendship, and vanlife. From choosing the perfect vehicle to navigating relationships on the move, they explore what it really means to live the nomadic lifestyle.
Packed with humor, real talk, and a bit of chaos, this episode captures the true spirit of vanlife and the bonds that form when you’re miles away from home. Whether you're a fellow traveler or just dreaming of the open road, tune in for an hour of laughter, advice, and unforgettable road stories!
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IG: @thevanlifeseriespodcast @tourist_thebus @coastingoutback
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Appod Shape production.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The Van Life Series podcast acknowledge the traditional owners and
ongoing custodians of the land on which this podcast is recorded.
We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and tour A
Strait Islander people and to the elder's past, present and emerging.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
You just need to take the step and get out
there and do it.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
We actually can turn what we love into our career.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
We wanted to travel to be a part of life
and not a perk of life.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It's the best decision I've ever made.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Every day is now different, different sun rise at a
different beach.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
That's just a paradise. Yeah, it's a paradise.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It's an insane I feel so alive and free.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Hand in your notice, make a plan and just commit
to it.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I would just say do it.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
The Van Life Series.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
Chicken Sick.
Speaker 6 (01:02):
All right, welcome to the Van Life Series podcast. A
scart and Poham from Coasting out.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Back and today we'll be chatting with Adam and Clara
at the duel behind tourists the bus.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
You have a podcast, boy, yeah, you.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
Have a really nice boys.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I'm Clara, I'm Adam, and we're from the northern Beaches
of Sydney.
Speaker 6 (01:19):
So what have you guys do before you lived in
a bus?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I was a high school teacher and I taught at
an all girls' private boarding school for four years.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, and I used to manage an artist studio.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
And why did you make the change from such a
comfortable life in a nice city to living in a bus?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I think for me, growing up in Sydney, specifically in
the Northern Beaches, I felt like I was ready to
leave the area.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I think there's Sydney's
a beautiful place, but I don't think it's incredibly sustainable.
And we've noticed since we left how much how much
less stress we are and how much more comfortable we
are in a whole range of different environments, just from
(02:11):
removing ourselves from the stresses of living in a city.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Definitely another. I think the main catalyst for us was COVID.
So after that first lockdown we had in Sydney, we
were sitting at a cafe in Balmain and I remember
I had a little mini freak out because what we
were only a few months into our relationship, and yeah,
(02:38):
overseas travel had been put on hold, and Adam and
I loved going away.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
In his van.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Just over weekends and doing short little trips, so we thought,
why not upgrade, get something bigger and see a.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
Bit of Australia.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (02:56):
Probably, I think we have a similar story when it
comes to COVID being the catalyst. By the way, I'm Parmita,
also known as Palm for short chicken palm. If you
couldn't tell from our accents, Scott and I are American.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Chicken palm instead of like chicken palm, like chicken, Ja
comes chicken parm.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
Got me back.
Speaker 7 (03:29):
The Yeah, We're both from a state called Maryland, which
is on the east coast of the US. It is
close to Washington, d C. People may know Baltimore instead
of Maryland. I lived close to Baltimore in the suburbs
(03:50):
Baltimore County, and Scott is a bit more rural.
Speaker 6 (03:53):
Yeah, I grew up in the sticks.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (03:57):
We started dating in Uni and then in twenty seventeen,
my company shipped me out to Australia work, so we
relocated together to Sydney and lived there for six years.
I worked for a tech company, the same company that
moved me out. I stayed with the entire time before
(04:21):
we left to travel.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yeah, so I graduated UNI with a mechanical engineering degree,
and then when we moved over to Australia, I played
leap frog through a bunch of different visas. Some of
those visas didn't let me work as an engineer, so
I was a scaffolder for a while. And then yeah,
I got back into engineering, did crane designs for a
(04:44):
little while, and then moved over into the architecture space. Yeah,
but all that changed when we moved into a bus
about a year ago, almost exactly a year ago now.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Yeah, ye yay Tuesday.
Speaker 7 (05:01):
Yeah, And we can't forget to mention our cat, Ba,
who we got in twenty eighteen. We rescued her when
she was four. We think, yeah, we think, we don't
really know she's ten years old now. And yeah, she
was always an apartment kitty, indoor cat, never really ventured
(05:21):
outside other than our balcony. And then we decided to
do the lap and obviously she was gonna come with us,
so she is now a bus cat. But yeah, we
also felt kind of cooped up by COVID and wanted
to get out and travel and felt like we had
lost precious years being locked up in our apartments pretty
(05:47):
much in oies in our twenties.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
Yeah, what do you mean we lost years?
Speaker 6 (05:54):
Yeah because COVID didn't let us go anywhere.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Yeah, had two years of living in Sydney and not
being able to travel. And I think we have a
little bit more of a fire under our butts because
we're not sure if we'll live in Australia forever.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
We want to.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
We've become citizens and completed that journey, but I think, yeah,
there's always the unknowns of having family family back in
the US and not knowing if we'll need to go
back and take care of someone or if we just
want to live closer to family in general. So yeah,
then the need or I guess want to travel is
(06:34):
a little bit stronger for us.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And yeah, every year is precious.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Yeah, and I think doing the lap was well.
Speaker 7 (06:45):
We've always kind of loosely dreamt about the idea of
like fan life and never really saw it as like
a real possibility. It was just kind of like a
far off sort of dream that you kind of don't
think is ever going to happen.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I feel like lots of people think that about it.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah, and then yeah, after COVID, we kind of just
decided to get serious about it. I think it also
helped that a lot of the friends we'd made in Sydney,
they had.
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Started to move on and do new things with their
lives too, So we had mates moved to Brisy, we
had mates start to have kids, and yeah, it kind
of got us questioning about what's next for us, Like, yeah,
Sydney was great, treated us well, but like you said,
(07:37):
not super sustainable long term, and we were ready for
a new adventure. And also, I guess wanted to work
out where we might settle in Australia because we knew
it wouldn't be Sydney, so we thought traveling would be
a really good way.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I think our bottom line was we were ready to
stop renting in to buy a house. But there's no
way you're going to buy a house in Sydney anywhere
near where you actually want to live.
Speaker 6 (08:05):
At least for us, at least for us.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Yeah, and then I think we thought, well, why don't
we travel Australia because we want to live in Australia.
Why don't we look for other places in Australia while
we travel and see if any of those places are
good for us?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
In terms of buying a house.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
And I think the slower rate of travel that you
get in a bus is a really good way to
get to know an area.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And I think you guys.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Know that a little bit better than us because you've
been traveling a lot slower than us and for a
lot longer.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I guess you guys also have done some trips around
the US, and that's kind of I feel like most
people who settle into van life or life on the
road quite easily have had had a bit of experience
prior to yeah, moving completely into something smaller.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Yeah, yeah, so you had a van for a while,
what kind of end? Pretty much had the smallest van
you could get, high or smaller. It was a yeah
four to Conovan. It's like the same as the Mitsubishi,
like tiny.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
The back of it was just a bed.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
It was a bed that was raised and underneath were
just boxes with like a gas stove and had two
windows on the left hand side.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
No no fans, no electronic, no wiring, no nothing.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Just fairy lights you need and you could just take
it anywhere, pull up, nose you're.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
In it, sleep, keep moving. But it's not ideal for living.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah, pretty much as soon as we were like, oh,
let's do a lap, the first thing was okay, we
need to find.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
A different vehicle.
Speaker 7 (10:00):
Yeah, how did you settle on bus out of like
all the different.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
Set ups that are out there. So initially we thought
about getting a sprinter, So did we?
Speaker 6 (10:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Yeah, I just saw that. I was like, oh, were
the same? Yeah. Yeah, we thought, oh yeah a sprinter.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
They're quite tall, which is good because Adams, what are
you six?
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Yeah, two meters is very tall.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah, so yeah, like a sprinter could be cool, and
I guess we'd seen a few people do something similar
in a sprinter, and then I think we just started
having a look at secondhand sprinters and the starting price
for them were it was like what thirty thousand dollars
or something.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
And we we wanted it empty to build it ourselves
as well.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, I just remember talking to a couple of friends
that had done similar things and yeah, something that really
resonated with me was one of my friends she did
a stint up in far North Queensland, and her and
her partner had a small van and yeah, she was
just like, oh it was really really hard, just having
(11:15):
like days and weeks on end where it just rained
and all we could pretty much do was just lie
in bed and just hang out and wait for the
rain to end.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
And yeah, I guess because Adam and I knew we.
Speaker 7 (11:31):
Wanted this to be more of like a lifestyle long term.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah, long term, rather than just like a quick hop lap. Yeah,
so we thought, okay, it's for us, it's worth getting
something that's bigger that we have the option to have
a couple of spaces to be able to relax in,
so say like a seating area that's separate to where
the bed is.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Confirm love the l shaped lounge.
Speaker 6 (12:04):
Also a good use.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Definitely what twelve people in the bus before.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Yeah, that's our record up in Exmouth.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
We also when we found I guess back to the
original question of like how we ended up with a bus,
We we're looking at sprinters and then we started noticing
coasters were a thing. We were like, holy shit, that
would be the best thing in the world. Yeah, that's
just definitely just something about a coaster. They're the perfect
(12:35):
size except for the height.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
A pop top coaster for you. Yeah, it does not
even exist.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
We've seen We once saw like a pop top just
over the kitchen sort of area, like in the middle
of the bus. We saw it on the Florio Peninsula
and essay.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Yeah, and I was like, Adam, we need that. Yeah,
next build, next builder. Yeah we love the bus.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
I think we had a very similar go at choosing
a vehicle. I think sprinter is always the first choice
because I think it's like the flagship model of.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
What van life is, yeah, or even living, not just traveling. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah, if you typed into AI like van life, it
would give you a sprinter.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
With weird hands.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Yeah, And I think we also looked at you sprinters.
We lived in the middle, like smack dab in the
middle of the city of Sydney, so there was no
opportunity for us to.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
Build it unfortunately ourselves.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
So we were looking at pre made ones, which hyped
up the price and a bunch of other things that
came with that decision. But yeah, we looked at sprinters
first and they're expensive.
Speaker 7 (13:54):
Yeah, they're like I think we also were kind of
being post COVID. The market was pretty high at that point,
so yeah, like nice stuff that we were seeing on
like secondhand Facebook marketplace was like.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
Way more than that, like one hundred a sprinter.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, wow, We also learned when we bought our bus.
We took it to a mechanic who was telling us
that people buy vans and just load them with stuff
because there's no weight restriction. Yeah. Well it's like it's
it's not the no one's no one checks, Yeah, and
it just fucks the motor, ruins the motor, whereas buses
(14:38):
are built to carry weight. Yeah, so right, it's actually
it's fine.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Yeah, the buses can hand.
Speaker 6 (14:46):
Yeah, how do we land on wet.
Speaker 7 (14:49):
We checked out a sprinter first, and it was over
our budget. We were trying to spend like, no more
than fifty but we kind of realized quickly that yeah,
if we were trying to get something pre made secondhand,
probably have to spend a bit more. Yeah, checked out
a sprinter. It paid for a guy to come out,
(15:12):
like a mechanic, to come out and look at it
and drive it around and tell us what condition it
was in. Turned out it had some issues, so kind
of yeah, mechanical issues.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
So we're glad we didn't go with that.
Speaker 7 (15:24):
And then we just kept looking for a while on
like Facebook, and randomly you came across the bus that
we have now and we thought it was really cute,
so like, why not check it out at the time,
Like Scot's also toll so we were like, we also
need a high roof situation. Bus doesn't really suit that,
(15:45):
but let's look at it anyways. And then yeah, when
we inspected.
Speaker 6 (15:50):
It, that was the only issue was.
Speaker 7 (15:52):
Yeah, you were just like you said, you were fine
with it. You loved it so much that you were like,
I don't mind, you were the same.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
I think in the end, like you're never going to
take every single box. You have to make some compromises.
And the more you do bus life and ban life
in general, I think the more you realize that there's
always going to be some form of compromise that you're
going to have to make, whether it's sleeping in a
car park for a few nights.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Or yeah, not having space because you.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Have to get somewhere. Yeah, there's a big lesson to leone.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
There's all these weird things that you learn as well,
like how much you take for granted having a level bed.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Or the slightest angle, especially if you're cooking completely screws
up your neck.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, just compensating for a tilt or or anything like that.
Speaker 7 (16:51):
Yeah, Yeah, tell us about how tourists the bus came
to be, so.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
We got really lucky with the bus. We after thinking
about sprinters and then moving over to the possibility of
getting a coaster. My mom used to work for a
Japanese tour guide company in Sydney, and I messaged Mom
and I said, oh, are you still, you know, in
(17:20):
touch with anyone within that industry. Do you happen to
know if anyone would be selling a second hand coaster?
And Mom was like, oh, sure, I'll reach out to
my old boss and she got back to us really
quickly and said, oh, actually he's selling one of his
buses because of COVID it was.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Too expensive to pay the regro for his fleet. Yeah,
so he was getting rid. I think he was getting
rid of one, maybe two, I.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
Think a couple.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah, so, and you know, Mum said, you know, being
a Japanese businessman, the coaster would be in absolute immaculate
condition and just really well looked after.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
And he bought it new.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
He bought it brand new, so went how to look
at it and we pretty much loved it straight away.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Hey, Yeah, it was that weird thing of like, is
this emotional decision making?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Yeah, yeah, it just when you know, you know, yeah,
it was the first bus we looked at, the only
bus we looked at. Yeah, and yeah it still had
what twenty two seats, Yeah, still had everything in it,
all the like emergency it looked.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
Yeah, that's pretty wild.
Speaker 7 (18:33):
But you guys could see being in it despite it
like still being a tour bus.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I think even before we went how to look at it,
we'd started creating designs, didn't we on Rhino, like on
a D modeling program.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, I don't know how anyone builds there does their
build without three D modeling the space.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
So we kind of already had an idea of what
we wanted the layout to be. But yeah, the name
tourist comes from. Yeah, our bus, being an ex tourist vehicle.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Had a microphone. That's so when you when yeah, whoever
was driving it to my mom? Yeah, I mean mom
speaking to all the tourists. Yeah, another cool thing. You
can tell it, you can tell it? Yeah, so when Yes, So,
(19:36):
when Clara was young, during the school holidays, if there
was no one available to look after her and her brother,
they would occasionally go with their mom on the trips.
So Claire used to sit in the front seat on
these tours tours.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Mum would be in the front seat. Actually know she'd
be driving. Did you guys keep the microphone?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
We had it from the beginning of the bill, so
you can see the microphone holder.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Yeah, yeah, that was very fun.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
They're connected to the speakers are in the ceiling. Yeah,
they're still there. They're still there. We took the it's
just the skeleton of like the frame, the brack and
all that. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (20:17):
How cool would it be if you still had the
mic like driving around.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
A muffled except it's only us two in the front.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
Yeah, giving each other a tour of and here we
have the pinnacle.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
All right, So is there a chance that you were
traveling as a kid with your mom driving this specific
place around.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's wild. We'd love to do
a build one day.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Yeah, I think we would do another bus as well.
I think everybody that's in a.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
Bus loves the bus.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
There's obviously something we said about having a Toyota. I
think that was one of our big points of switching
from looking from sprint for sprinters to looking for a
bus was Mercedes parts are harder to come.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
By, more expensive, and when you're out out back.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
As they say, everybody's got Toyota parts and Mercedes parts
have to be shipped in. I think yeah, like the
base parts underneath the coaster are the same parts that
are in almost all Toyota tracks. Like the interchangeability of
(21:33):
all the different things in the Toyota fleet make it
a lot better in terms of if you get broke.
Speaker 5 (21:40):
Down, broke down, they love us.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
We've also found parts from no as in as in
like like Toyota fall drives. We've we've we lost something
and we end up going to a record and they're like, oh,
we'll just check and it fit. So they're just interchangeable
and you'll always find parts cheaply. Yeah, just nice.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
Yeah, Yeah, they're great. And even though they're not four
will drive. I feel like we've both been able to
take our buses in some pretty hectic places. Questionable, but
they've been alright.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
And I think at the end of those roads have
been some really cool things.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
But also rainbows, rainbows and whatever the opposite of rainbows are.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
Yeah, it's actually probably a good segue to maybe one.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
Of today podcast highs and lows.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Yeah, let's talk about some of the thunderstorms at the
end of some roads.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
One specifically comes to mind when I think of you guys, loads.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
And thunderstorms that we've hit.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
It probably more than hectic roads that we've been down.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Or should should we talk about like how we met first,
because then people will know like the relationship we have
and yeah, like then when we talk about highs and lows,
we can relate to how we've both experienced different things
and the timing and.
Speaker 7 (23:26):
Yeah, true, yeah, So I think what we've been chatting
loosely on Instagram you a night class.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Yeah, I remember I saw a story of you and
I think you just had one of your first driving
lessons in the bus and Scott must.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
Have been filming you driving.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, And I responded to the story and I was like, hell, yeah, girl, you.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Get that bus.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
But I think I like, yeah, we started chatting from
that because I was like, oh, I'm also trying to
learn how to drive our bus.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
So I feel like that maybe got the ball rolling
at the.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Other thing was a low you guys crashing into the tree.
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Yes, oh yeah, that could have also started.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
That like made us recognize like fuck ship. We were like,
oh my god, we've been in such not that we've
not hit anything, but we know the feeling of like
having to rearrange from an accident.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
Yeah, yeah, I remember reaching out to you guys when
that happened.
Speaker 6 (24:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Second a tree.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
Well yeah, I think we chatted the first.
Speaker 7 (24:39):
Time, but you did it again and we didn't really
advertise that one too much.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
It was embarrassing, So.
Speaker 6 (24:46):
Now we're putting it on Spotify.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (24:50):
I just remember, like that was still quite early days
for us in ban life, probably three four months in
and just getting used to like the online community and
trying to make friends and stuff. And I feel like
I remember you being one of the first people to
like properly chat to us rather than.
Speaker 6 (25:15):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 7 (25:18):
The first like conversation of substance, I feel like with
somebody that I had been talking to online. So yeah,
we'd just loosely been chatting and then I didn't even
know where you guys were, because I feel like everybody
posts stuff from they're delayed and you never know where
people actually are.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
We saw you a few times before we actually connected it,
just one.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
In South Australia.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
We were driving behind you into Coffin Bay.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
Yeah, because we recognize your box, the box.
Speaker 6 (25:55):
On the roof the yellow the yellow.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
I remember driving behind your bus thinking I recognize that
bus from somewhere, and I can't remember if we think.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
You messaged us being like I think I just saw you. Yeah,
and then I can't remember.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Just before that we were chatting about both being in
the air Peninsula.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Yeah, so we kind of knew you guys were around.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Scott and I pulled up at the Smoky Bay and
we were just gonna situ.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
And lunch on the jetty.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Yeah, the streaky Bay, streaky Bay, streaky yeah, streaky.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
Yeah, it was streaky yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
So like we were having lunch on the jetty, I
decided to get out of the fishing rod.
Speaker 6 (26:44):
So I go back up to the bus and you.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Guys had pulled up in front, and I'm like, well,
you have your sticker on the back and I was like, oh, hey,
it's towards the bus, but you guys weren't in it.
And then so I went into the bus and then
I came back out and you guys were just like
walking down the sidewalk and they were like, hey, are
you coasting up back? And I was like, yeah, are
you to rest the bus? The rest is history.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Was the.
Speaker 6 (27:12):
Stop.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
It was the so we had a watermelon. Yeah, it
was a really hot day and we just bought a
watermelon to try and cool down and ran into Scott
exiting the bus and we're like, oh, do you guys
want to share this watermelon? And he's like, no way,
that's Palm's favorite.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
Fruit, watermelon.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
So we were like, hell, yeah, let's cut it up
and we just sat for.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Just sat around that table chatting for hours.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
We chatted for like two days straight. It just didn't
pretty much.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
I remember, well, yeah, in the past, I've found that
whenever we've met people, usually there's like, I know, a
short period where it's kind of like, oh, do these.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
People gel with us? These are people?
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Like are these the people that like, would we want
to invite them to, like come camp with us tonight?
Speaker 5 (28:05):
In family party, bring them home to mom.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
You're also gauging if they like you and if you
would want to. I mean also when you're chatting with
people and you're with your partner and you're not sure
what your partner thinks, so you're like, do we offer
them to come have dinner with us tonight? And if
you offer and the partners not feeling it and then
you already find out later.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
And you're sleeping on the couch.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
That's why we built a big we don't have that lug.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
But no, the reason why I mentioned that was because, yeah,
when we're sitting around that table in the watermelon like,
it was quite It happened quite quickly where I was like, Okay,
I feel I feel like I'm very comfortable around these guys.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I'm in love and refreshed.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
I'm hydrated. But I think it was you. You were like, oh,
what are you guys doing tonight? Like do you want
to come have with us? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yeah, I'm like a fucking oh swear, I'm like a labrador.
Yea invite everyone to dinner the slice.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
Yeah that was actually I.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Never actually fished as we came down and just started
chatting for so long, and then we were about to
leave and go to the camp and Adam goes, where
are you going to fish through the lining? I think
three times, okay, let's move on.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Yeah, but yeah, I think we also when we met
you guys, was a pretty low point for me.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Thanks.
Speaker 7 (29:52):
Before before we met you guys, I had just recently
lost my cousin over in America's quite young, so it
was a bit of a shock when it happened. And yeah,
there was a really strange period of should I, yeah,
(30:12):
what are we doing? Should I be going back to
America be with family. I had even like looked into
flights to getting back and it was just so so
many different flights, so expensive. So it was a strange
period of time. We weren't really keen on being out
and about and making friends, but it was really nice
(30:36):
when you guys came by, and yeah, I feel like it.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
Just helped pull me out of it a bit.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Cool.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Yeah, so that was nice.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Yeah, and then we ended up going the same way
around Australia and we met back up in Esperance and
we hung out in Esperants for a long time, and
then we met back up again in Perth and then
drove all the way to Xmouth together and yeah, we've
been traveling quite a lot together since then.
Speaker 6 (31:03):
And it's you guys.
Speaker 5 (31:07):
It helps when you're going the same direction.
Speaker 6 (31:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
Yeah, yeah, now we're going the same direction again. Despite
not meaning to show them your leg palm.
Speaker 7 (31:20):
I currently have a broken ankle. Yeah, that's another good story.
Started with a high quite.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Literally a yeah, Mount Bruce and Kraginie. We were hiking,
and yeah, just on the way back down. I don't
know what happened. I had good shoes on.
Speaker 7 (31:44):
I think I may have been rushing it just a
little bit, not taking my time, and I took one
wrong step and slipped on some loose rocks and then
my foot kind of got caught on another like bigger rock,
and yeah, inverted a bit.
Speaker 5 (32:03):
At the time, like it really bad.
Speaker 7 (32:05):
And I've never broken a bone or sprained an ankle
or anything, but Scott sprained his ankles many time, Yeah,
both of them, and it was just like, if you
can put.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Weight on it, it's probably fine. It turns out he
was wrong.
Speaker 7 (32:24):
There's a five kilometer hike back down the mountain and
it's pretty steep.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
There's scrambly sections.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
And loose rocks intense as well.
Speaker 7 (32:34):
Yeah, I really wanted to be air lifted off, but
I wasn't sure if that was overkill for what had happened,
So we just yeah, took it really slow. Challenged me
every step of the way, broke out crying multiple times,
multiple times. It was delirious, asking Scott to sing to me,
(32:56):
trying to call upon everything, I'd ever learned in the
past thinking about whim hoff and breathing, and.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
Yeah, just hectic.
Speaker 7 (33:08):
Took us an hour and a half to get to
the top of the mountain and then took us four
hours to get back down because of how slow we
were going felt never ending. And yeah, we like didn't
come across too many people on the hike either. There
was maybe like four different groups climbing up as we
were going back down, and each person we crossed paths
(33:31):
with like we asked if they had any neurofin on them,
and finally the third person did, thankfully. Yeah, and then
three days later made it to Broom, got it checked
out at the hospital and turned out I'd fractured.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
It in two places, and then we were stuck in Broom.
Speaker 6 (33:51):
It was really hot.
Speaker 7 (33:52):
It was really hot. Beer was not coping at all.
So yeah, we cashed out a bit on spent a
bit of money on a hotel room in Broom for
a week while we dealt with the hospital stuff and
figured out what we were going to do. We were
supposed to be traveling around the top, meeting a maid
(34:13):
of ours in Darwin, and then a month afterwards meeting
family in Queensland, you're meant yeah, and we're in Perth.
Speaker 6 (34:23):
Yeah, yeah, so still traveling together.
Speaker 7 (34:31):
Yeah, the universe had other plans for us, so we
turned around and thankfully friends and family are have been
able to reroute their trips to come see us. But
it was a pretty stressful time. Yeah, maybe one of
the most uncertain and worst times.
Speaker 6 (34:49):
It's still uncertain.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Yeah, once we're once my family is come and gone
from their trip out, we have no idea what we're doing.
But I think that's one of the beautiful things about
living this kind of life is it doesn't really.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
Matter freedom, but it comes with uncertainty as well.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
It's high and love at the same time, equally liberating
knowing that you're not tied to anything, but frightening that
you don't have routine and something to stick.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
Safety.
Speaker 7 (35:21):
Yeah, yeah, safety and like I guess financial safety or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
But it also teaches you that you don't need a
lot and you can kind of dig in and find
a solution, so you really get a good understanding of
what you're capable of.
Speaker 7 (35:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
I think when situations like this happen, as well as
hectic and stressful as they are in the moment and like,
I guess, yeah, in the moment, I feel like whenever
it's happened to us, it's like it's kind of added
like another little almost like.
Speaker 5 (36:02):
A skill set to our toolbox.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
True than if anything else pops up in the future,
we're more resilient always carry neurofin Yeah, and yeah, like
I feel like where we don't get as stressed about
things that pop up along the way now because things
that have happened in the past have helped us to
(36:24):
be able to Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
We know we'll always find a solution.
Speaker 5 (36:28):
Makes you more resilient for sure. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
I think a lot of our low points have turned
into I wouldn't say high point, but strong points in
our overall life in general, because of what you learn
from that experience and what you take away from it
in the end.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Because also the fact that when you're at home and
you have a low point or something goes wrong, you've
got all the structure around you that means that you
can either ignore it or try to find a solution
quickly or true. Yeah, whereas sweeping under Yeah, when you're
(37:07):
living in a context without a safety net, you know
that if you don't resolve the issue, it's gonna compound
and it means that you have to get creative and
find ways out of it, which just shows you how
(37:28):
good you are on the on the spot and it's
it's it's fun when you look back at it, but
it's really challenging. At the time.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
It's intense, but the more it happens, the more you
realize in the moment that you think it will been
through this before. I know that it's stressful now, but
in the end it'll be good.
Speaker 6 (37:53):
Yeah, And that really.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
Reminds me of our time on Wooden Beach and we
love for you guys.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
To tell us that story. That's what I was thinking
about before when we said the thunder storms, oh yeah,
I thought you were going to refer to mechanical issues
turned into yeah, it didn't stuck that way.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
So Warden, we ended up spending a couple of nights
staying on the.
Speaker 7 (38:22):
Beach and reminder, the buses are not for wheel drives,
but you can.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
There's a like, I mean for the people on the
East Coast, like we had no clue about in South
Australia and w A, you can drive on all these beaches,
which is initially we thought that was awful, Like you
want cars on the beach, like two will drive cars
on the beach.
Speaker 5 (38:48):
That's ridiculous recovery.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
But having having everything that you own with you at
the beach is in like such a feeling you don't
have to leave, yeah until you either need food or water.
Speaker 5 (39:10):
Yeah, yeah, that is an amazing feeling.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
But we drove down to Warden and I remember feeling
really nervous, like as we were driving down to the
beach and I'm like, this is happening really quick, like
should we get out, should we walk it? Should we
see what it's like? And I remember freaking out to you, Adam,
and you were like, it's fine, let's just go. So
we drove on the beach and everything was fine.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
And we walked down.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
That first day wasn't too bad because I think it didn't.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Just rained rain.
Speaker 6 (39:40):
Yeah, it was Yeah, everything was good. Everything was perfectly fine.
We drove on to the beach.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
It was like concrete.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
I'm like almost she heard her foot from walking on
the sand.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
It was so hard.
Speaker 6 (39:54):
Yeah, but yeah, but then we stayed for two days straight.
Didn't want to move.
Speaker 5 (39:58):
It's the same foot.
Speaker 6 (39:59):
The sun came.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Out, it was already fractured.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Yeah, I just yeah, I remember freaking out, like driving
down onto the beach Yahds And then yeah, we were
there for a couple of nights and it was over
busy weekend.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Heaps of full drives were turning up and camping, and the.
Speaker 4 (40:24):
Sun was out and the wind was up and the
sand went from being tightly.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Packed to loose churned up while we were on.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
The beach, So the entry to the beach in particular
got like really churned up. And as we went to leave,
we like just before we got to the ramp, Adam's like,
all right, yeah, we just got a gun it.
Speaker 5 (40:46):
So we went for it and we got bogged pretty
much like on the.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Ramp entrance, right at the entrance, and yeah, like people
started crowding around, and we got out and was trying
to suss what we could do. You guys were still
further down the beach with your basket. You saw what
happened the guinea pigs, sacrificial lamps.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
It always seems so ridiculous in hindsight what happened, But
in the zone, when you've got people crowding around, everyone's
got a solution, like getting We've gotten out of bogs before.
It's not that hard, but everything's very heightened when everyone's
It all happened quickly.
Speaker 4 (41:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
Yeah. So basically this guy rocked up in a U.
He had an EMU export in his hand. He was drunk,
you could definitely tell. And it was like ten am,
and he basically did a doughnut around the bus. It
was it was kind of impressive.
Speaker 5 (41:49):
With his family in the car with his little kids.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
Did a doughnut around the bus, pulled out perfectly in
front of us, gets out and goes, do you need help,
I'll get you out, Like hell yeah. So he attaches
strap to the front of our bus to like a anchor, Yeah,
(42:13):
like an anchor point, attaches it to his towbar and
just starts going like he's he's rebounding off the strap.
And I'm in the front seat, not like I've forgotten
that the handbrakes on because I'm just watching him and
he's yeah, he's going. He's going so quickly that I
(42:36):
haven't had a chance to put the handbrake down.
Speaker 6 (42:40):
And wheels aren't moving.
Speaker 5 (42:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
We Palm Scott and I were watching from the side
and we were like, this guy needs to slow down.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
We need to reassess, and then the strap broke and
it just sling shotted through our grill, put a hole
in the radiator and started leaking. Yeah, well the coolant
started coming out and he gets out of the carry.
He's like, that's good. Then we take the handbrake off.
(43:08):
He drives us up and around to the car park.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
You're kind of underplaying the hole. Oh, we just took
the handbrake off. Guy walks up and says, do.
Speaker 6 (43:18):
You have the handbrake on? And Adam goes.
Speaker 4 (43:24):
Takes and then the guy off again and it's easy
as and it just comes straight out.
Speaker 5 (43:31):
Yeah, put him down more.
Speaker 4 (43:36):
But then the guy was.
Speaker 6 (43:36):
Really nice and ended up fixing your radiotor for you.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
And he also didn't have two front teeth four front teeth, sorry,
four front teeth, and once the radio had had a
hole in it and no grill, the bus didn't have
front teeth. Kind of loved it.
Speaker 5 (43:55):
Yeah, we're just driving around espirants for three months with
no front teeth.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
And then I made of his rocked up who was
a bit more with it and helped dues pack with
like a metal epoxy, put the fix the hole in
the grill in the radiator and we had to drive
the hour back into Esperance monitoring ourture temperature. Got back
(44:21):
to the radiator guy probably fifteen minutes before he was closing,
and he said, they did such a great job. We
could probably drive the bus like that, but we ended
up getting a new radio.
Speaker 5 (44:32):
We'd like a new radio.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
So the two knights at Warden cost us a grand
twelve hundred bucks.
Speaker 5 (44:39):
Are worth absolutely.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (44:43):
Meanwhile, we were just watching all this happen.
Speaker 7 (44:46):
It's actually lucky none of us got hurt, because if
that's strap and killed somebody, that's and so many before
people just standing off to the side watching.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
Yeah, the best quote was as soon as we got
you back onto the bitchmen to drive the bus off, Yeah,
like that way. And so yeah, I choose a different
route on the sand and get bogged quicker than.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
You guys straight away away.
Speaker 8 (45:15):
And then luckily someone comes up to us and they
ask if they can lend us their Max tracks, and
the Max tracks go under the wheels, we get going
again and I'm off and that was it.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
That was so jealousy.
Speaker 5 (45:30):
I felt terrible.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
Yeah, fairly certain if you guys had Max tracks it
would have We just.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Use our ramps. Yeah, we've done it before, like we
were getting them out to do it.
Speaker 5 (45:40):
Yeah, honestly, it all just happened so quickly.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Just the handbrake was like.
Speaker 5 (45:46):
Much going on, Like you got bogged.
Speaker 7 (45:49):
You probably instinctually pulled it up as you normally would
when you stop the car.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Well, yeah, I parked pulled it up. I think, also
trying to trying to watch what that guy was doing,
and I didn't think what you were doing. Does the
bus need to be doing? Yeah, saying like he you
didn't give me any chance to to be ready for something.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (46:14):
Yeah, it's good times.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
But that's also the fun thing is that. I mean
if no one died, which would have been horrendous, but.
Speaker 5 (46:25):
We wouldn't be sitting here potentially telling this story.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Yeah, I mean all the all the You only ever
hear the good story, like the bad things that happen
on a trip, because they're the funniest or they make
for the best story. Yeah. So yeah, we've Yeah, we
don't stress completely when it happens, which is nice.
Speaker 5 (46:45):
Everything will be okay.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
Time for a word from today's sponsor.
Speaker 7 (46:54):
Yeah, let's talk about some other lows. I think another
good one to chat about might be just mental health
and managing relationships, relationships and things like that in the bus,
because I guess we've found it quite difficult compared to
(47:15):
like living in an apartment. I feel like we used
to not argue heaps, and since moving into the bus,
that's definitely picked up. And I guess it has to
do with just you know, being together twenty four to
seven and everything is heightened in the bus completely.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Yeah, you don't realize how much your environment affects your.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
Relationship and having your close friends around going.
Speaker 9 (47:45):
To work, Yeah, it's going time away from each other
is such an important part of like being able to
take a step back and think about.
Speaker 4 (47:57):
How these things, how you were reacting to things, and
how you can.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Deal with them.
Speaker 4 (48:01):
But when you're in a bus, in a very small,
confined space twenty four to seven with someone, there's no
opportunity to well, there is an opportunity, it's just a
lot harder to make.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Space for that.
Speaker 5 (48:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (48:15):
I think it goes back to what you were saying
Adam about like when you have those comforts and stuff,
it's easy easier to have those like issues be swept
under the rug or not dealt with whereas structured. Yeah,
I feel quite grateful for Like, despite we have more
arguments these days, I feel kind of grateful for it
(48:37):
because I feel like it's helping bring to light things
that have always been there but we've never had the
chance to really focus on.
Speaker 4 (48:47):
Yeah, then we would normally sweep under the rug, and
now instead of choosing to ignore it.
Speaker 5 (48:52):
Or you're forced to deal with it.
Speaker 6 (48:53):
Yeah, you're confronted with it and you have to deal
with it.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
It's interesting because where almost like we're coming up to
two years living in the bus, you guys are at one. Yeah,
and when we were a year in we were arguing more.
We we're learning how to navigate everything you just said,
(49:15):
and we're back to the point where we're not really
arguing anymore. And Yeah, we've spoke to her like a
couple's therapist and a bunch of our friends and each other,
and we've just developed some tools that we use.
Speaker 3 (49:33):
Yeah, I remember we had a good chat about some
of this stuff.
Speaker 5 (49:38):
Oh, you don't hear too many people talking about like
their relationship.
Speaker 7 (49:42):
It's this bit of I guess, shame and stigma associated
with it. You feel like everyone else has it together,
and what's wrong with us sort of a thing.
Speaker 4 (49:54):
What you see on social media is and always it's
never the reality.
Speaker 5 (49:58):
Well it's a highlight reel.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
Yeah, it's a section of the reality.
Speaker 6 (50:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (50:06):
So what are some of those tools that you've learned
from friends and therapists and others.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
I think realizing that we have our own interests and
maintaining our separate activities or getting getting away like going
for a solo walk, exercising is huge, huge, Yeah, And
it's so different for each person, Like I'm I'm someone
(50:37):
who I could go months without chatting to too many
people and it doesn't really affect me, whereas Claron Munths
like maintaining communications with their friends and that's a big
part of your identity. I guess it fills your cup.
Speaker 4 (50:57):
Yeah, keeping your cup full is very important with how
to think.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
It's also you have a contrast between you're always doing
these incredible things and seeing these incredible sites or meeting
people who are living a lifestyle similar to you, and
you're not going to share the negatives until you've gotten
(51:23):
to know someone pretty well. And then the fact that
we're constantly what's the word, like you're stimulated, You're constantly
stimulated by all the things that you're doing, that when
you do feel down or if you forget to give
yourself a few days off, occasionally you crash and you're like,
(51:47):
where did this come from? But we've learned that if
we are doing a lot of things and we crash
at different times, so we've had to realize that one
person might need the downtime and to respect that. Yeah,
and if we pick up on it, provide them with
(52:10):
the space to do that or even I guess one
of the biggest lessons we've learned is just asking for it. Yeah,
saying before it gets out of hand, I think I
need my own space, or I'm not one hundred today, Yeah,
I just want to chill.
Speaker 7 (52:30):
We found that really helpful too, just communicating about what
your needs are, which is sometimes hard because I feel
like there are times when you don't realize what you
need yourself absolutely yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (52:46):
Yeah, when you're in the thick of it, like you
hear like, communication is key, but when you're in the
thick of it, when you're feeling really low, you just
forget that's a thing.
Speaker 5 (52:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
One of the highs from that though, like to remove
yourself from the city and a stressful environment where you're working,
you're surrounded by people. When you're spending more time away
from all of that, you get a good understanding of
who you are and what your strengths and weaknesses are. Yeah,
(53:20):
you really get to know yourself and your partner. Yeah, definitely,
which is insane. I always say fucking insane. But it's
cool to to get to know each other better.
Speaker 3 (53:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (53:33):
I think there's been a lot of personal and couple
growth that. Yeah, if it's accelerated more than it would
be this apartment, or not even accelerated, but just a
totally new version of growth, because I don't know if
that would ever have happened.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
If we didn't do what we're doing.
Speaker 4 (53:55):
I think one of the biggest tools we've had recently
is doing a check in.
Speaker 5 (54:02):
I love check now.
Speaker 4 (54:03):
Yeah, because, like you said, class, communicating just out of
the blue is hard. I think, especially for me, it's
hard to just come out and say, you know what
I'm feeling whatever today and I think I need a
break or something like I'll well, I think both of
(54:24):
us part will power through it and like we'll have
a bad time and we'll feel down, but we won't
admit to ourselves that you know, maybe we should take
a break, or maybe something the other person is doing
is getting under our skin.
Speaker 6 (54:40):
And I think what we do is we check in
every day.
Speaker 5 (54:44):
And we try to do we try to do it
every day.
Speaker 7 (54:46):
We actually started this when we still lived in like Sydney,
in an apartment, but we've leant into it a lot
more in the bus. Basically, I think the idea is
that like, once things are heightened, it's kind of hard
to like come back from that. But if you're communicating
(55:07):
frequently and doing it sort of preventatively, it makes life
a lot easier. So yeah, just around dinner time every day,
we'll try and have a little check in to say,
how is the day, How has the day been for you?
Like we'll take turns talking about what's been good in
(55:28):
our day and what maybe hasn't been so good, And
it gives you that space and opportunity to raise things
in a more productive way rather than like in the moment.
It's good also like knowing that you have that check
in coming up, so that if there is something that
flares up earlier in the day, rather than reacting, like
(55:50):
I can catch myself and be like, oh, let me
just let this simmer, Yeah, and then bring it up
later on once I've had some time to like sit with
it and not be so emotional.
Speaker 4 (56:02):
Yeah, unless you tackle the problem with the level head,
rather than yeah, reacting emotionally and potentially in flaming the issue.
Speaker 1 (56:11):
Something I like about it too, is that you're both
in a space where you're actively willing to listen to
the other person, so it keeps it mutual. Rather than
saying I'm upset because of this and the other person
saying well, you actually get to say how you feel
(56:37):
about something and the other person always knows, so it's
it is nice to put it out there, so it's
in the open because they know something's wrong, but they
don't know what's wrong. And as soon as you bring
it to attention, you can both pinpoint the problem and
it stops any mental bubbling of what what what have
(57:02):
I done wrong? Or why haven't I noticed that I'm
upset and all of that.
Speaker 5 (57:08):
Yeah, for sure, checkings are great if you aren't doing
on people start if you're traveling with people as well,
you can do group checkings.
Speaker 7 (57:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (57:16):
We did that.
Speaker 3 (57:17):
Yeah, we did a couple of them while we were
traveling up.
Speaker 5 (57:21):
North which was Yeah.
Speaker 7 (57:23):
I wish we'd started it sooner, because like we were
basically traveling together for two months, like a month going
up the Coral Coast and then a month next month. Yeah,
it's like the whole thing of being with your partner
in twenty four to seven. We were kind of with
the four of us twenty four to seven and bea.
Speaker 3 (57:45):
So yeah, that was good when we started doing that.
Speaker 1 (57:49):
That's one of the biggest highs for me in terms
of this lifestyle is that the people you meet are
so outside who you would be hanging out with at
home that it builds so much more perspective into your
own life and gratitude and the awareness of how privileged
(58:10):
what we are doing, how privileged we are to be
doing what we're doing, and just how many amazing, happy,
adventurous people exist who are so welcoming and open and
every time where something's gone wrong, we've just been flooded
(58:33):
with help, yeah, or people checking in and saying, how's
this been going? Are you okay? Or there's such a
nice community out on the road.
Speaker 5 (58:46):
Definitely, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (58:48):
So I think that's a good way to you know,
wrap this up less and.
Speaker 1 (58:52):
On a high.
Speaker 4 (58:54):
Let's each go around and talk about, you know, what
was the best thing we've had in the past year
or two years for you guys.
Speaker 6 (59:03):
I think for me personally, it's been x Mouth.
Speaker 4 (59:06):
I think everybody talks about how great Xmouth is and
it lives up to the hype.
Speaker 6 (59:13):
The amount of people up there, like you were saying.
Speaker 1 (59:15):
The community is insane. We ended up hanging out four
coasters all.
Speaker 4 (59:22):
Together on Square Square. We watched Shrek in the middle. Yeah,
we camped on the beach some more. I'm really into
spearfishing and the spearfishing of theirs insane. Yeah, just like
the amount of happy memories from the month that we
(59:42):
spent in Exmouth is yeah, next level. And I think
even without ever going back there again, I think it
will be my favorite place on the Lap for sure.
Speaker 1 (59:57):
Yeah. And it's so contextual, like it you could be
somewhere that there's nowhere else on earth like it, and
it's so beautiful and if you're with the wrong.
Speaker 6 (01:00:16):
People, so true.
Speaker 4 (01:00:18):
I mean the difference between Xmouth and Esperance, like the
obviously we were we were there in Esperance, so you
had a great time. Like the community around the community,
not the travel community around.
Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
It, but the.
Speaker 4 (01:00:36):
Life that the people that live in that area lead.
Speaker 6 (01:00:42):
Was so different to the life that most people led
in Xmouth.
Speaker 4 (01:00:46):
I guess for one, Exmouth is majority, the majority is
where Esperance is a town, and just like the amount
of amazing things in both places is huge, and the
beauty of that place is immense, But the feel that
(01:01:11):
you get from the people that get around it is
really what made it so much better for me in
Exmouth versus Esperant was because everybody there was having the
same good time, and everybody was there to be in
the beach. Everybody was there, I can't speak. Everybody there
(01:01:32):
was there to be looking at whale sharks and soaking
up the sun and meeting other people in coasters and
having a great time, Whereas an Esperance, every other person
there was a resident and they didn't want tourists there.
Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
The facilities on there.
Speaker 4 (01:01:51):
Yeah, and like yeah, the council is actively trying to
keep travelers out.
Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
And the weird thing about that is that when the
facilities are there, people are more respectful. Like we've we've
found unfortunately, the baseline isn't that everyone picks up their
rubbish or respects the environment completely, which sucks to see,
and it's worse in Wa than anywhere else in the country.
(01:02:20):
But when the facilities are there, that's such a difference.
There's a space for people to free camp or for
people to go somewhere safe, there's usually a better community
or a better feel. And when the fear of a
ranger pulling up and giving you a ticket or all
(01:02:43):
the locals hating that, people like why are people here
to see?
Speaker 4 (01:02:49):
It's a positive or a negative feedback loop depending on
what facilities are there, because if there are facilities, then
people are happy.
Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
The locals are happy that you're not.
Speaker 6 (01:03:01):
In the woods.
Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
Well you're out of the way as well.
Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
So if there's you're not camping in their parking lot,
yeah something.
Speaker 7 (01:03:07):
Yeah, I don't know. It's kind of hard to pick
a specific high. I mean Xmouth was up there for sure.
Speaker 5 (01:03:17):
I think just.
Speaker 7 (01:03:19):
Yeah, freedom to do what you want. Not working has
been fantastic. I was working at like full tilt for
since graduating UNI, high stress job, and since yeah, taking
the year off, it's just been so refreshing. I feel
like my nervous system has calmed down, my skin has
(01:03:42):
responded in positive ways. Like that's been really nice. And
I think just like being out in nature a lot
more like even though you're still inside in a bus,
like you're basically living outside for the most part, especially
with the bus, Like it's all windows, being in tune
(01:04:03):
with like seeing the sunrise and sunsets every day, being
in tune with the moon, Like I've never paid attention
to the moon so much before, and like the phases
that it's in.
Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
We don't know what date is, just how big the
moon is.
Speaker 7 (01:04:17):
Yeah, Yeah, and just also like all this like it's
eye opening, all the eye opening experiences that you get
living on the road, meeting people who are doing the
same thing, but everyone's doing it a bit differently, how
they're making money, Like it just opens you up to
(01:04:38):
so much more and like alternative ways of living. So yeah,
I feel like it's my high is just like, yeah,
everything that burn life has given me in that sense, What.
Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
About you guys must have been the highest high? Do
you have it?
Speaker 5 (01:04:58):
Yeah? I think multi day walks for me.
Speaker 3 (01:05:05):
Being in nature, yeah, and I think, yeah, I'm just picturing.
I'm thinking about how I felt being on different walks,
and yeah, it's definitely the most like grounded I've felt.
Speaker 5 (01:05:22):
And I feel like when.
Speaker 3 (01:05:26):
Where on those walks, I feel a lot of gratitude
for being able to be in these incredible places where
there's not many people around, and I guess to see
things where we wouldn't be able to get to, Like
we've had to walk into this place to be able
to I don't know, swim in this waterfall where you
(01:05:50):
wouldn't be able to drive to it.
Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
Ye know, your body's capable of doing it too.
Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
Yeah, as there's been so many walks where yeah, I've cried,
where I've been so tired or exhausted from the heat
or you know, like that.
Speaker 5 (01:06:07):
It's hard. It is hard.
Speaker 3 (01:06:09):
But I think that's probably my high, my high for what.
Speaker 6 (01:06:16):
We've been doing.
Speaker 5 (01:06:19):
Did you guys do multi day hikes before? Like living
in Sydney.
Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
Much we mainly did day hikes. I think I was
the only one that had done a multi day hike before.
Speaker 5 (01:06:28):
My first multi day hike was three Capes in Tasmania. Cool. Yeah, Yeah,
we'd love to do that one day. Difficult with the cat,
but we'll get there. Yeah, that's your high.
Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
My high would be living in Sydney and having a
job or different jobs that you're constantly using your brain
and by the end of the day you're exhausted. Shot
(01:07:05):
what no no, no, no no, as in I never
had the space two learn, or like I guess flipping
it into what the hihre is. On the road, you've
(01:07:28):
got as much downtime as you want, which means you
can read as many books as you want or learn
any subjects you want and apply them to yourself. So
if you have always wanted to learn a specific thing,
you finally have the time. That isn't after work you've
(01:07:48):
got to cook dinner. You want to relax, so you
don't really want to delve into this thing about yourself
or pick up a hobby or learn a skill, Whereas
on the road you can actually spend a day practicing
and implementing what you're learning. And you have. We've we've
learned and grown so much because of that, And yeah,
(01:08:11):
you don't need a lot. And when we go to cities,
all we do is just spend and feel stressed. I
feel like we have to be doing stuff. And the
pleasure we get from putting the hammock up with a
book under a tree with the sound of waves like
that that beats anything.
Speaker 4 (01:08:33):
The sense of peace that I felt living in the
bus is unmatched.
Speaker 6 (01:08:40):
All right, beautiful, Well, thanks for coming on to our
podcast today. Yeah, it's really good talking about all these things.
Speaker 5 (01:08:49):
Yeah, it was a fun chat.
Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
Thank you. That's cool.
Speaker 3 (01:08:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:08:53):
Thanks to Van Life Series podcast for having us on.
Speaker 4 (01:08:57):
Like, comment, subscribe, smash that bell button. If you'd like
to follow either of us on Instagram. We'd really appreciate that.
We are coasting out back on Instagram and Adam and Clara.
Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
Are tourist Underscore the Bus.
Speaker 3 (01:09:16):
That's all, folks, Love you, bye the Van Life Series.
Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
Subscribe to The Van Life Series wherever you get your podcasts.
Appod Shape production.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The Van Life Series podcast acknowledge the traditional owners and
ongoing custodians of the land on which this podcast is recorded.
We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and tour A
Strait Islander people and to the elder's past, present and emerging.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
You just need to take the step and get out
there and do it.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
We actually can turn what we love into our career.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
We wanted to travel to be a part of life
and not a perk of life.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It's the best decision I've ever made.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Every day is now different, different sun rise at a
different beach.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
That's just a paradise. Yeah, it's a paradise.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It's an insane I feel so alive and free.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Hand in your notice, make a plan and just commit
to it.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I would just say do it.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
The Van Life Series.
Speaker 5 (00:56):
Chicken Sick.
Speaker 6 (01:02):
All right, welcome to the Van Life Series podcast. A
scart and Poham from Coasting out.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
Back and today we'll be chatting with Adam and Clara
at the duel behind tourists the bus.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
You have a podcast, boy, yeah, you.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
Have a really nice boys.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
I'm Clara, I'm Adam, and we're from the northern Beaches
of Sydney.
Speaker 6 (01:19):
So what have you guys do before you lived in
a bus?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
I was a high school teacher and I taught at
an all girls' private boarding school for four years.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, and I used to manage an artist studio.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
And why did you make the change from such a
comfortable life in a nice city to living in a bus?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I think for me, growing up in Sydney, specifically in
the Northern Beaches, I felt like I was ready to
leave the area.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I think there's Sydney's
a beautiful place, but I don't think it's incredibly sustainable.
And we've noticed since we left how much how much
less stress we are and how much more comfortable we
are in a whole range of different environments, just from
(02:11):
removing ourselves from the stresses of living in a city.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Definitely another. I think the main catalyst for us was COVID.
So after that first lockdown we had in Sydney, we
were sitting at a cafe in Balmain and I remember
I had a little mini freak out because what we
were only a few months into our relationship, and yeah,
(02:38):
overseas travel had been put on hold, and Adam and
I loved going away.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
In his van.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Just over weekends and doing short little trips, so we thought,
why not upgrade, get something bigger and see a.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
Bit of Australia.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (02:56):
Probably, I think we have a similar story when it
comes to COVID being the catalyst. By the way, I'm Parmita,
also known as Palm for short chicken palm. If you
couldn't tell from our accents, Scott and I are American.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Chicken palm instead of like chicken palm, like chicken, Ja
comes chicken parm.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
Got me back.
Speaker 7 (03:29):
The Yeah, We're both from a state called Maryland, which
is on the east coast of the US. It is
close to Washington, d C. People may know Baltimore instead
of Maryland. I lived close to Baltimore in the suburbs
(03:50):
Baltimore County, and Scott is a bit more rural.
Speaker 6 (03:53):
Yeah, I grew up in the sticks.
Speaker 5 (03:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (03:57):
We started dating in Uni and then in twenty seventeen,
my company shipped me out to Australia work, so we
relocated together to Sydney and lived there for six years.
I worked for a tech company, the same company that
moved me out. I stayed with the entire time before
(04:21):
we left to travel.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Yeah, so I graduated UNI with a mechanical engineering degree,
and then when we moved over to Australia, I played
leap frog through a bunch of different visas. Some of
those visas didn't let me work as an engineer, so
I was a scaffolder for a while. And then yeah,
I got back into engineering, did crane designs for a
(04:44):
little while, and then moved over into the architecture space. Yeah,
but all that changed when we moved into a bus
about a year ago, almost exactly a year ago now.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Yeah, ye yay Tuesday.
Speaker 7 (05:01):
Yeah, And we can't forget to mention our cat, Ba,
who we got in twenty eighteen. We rescued her when
she was four. We think, yeah, we think, we don't
really know she's ten years old now. And yeah, she
was always an apartment kitty, indoor cat, never really ventured
(05:21):
outside other than our balcony. And then we decided to
do the lap and obviously she was gonna come with us,
so she is now a bus cat. But yeah, we
also felt kind of cooped up by COVID and wanted
to get out and travel and felt like we had
lost precious years being locked up in our apartments pretty
(05:47):
much in oies in our twenties.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
Yeah, what do you mean we lost years?
Speaker 6 (05:54):
Yeah because COVID didn't let us go anywhere.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Yeah, had two years of living in Sydney and not
being able to travel. And I think we have a
little bit more of a fire under our butts because
we're not sure if we'll live in Australia forever.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
We want to.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
We've become citizens and completed that journey, but I think, yeah,
there's always the unknowns of having family family back in
the US and not knowing if we'll need to go
back and take care of someone or if we just
want to live closer to family in general. So yeah,
then the need or I guess want to travel is
(06:34):
a little bit stronger for us.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And yeah, every year is precious.
Speaker 5 (06:40):
Yeah, and I think doing the lap was well.
Speaker 7 (06:45):
We've always kind of loosely dreamt about the idea of
like fan life and never really saw it as like
a real possibility. It was just kind of like a
far off sort of dream that you kind of don't
think is ever going to happen.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I feel like lots of people think that about it.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Yeah, and then yeah, after COVID, we kind of just
decided to get serious about it. I think it also
helped that a lot of the friends we'd made in Sydney,
they had.
Speaker 7 (07:17):
Started to move on and do new things with their
lives too, So we had mates moved to Brisy, we
had mates start to have kids, and yeah, it kind
of got us questioning about what's next for us, Like, yeah,
Sydney was great, treated us well, but like you said,
(07:37):
not super sustainable long term, and we were ready for
a new adventure. And also, I guess wanted to work
out where we might settle in Australia because we knew
it wouldn't be Sydney, so we thought traveling would be
a really good way.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I think our bottom line was we were ready to
stop renting in to buy a house. But there's no
way you're going to buy a house in Sydney anywhere
near where you actually want to live.
Speaker 6 (08:05):
At least for us, at least for us.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Yeah, and then I think we thought, well, why don't
we travel Australia because we want to live in Australia.
Why don't we look for other places in Australia while
we travel and see if any of those places are
good for us?
Speaker 1 (08:20):
In terms of buying a house.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
And I think the slower rate of travel that you
get in a bus is a really good way to
get to know an area.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And I think you guys.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
Know that a little bit better than us because you've
been traveling a lot slower than us and for a
lot longer.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
I guess you guys also have done some trips around
the US, and that's kind of I feel like most
people who settle into van life or life on the
road quite easily have had had a bit of experience
prior to yeah, moving completely into something smaller.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Yeah, yeah, so you had a van for a while,
what kind of end? Pretty much had the smallest van
you could get, high or smaller. It was a yeah
four to Conovan. It's like the same as the Mitsubishi,
like tiny.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
The back of it was just a bed.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
It was a bed that was raised and underneath were
just boxes with like a gas stove and had two
windows on the left hand side.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
No no fans, no electronic, no wiring, no nothing.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Just fairy lights you need and you could just take
it anywhere, pull up, nose you're.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
In it, sleep, keep moving. But it's not ideal for living.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah, pretty much as soon as we were like, oh,
let's do a lap, the first thing was okay, we
need to find.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
A different vehicle.
Speaker 7 (10:00):
Yeah, how did you settle on bus out of like
all the different.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
Set ups that are out there. So initially we thought
about getting a sprinter, So did we?
Speaker 6 (10:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Yeah, I just saw that. I was like, oh, were
the same? Yeah. Yeah, we thought, oh yeah a sprinter.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
They're quite tall, which is good because Adams, what are
you six?
Speaker 5 (10:29):
Yeah, two meters is very tall.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah, so yeah, like a sprinter could be cool, and
I guess we'd seen a few people do something similar
in a sprinter, and then I think we just started
having a look at secondhand sprinters and the starting price
for them were it was like what thirty thousand dollars
or something.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
And we we wanted it empty to build it ourselves
as well.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah, I just remember talking to a couple of friends
that had done similar things and yeah, something that really
resonated with me was one of my friends she did
a stint up in far North Queensland, and her and
her partner had a small van and yeah, she was
just like, oh it was really really hard, just having
(11:15):
like days and weeks on end where it just rained
and all we could pretty much do was just lie
in bed and just hang out and wait for the
rain to end.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
And yeah, I guess because Adam and I knew we.
Speaker 7 (11:31):
Wanted this to be more of like a lifestyle long term.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah, long term, rather than just like a quick hop lap. Yeah,
so we thought, okay, it's for us, it's worth getting
something that's bigger that we have the option to have
a couple of spaces to be able to relax in,
so say like a seating area that's separate to where
the bed is.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
Confirm love the l shaped lounge.
Speaker 6 (12:04):
Also a good use.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Definitely what twelve people in the bus before.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Yeah, that's our record up in Exmouth.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
We also when we found I guess back to the
original question of like how we ended up with a bus,
We we're looking at sprinters and then we started noticing
coasters were a thing. We were like, holy shit, that
would be the best thing in the world. Yeah, that's
just definitely just something about a coaster. They're the perfect
(12:35):
size except for the height.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
A pop top coaster for you. Yeah, it does not
even exist.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
We've seen We once saw like a pop top just
over the kitchen sort of area, like in the middle
of the bus. We saw it on the Florio Peninsula
and essay.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Yeah, and I was like, Adam, we need that. Yeah,
next build, next builder. Yeah we love the bus.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
I think we had a very similar go at choosing
a vehicle. I think sprinter is always the first choice
because I think it's like the flagship model of.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
What van life is, yeah, or even living, not just traveling. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Yeah, if you typed into AI like van life, it
would give you a sprinter.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
With weird hands.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Yeah, And I think we also looked at you sprinters.
We lived in the middle, like smack dab in the
middle of the city of Sydney, so there was no
opportunity for us to.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
Build it unfortunately ourselves.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
So we were looking at pre made ones, which hyped
up the price and a bunch of other things that
came with that decision. But yeah, we looked at sprinters
first and they're expensive.
Speaker 7 (13:54):
Yeah, they're like I think we also were kind of
being post COVID. The market was pretty high at that point,
so yeah, like nice stuff that we were seeing on
like secondhand Facebook marketplace was like.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
Way more than that, like one hundred a sprinter.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, wow, We also learned when we bought our bus.
We took it to a mechanic who was telling us
that people buy vans and just load them with stuff
because there's no weight restriction. Yeah. Well it's like it's
it's not the no one's no one checks, Yeah, and
it just fucks the motor, ruins the motor, whereas buses
(14:38):
are built to carry weight. Yeah, so right, it's actually
it's fine.
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Yeah, the buses can hand.
Speaker 6 (14:46):
Yeah, how do we land on wet.
Speaker 7 (14:49):
We checked out a sprinter first, and it was over
our budget. We were trying to spend like, no more
than fifty but we kind of realized quickly that yeah,
if we were trying to get something pre made secondhand,
probably have to spend a bit more. Yeah, checked out
a sprinter. It paid for a guy to come out,
(15:12):
like a mechanic, to come out and look at it
and drive it around and tell us what condition it
was in. Turned out it had some issues, so kind
of yeah, mechanical issues.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
So we're glad we didn't go with that.
Speaker 7 (15:24):
And then we just kept looking for a while on
like Facebook, and randomly you came across the bus that
we have now and we thought it was really cute,
so like, why not check it out at the time,
Like Scot's also toll so we were like, we also
need a high roof situation. Bus doesn't really suit that,
(15:45):
but let's look at it anyways. And then yeah, when
we inspected.
Speaker 6 (15:50):
It, that was the only issue was.
Speaker 7 (15:52):
Yeah, you were just like you said, you were fine
with it. You loved it so much that you were like,
I don't mind, you were the same.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
I think in the end, like you're never going to
take every single box. You have to make some compromises.
And the more you do bus life and ban life
in general, I think the more you realize that there's
always going to be some form of compromise that you're
going to have to make, whether it's sleeping in a
car park for a few nights.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Or yeah, not having space because you.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
Have to get somewhere. Yeah, there's a big lesson to leone.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
There's all these weird things that you learn as well,
like how much you take for granted having a level bed.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Or the slightest angle, especially if you're cooking completely screws
up your neck.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, just compensating for a tilt or or anything like that.
Speaker 7 (16:51):
Yeah, Yeah, tell us about how tourists the bus came
to be, so.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
We got really lucky with the bus. We after thinking
about sprinters and then moving over to the possibility of
getting a coaster. My mom used to work for a
Japanese tour guide company in Sydney, and I messaged Mom
and I said, oh, are you still, you know, in
(17:20):
touch with anyone within that industry. Do you happen to
know if anyone would be selling a second hand coaster?
And Mom was like, oh, sure, I'll reach out to
my old boss and she got back to us really
quickly and said, oh, actually he's selling one of his
buses because of COVID it was.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Too expensive to pay the regro for his fleet. Yeah,
so he was getting rid. I think he was getting
rid of one, maybe two, I.
Speaker 5 (17:48):
Think a couple.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah, so, and you know, Mum said, you know, being
a Japanese businessman, the coaster would be in absolute immaculate
condition and just really well looked after.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
And he bought it new.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
He bought it brand new, so went how to look
at it and we pretty much loved it straight away.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Hey, Yeah, it was that weird thing of like, is
this emotional decision making?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Yeah, yeah, it just when you know, you know, yeah,
it was the first bus we looked at, the only
bus we looked at. Yeah, and yeah it still had
what twenty two seats, Yeah, still had everything in it,
all the like emergency it looked.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
Yeah, that's pretty wild.
Speaker 7 (18:33):
But you guys could see being in it despite it
like still being a tour bus.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I think even before we went how to look at it,
we'd started creating designs, didn't we on Rhino, like on
a D modeling program.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, I don't know how anyone builds there does their
build without three D modeling the space.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
So we kind of already had an idea of what
we wanted the layout to be. But yeah, the name
tourist comes from. Yeah, our bus, being an ex tourist vehicle.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Had a microphone. That's so when you when yeah, whoever
was driving it to my mom? Yeah, I mean mom
speaking to all the tourists. Yeah, another cool thing. You
can tell it, you can tell it? Yeah, so when Yes, So,
(19:36):
when Clara was young, during the school holidays, if there
was no one available to look after her and her brother,
they would occasionally go with their mom on the trips.
So Claire used to sit in the front seat on
these tours tours.
Speaker 5 (19:51):
Mum would be in the front seat. Actually know she'd
be driving. Did you guys keep the microphone?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
We had it from the beginning of the bill, so
you can see the microphone holder.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Yeah, yeah, that was very fun.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
They're connected to the speakers are in the ceiling. Yeah,
they're still there. They're still there. We took the it's
just the skeleton of like the frame, the brack and
all that. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (20:17):
How cool would it be if you still had the
mic like driving around.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
A muffled except it's only us two in the front.
Speaker 5 (20:26):
Yeah, giving each other a tour of and here we
have the pinnacle.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
All right, So is there a chance that you were
traveling as a kid with your mom driving this specific
place around.
Speaker 5 (20:40):
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's wild. We'd love to do
a build one day.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Yeah, I think we would do another bus as well.
I think everybody that's in a.
Speaker 5 (20:51):
Bus loves the bus.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
There's obviously something we said about having a Toyota. I
think that was one of our big points of switching
from looking from sprint for sprinters to looking for a
bus was Mercedes parts are harder to come.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
By, more expensive, and when you're out out back.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
As they say, everybody's got Toyota parts and Mercedes parts
have to be shipped in. I think yeah, like the
base parts underneath the coaster are the same parts that
are in almost all Toyota tracks. Like the interchangeability of
(21:33):
all the different things in the Toyota fleet make it
a lot better in terms of if you get broke.
Speaker 5 (21:40):
Down, broke down, they love us.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
We've also found parts from no as in as in
like like Toyota fall drives. We've we've we lost something
and we end up going to a record and they're like, oh,
we'll just check and it fit. So they're just interchangeable
and you'll always find parts cheaply. Yeah, just nice.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
Yeah, Yeah, they're great. And even though they're not four
will drive. I feel like we've both been able to
take our buses in some pretty hectic places. Questionable, but
they've been alright.
Speaker 6 (22:23):
And I think at the end of those roads have
been some really cool things.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
But also rainbows, rainbows and whatever the opposite of rainbows are.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
Yeah, it's actually probably a good segue to maybe one.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
Of today podcast highs and lows.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Yeah, let's talk about some of the thunderstorms at the
end of some roads.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
One specifically comes to mind when I think of you guys, loads.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
And thunderstorms that we've hit.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
It probably more than hectic roads that we've been down.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Or should should we talk about like how we met first,
because then people will know like the relationship we have
and yeah, like then when we talk about highs and lows,
we can relate to how we've both experienced different things
and the timing and.
Speaker 7 (23:26):
Yeah, true, yeah, So I think what we've been chatting
loosely on Instagram you a night class.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Yeah, I remember I saw a story of you and
I think you just had one of your first driving
lessons in the bus and Scott must.
Speaker 5 (23:45):
Have been filming you driving.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Yeah, And I responded to the story and I was like, hell, yeah, girl, you.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Get that bus.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
But I think I like, yeah, we started chatting from
that because I was like, oh, I'm also trying to
learn how to drive our bus.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
So I feel like that maybe got the ball rolling
at the.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Other thing was a low you guys crashing into the tree.
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Yes, oh yeah, that could have also started.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
That like made us recognize like fuck ship. We were like,
oh my god, we've been in such not that we've
not hit anything, but we know the feeling of like
having to rearrange from an accident.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
Yeah, yeah, I remember reaching out to you guys when
that happened.
Speaker 6 (24:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Second a tree.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
Well yeah, I think we chatted the first.
Speaker 7 (24:39):
Time, but you did it again and we didn't really
advertise that one too much.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
It was embarrassing, So.
Speaker 6 (24:46):
Now we're putting it on Spotify.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (24:50):
I just remember, like that was still quite early days
for us in ban life, probably three four months in
and just getting used to like the online community and
trying to make friends and stuff. And I feel like
I remember you being one of the first people to
like properly chat to us rather than.
Speaker 6 (25:15):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 7 (25:18):
The first like conversation of substance, I feel like with
somebody that I had been talking to online. So yeah,
we'd just loosely been chatting and then I didn't even
know where you guys were, because I feel like everybody
posts stuff from they're delayed and you never know where
people actually are.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
We saw you a few times before we actually connected it,
just one.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
In South Australia.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
We were driving behind you into Coffin Bay.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
Yeah, because we recognize your box, the box.
Speaker 6 (25:55):
On the roof the yellow the yellow.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
I remember driving behind your bus thinking I recognize that
bus from somewhere, and I can't remember if we think.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
You messaged us being like I think I just saw you. Yeah,
and then I can't remember.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Just before that we were chatting about both being in
the air Peninsula.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
Yeah, so we kind of knew you guys were around.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Scott and I pulled up at the Smoky Bay and
we were just gonna situ.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
And lunch on the jetty.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Yeah, the streaky Bay, streaky Bay, streaky yeah, streaky.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
Yeah, it was streaky yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
So like we were having lunch on the jetty, I
decided to get out of the fishing rod.
Speaker 6 (26:44):
So I go back up to the bus and you.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Guys had pulled up in front, and I'm like, well,
you have your sticker on the back and I was like, oh, hey,
it's towards the bus, but you guys weren't in it.
And then so I went into the bus and then
I came back out and you guys were just like
walking down the sidewalk and they were like, hey, are
you coasting up back? And I was like, yeah, are
you to rest the bus? The rest is history.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Was the.
Speaker 6 (27:12):
Stop.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
It was the so we had a watermelon. Yeah, it
was a really hot day and we just bought a
watermelon to try and cool down and ran into Scott
exiting the bus and we're like, oh, do you guys
want to share this watermelon? And he's like, no way,
that's Palm's favorite.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
Fruit, watermelon.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
So we were like, hell, yeah, let's cut it up
and we just sat for.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Just sat around that table chatting for hours.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
We chatted for like two days straight. It just didn't
pretty much.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
I remember, well, yeah, in the past, I've found that
whenever we've met people, usually there's like, I know, a
short period where it's kind of like, oh, do these.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
People gel with us? These are people?
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Like are these the people that like, would we want
to invite them to, like come camp with us tonight?
Speaker 5 (28:05):
In family party, bring them home to mom.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
You're also gauging if they like you and if you
would want to. I mean also when you're chatting with
people and you're with your partner and you're not sure
what your partner thinks, so you're like, do we offer
them to come have dinner with us tonight? And if
you offer and the partners not feeling it and then
you already find out later.
Speaker 5 (28:31):
And you're sleeping on the couch.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
That's why we built a big we don't have that lug.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
But no, the reason why I mentioned that was because, yeah,
when we're sitting around that table in the watermelon like,
it was quite It happened quite quickly where I was like, Okay,
I feel I feel like I'm very comfortable around these guys.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I'm in love and refreshed.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
I'm hydrated. But I think it was you. You were like, oh,
what are you guys doing tonight? Like do you want
to come have with us? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yeah, I'm like a fucking oh swear, I'm like a labrador.
Yea invite everyone to dinner the slice.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
Yeah that was actually I.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Never actually fished as we came down and just started
chatting for so long, and then we were about to
leave and go to the camp and Adam goes, where
are you going to fish through the lining? I think
three times, okay, let's move on.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Yeah, but yeah, I think we also when we met
you guys, was a pretty low point for me.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Thanks.
Speaker 7 (29:52):
Before before we met you guys, I had just recently
lost my cousin over in America's quite young, so it
was a bit of a shock when it happened. And yeah,
there was a really strange period of should I, yeah,
(30:12):
what are we doing? Should I be going back to
America be with family. I had even like looked into
flights to getting back and it was just so so
many different flights, so expensive. So it was a strange
period of time. We weren't really keen on being out
and about and making friends, but it was really nice
(30:36):
when you guys came by, and yeah, I feel like it.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
Just helped pull me out of it a bit.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Cool.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Yeah, so that was nice.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Yeah, and then we ended up going the same way
around Australia and we met back up in Esperance and
we hung out in Esperants for a long time, and
then we met back up again in Perth and then
drove all the way to Xmouth together and yeah, we've
been traveling quite a lot together since then.
Speaker 6 (31:03):
And it's you guys.
Speaker 5 (31:07):
It helps when you're going the same direction.
Speaker 6 (31:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
Yeah, yeah, now we're going the same direction again. Despite
not meaning to show them your leg palm.
Speaker 7 (31:20):
I currently have a broken ankle. Yeah, that's another good story.
Started with a high quite.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Literally a yeah, Mount Bruce and Kraginie. We were hiking,
and yeah, just on the way back down. I don't
know what happened. I had good shoes on.
Speaker 7 (31:44):
I think I may have been rushing it just a
little bit, not taking my time, and I took one
wrong step and slipped on some loose rocks and then
my foot kind of got caught on another like bigger rock,
and yeah, inverted a bit.
Speaker 5 (32:03):
At the time, like it really bad.
Speaker 7 (32:05):
And I've never broken a bone or sprained an ankle
or anything, but Scott sprained his ankles many time, Yeah,
both of them, and it was just like, if you
can put.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Weight on it, it's probably fine. It turns out he
was wrong.
Speaker 7 (32:24):
There's a five kilometer hike back down the mountain and
it's pretty steep.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
There's scrambly sections.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
And loose rocks intense as well.
Speaker 7 (32:34):
Yeah, I really wanted to be air lifted off, but
I wasn't sure if that was overkill for what had happened,
So we just yeah, took it really slow. Challenged me
every step of the way, broke out crying multiple times,
multiple times. It was delirious, asking Scott to sing to me,
(32:56):
trying to call upon everything, I'd ever learned in the
past thinking about whim hoff and breathing, and.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
Yeah, just hectic.
Speaker 7 (33:08):
Took us an hour and a half to get to
the top of the mountain and then took us four
hours to get back down because of how slow we
were going felt never ending. And yeah, we like didn't
come across too many people on the hike either. There
was maybe like four different groups climbing up as we
were going back down, and each person we crossed paths
(33:31):
with like we asked if they had any neurofin on them,
and finally the third person did, thankfully. Yeah, and then
three days later made it to Broom, got it checked
out at the hospital and turned out I'd fractured.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
It in two places, and then we were stuck in Broom.
Speaker 6 (33:51):
It was really hot.
Speaker 7 (33:52):
It was really hot. Beer was not coping at all.
So yeah, we cashed out a bit on spent a
bit of money on a hotel room in Broom for
a week while we dealt with the hospital stuff and
figured out what we were going to do. We were
supposed to be traveling around the top, meeting a maid
(34:13):
of ours in Darwin, and then a month afterwards meeting
family in Queensland, you're meant yeah, and we're in Perth.
Speaker 6 (34:23):
Yeah, yeah, so still traveling together.
Speaker 7 (34:31):
Yeah, the universe had other plans for us, so we
turned around and thankfully friends and family are have been
able to reroute their trips to come see us. But
it was a pretty stressful time. Yeah, maybe one of
the most uncertain and worst times.
Speaker 6 (34:49):
It's still uncertain.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Yeah, once we're once my family is come and gone
from their trip out, we have no idea what we're doing.
But I think that's one of the beautiful things about
living this kind of life is it doesn't really.
Speaker 5 (35:05):
Matter freedom, but it comes with uncertainty as well.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
It's high and love at the same time, equally liberating
knowing that you're not tied to anything, but frightening that
you don't have routine and something to stick.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
Safety.
Speaker 7 (35:21):
Yeah, yeah, safety and like I guess financial safety or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
But it also teaches you that you don't need a
lot and you can kind of dig in and find
a solution, so you really get a good understanding of
what you're capable of.
Speaker 7 (35:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
I think when situations like this happen, as well as
hectic and stressful as they are in the moment and like,
I guess, yeah, in the moment, I feel like whenever
it's happened to us, it's like it's kind of added
like another little almost like.
Speaker 5 (36:02):
A skill set to our toolbox.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
True than if anything else pops up in the future,
we're more resilient always carry neurofin Yeah, and yeah, like
I feel like where we don't get as stressed about
things that pop up along the way now because things
that have happened in the past have helped us to
(36:24):
be able to Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
We know we'll always find a solution.
Speaker 5 (36:28):
Makes you more resilient for sure. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
I think a lot of our low points have turned
into I wouldn't say high point, but strong points in
our overall life in general, because of what you learn
from that experience and what you take away from it
in the end.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Because also the fact that when you're at home and
you have a low point or something goes wrong, you've
got all the structure around you that means that you
can either ignore it or try to find a solution
quickly or true. Yeah, whereas sweeping under Yeah, when you're
(37:07):
living in a context without a safety net, you know
that if you don't resolve the issue, it's gonna compound
and it means that you have to get creative and
find ways out of it, which just shows you how
(37:28):
good you are on the on the spot and it's
it's it's fun when you look back at it, but
it's really challenging. At the time.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
It's intense, but the more it happens, the more you
realize in the moment that you think it will been
through this before. I know that it's stressful now, but
in the end it'll be good.
Speaker 6 (37:53):
Yeah, And that really.
Speaker 4 (37:54):
Reminds me of our time on Wooden Beach and we
love for you guys.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
To tell us that story. That's what I was thinking
about before when we said the thunder storms, oh yeah,
I thought you were going to refer to mechanical issues
turned into yeah, it didn't stuck that way.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
So Warden, we ended up spending a couple of nights
staying on the.
Speaker 7 (38:22):
Beach and reminder, the buses are not for wheel drives,
but you can.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
There's a like, I mean for the people on the
East Coast, like we had no clue about in South
Australia and w A, you can drive on all these beaches,
which is initially we thought that was awful, Like you
want cars on the beach, like two will drive cars
on the beach.
Speaker 5 (38:48):
That's ridiculous recovery.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
But having having everything that you own with you at
the beach is in like such a feeling you don't
have to leave, yeah until you either need food or water.
Speaker 5 (39:10):
Yeah, yeah, that is an amazing feeling.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
But we drove down to Warden and I remember feeling
really nervous, like as we were driving down to the
beach and I'm like, this is happening really quick, like
should we get out, should we walk it? Should we
see what it's like? And I remember freaking out to you, Adam,
and you were like, it's fine, let's just go. So
we drove on the beach and everything was fine.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
And we walked down.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
That first day wasn't too bad because I think it didn't.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Just rained rain.
Speaker 6 (39:40):
Yeah, it was Yeah, everything was good. Everything was perfectly fine.
We drove on to the beach.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
It was like concrete.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
I'm like almost she heard her foot from walking on
the sand.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
It was so hard.
Speaker 6 (39:54):
Yeah, but yeah, but then we stayed for two days straight.
Didn't want to move.
Speaker 5 (39:58):
It's the same foot.
Speaker 6 (39:59):
The sun came.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Out, it was already fractured.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Yeah, I just yeah, I remember freaking out, like driving
down onto the beach Yahds And then yeah, we were
there for a couple of nights and it was over
busy weekend.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Heaps of full drives were turning up and camping, and the.
Speaker 4 (40:24):
Sun was out and the wind was up and the
sand went from being tightly.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Packed to loose churned up while we were on.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
The beach, So the entry to the beach in particular
got like really churned up. And as we went to leave,
we like just before we got to the ramp, Adam's like,
all right, yeah, we just got a gun it.
Speaker 5 (40:46):
So we went for it and we got bogged pretty
much like on the.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Ramp entrance, right at the entrance, and yeah, like people
started crowding around, and we got out and was trying
to suss what we could do. You guys were still
further down the beach with your basket. You saw what
happened the guinea pigs, sacrificial lamps.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
It always seems so ridiculous in hindsight what happened, But
in the zone, when you've got people crowding around, everyone's
got a solution, like getting We've gotten out of bogs before.
It's not that hard, but everything's very heightened when everyone's
It all happened quickly.
Speaker 4 (41:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
Yeah. So basically this guy rocked up in a U.
He had an EMU export in his hand. He was drunk,
you could definitely tell. And it was like ten am,
and he basically did a doughnut around the bus. It
was it was kind of impressive.
Speaker 5 (41:49):
With his family in the car with his little kids.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
Did a doughnut around the bus, pulled out perfectly in
front of us, gets out and goes, do you need help,
I'll get you out, Like hell yeah. So he attaches
strap to the front of our bus to like a anchor, Yeah,
(42:13):
like an anchor point, attaches it to his towbar and
just starts going like he's he's rebounding off the strap.
And I'm in the front seat, not like I've forgotten
that the handbrakes on because I'm just watching him and
he's yeah, he's going. He's going so quickly that I
(42:36):
haven't had a chance to put the handbrake down.
Speaker 6 (42:40):
And wheels aren't moving.
Speaker 5 (42:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
We Palm Scott and I were watching from the side
and we were like, this guy needs to slow down.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
We need to reassess, and then the strap broke and
it just sling shotted through our grill, put a hole
in the radiator and started leaking. Yeah, well the coolant
started coming out and he gets out of the carry.
He's like, that's good. Then we take the handbrake off.
(43:08):
He drives us up and around to the car park.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
You're kind of underplaying the hole. Oh, we just took
the handbrake off. Guy walks up and says, do.
Speaker 6 (43:18):
You have the handbrake on? And Adam goes.
Speaker 4 (43:24):
Takes and then the guy off again and it's easy
as and it just comes straight out.
Speaker 5 (43:31):
Yeah, put him down more.
Speaker 4 (43:36):
But then the guy was.
Speaker 6 (43:36):
Really nice and ended up fixing your radiotor for you.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
And he also didn't have two front teeth four front teeth, sorry,
four front teeth, and once the radio had had a
hole in it and no grill, the bus didn't have
front teeth. Kind of loved it.
Speaker 5 (43:55):
Yeah, we're just driving around espirants for three months with
no front teeth.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
And then I made of his rocked up who was
a bit more with it and helped dues pack with
like a metal epoxy, put the fix the hole in
the grill in the radiator and we had to drive
the hour back into Esperance monitoring ourture temperature. Got back
(44:21):
to the radiator guy probably fifteen minutes before he was closing,
and he said, they did such a great job. We
could probably drive the bus like that, but we ended
up getting a new radio.
Speaker 5 (44:32):
We'd like a new radio.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
So the two knights at Warden cost us a grand
twelve hundred bucks.
Speaker 5 (44:39):
Are worth absolutely.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (44:43):
Meanwhile, we were just watching all this happen.
Speaker 7 (44:46):
It's actually lucky none of us got hurt, because if
that's strap and killed somebody, that's and so many before
people just standing off to the side watching.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
Yeah, the best quote was as soon as we got
you back onto the bitchmen to drive the bus off, Yeah,
like that way. And so yeah, I choose a different
route on the sand and get bogged quicker than.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
You guys straight away away.
Speaker 8 (45:15):
And then luckily someone comes up to us and they
ask if they can lend us their Max tracks, and
the Max tracks go under the wheels, we get going
again and I'm off and that was it.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
That was so jealousy.
Speaker 5 (45:30):
I felt terrible.
Speaker 4 (45:32):
Yeah, fairly certain if you guys had Max tracks it
would have We just.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Use our ramps. Yeah, we've done it before, like we
were getting them out to do it.
Speaker 5 (45:40):
Yeah, honestly, it all just happened so quickly.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Just the handbrake was like.
Speaker 5 (45:46):
Much going on, Like you got bogged.
Speaker 7 (45:49):
You probably instinctually pulled it up as you normally would
when you stop the car.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Well, yeah, I parked pulled it up. I think, also
trying to trying to watch what that guy was doing,
and I didn't think what you were doing. Does the
bus need to be doing? Yeah, saying like he you
didn't give me any chance to to be ready for something.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (46:14):
Yeah, it's good times.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
But that's also the fun thing is that. I mean
if no one died, which would have been horrendous, but.
Speaker 5 (46:25):
We wouldn't be sitting here potentially telling this story.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Yeah, I mean all the all the You only ever
hear the good story, like the bad things that happen
on a trip, because they're the funniest or they make
for the best story. Yeah. So yeah, we've Yeah, we
don't stress completely when it happens, which is nice.
Speaker 5 (46:45):
Everything will be okay.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
Time for a word from today's sponsor.
Speaker 7 (46:54):
Yeah, let's talk about some other lows. I think another
good one to chat about might be just mental health
and managing relationships, relationships and things like that in the bus,
because I guess we've found it quite difficult compared to
(47:15):
like living in an apartment. I feel like we used
to not argue heaps, and since moving into the bus,
that's definitely picked up. And I guess it has to
do with just you know, being together twenty four to
seven and everything is heightened in the bus completely.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Yeah, you don't realize how much your environment affects your.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
Relationship and having your close friends around going.
Speaker 9 (47:45):
To work, Yeah, it's going time away from each other
is such an important part of like being able to
take a step back and think about.
Speaker 4 (47:57):
How these things, how you were reacting to things, and
how you can.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Deal with them.
Speaker 4 (48:01):
But when you're in a bus, in a very small,
confined space twenty four to seven with someone, there's no
opportunity to well, there is an opportunity, it's just a
lot harder to make.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Space for that.
Speaker 5 (48:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (48:15):
I think it goes back to what you were saying
Adam about like when you have those comforts and stuff,
it's easy easier to have those like issues be swept
under the rug or not dealt with whereas structured. Yeah,
I feel quite grateful for Like, despite we have more
arguments these days, I feel kind of grateful for it
(48:37):
because I feel like it's helping bring to light things
that have always been there but we've never had the
chance to really focus on.
Speaker 4 (48:47):
Yeah, then we would normally sweep under the rug, and
now instead of choosing to ignore it.
Speaker 5 (48:52):
Or you're forced to deal with it.
Speaker 6 (48:53):
Yeah, you're confronted with it and you have to deal
with it.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
It's interesting because where almost like we're coming up to
two years living in the bus, you guys are at one. Yeah,
and when we were a year in we were arguing more.
We we're learning how to navigate everything you just said,
(49:15):
and we're back to the point where we're not really
arguing anymore. And Yeah, we've spoke to her like a
couple's therapist and a bunch of our friends and each other,
and we've just developed some tools that we use.
Speaker 3 (49:33):
Yeah, I remember we had a good chat about some
of this stuff.
Speaker 5 (49:38):
Oh, you don't hear too many people talking about like
their relationship.
Speaker 7 (49:42):
It's this bit of I guess, shame and stigma associated
with it. You feel like everyone else has it together,
and what's wrong with us sort of a thing.
Speaker 4 (49:54):
What you see on social media is and always it's
never the reality.
Speaker 5 (49:58):
Well it's a highlight reel.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
Yeah, it's a section of the reality.
Speaker 6 (50:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (50:06):
So what are some of those tools that you've learned
from friends and therapists and others.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
I think realizing that we have our own interests and
maintaining our separate activities or getting getting away like going
for a solo walk, exercising is huge, huge, Yeah, And
it's so different for each person, Like I'm I'm someone
(50:37):
who I could go months without chatting to too many
people and it doesn't really affect me, whereas Claron Munths
like maintaining communications with their friends and that's a big
part of your identity. I guess it fills your cup.
Speaker 4 (50:57):
Yeah, keeping your cup full is very important with how
to think.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
It's also you have a contrast between you're always doing
these incredible things and seeing these incredible sites or meeting
people who are living a lifestyle similar to you, and
you're not going to share the negatives until you've gotten
(51:23):
to know someone pretty well. And then the fact that
we're constantly what's the word, like you're stimulated, You're constantly
stimulated by all the things that you're doing, that when
you do feel down or if you forget to give
yourself a few days off, occasionally you crash and you're like,
(51:47):
where did this come from? But we've learned that if
we are doing a lot of things and we crash
at different times, so we've had to realize that one
person might need the downtime and to respect that. Yeah,
and if we pick up on it, provide them with
(52:10):
the space to do that or even I guess one
of the biggest lessons we've learned is just asking for it. Yeah,
saying before it gets out of hand, I think I
need my own space, or I'm not one hundred today, Yeah,
I just want to chill.
Speaker 7 (52:30):
We found that really helpful too, just communicating about what
your needs are, which is sometimes hard because I feel
like there are times when you don't realize what you
need yourself absolutely yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (52:46):
Yeah, when you're in the thick of it, like you
hear like, communication is key, but when you're in the
thick of it, when you're feeling really low, you just
forget that's a thing.
Speaker 5 (52:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
One of the highs from that though, like to remove
yourself from the city and a stressful environment where you're working,
you're surrounded by people. When you're spending more time away
from all of that, you get a good understanding of
who you are and what your strengths and weaknesses are. Yeah,
(53:20):
you really get to know yourself and your partner. Yeah, definitely,
which is insane. I always say fucking insane. But it's
cool to to get to know each other better.
Speaker 3 (53:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (53:33):
I think there's been a lot of personal and couple
growth that. Yeah, if it's accelerated more than it would
be this apartment, or not even accelerated, but just a
totally new version of growth, because I don't know if
that would ever have happened.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
If we didn't do what we're doing.
Speaker 4 (53:55):
I think one of the biggest tools we've had recently
is doing a check in.
Speaker 5 (54:02):
I love check now.
Speaker 4 (54:03):
Yeah, because, like you said, class, communicating just out of
the blue is hard. I think, especially for me, it's
hard to just come out and say, you know what
I'm feeling whatever today and I think I need a
break or something like I'll well, I think both of
(54:24):
us part will power through it and like we'll have
a bad time and we'll feel down, but we won't
admit to ourselves that you know, maybe we should take
a break, or maybe something the other person is doing
is getting under our skin.
Speaker 6 (54:40):
And I think what we do is we check in
every day.
Speaker 5 (54:44):
And we try to do we try to do it
every day.
Speaker 7 (54:46):
We actually started this when we still lived in like Sydney,
in an apartment, but we've leant into it a lot
more in the bus. Basically, I think the idea is
that like, once things are heightened, it's kind of hard
to like come back from that. But if you're communicating
(55:07):
frequently and doing it sort of preventatively, it makes life
a lot easier. So yeah, just around dinner time every day,
we'll try and have a little check in to say,
how is the day, How has the day been for you?
Like we'll take turns talking about what's been good in
(55:28):
our day and what maybe hasn't been so good, And
it gives you that space and opportunity to raise things
in a more productive way rather than like in the moment.
It's good also like knowing that you have that check
in coming up, so that if there is something that
flares up earlier in the day, rather than reacting, like
(55:50):
I can catch myself and be like, oh, let me
just let this simmer, Yeah, and then bring it up
later on once I've had some time to like sit with
it and not be so emotional.
Speaker 4 (56:02):
Yeah, unless you tackle the problem with the level head,
rather than yeah, reacting emotionally and potentially in flaming the issue.
Speaker 1 (56:11):
Something I like about it too, is that you're both
in a space where you're actively willing to listen to
the other person, so it keeps it mutual. Rather than
saying I'm upset because of this and the other person
saying well, you actually get to say how you feel
(56:37):
about something and the other person always knows, so it's
it is nice to put it out there, so it's
in the open because they know something's wrong, but they
don't know what's wrong. And as soon as you bring
it to attention, you can both pinpoint the problem and
it stops any mental bubbling of what what what have
(57:02):
I done wrong? Or why haven't I noticed that I'm
upset and all of that.
Speaker 5 (57:08):
Yeah, for sure, checkings are great if you aren't doing
on people start if you're traveling with people as well,
you can do group checkings.
Speaker 7 (57:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (57:16):
We did that.
Speaker 3 (57:17):
Yeah, we did a couple of them while we were
traveling up.
Speaker 5 (57:21):
North which was Yeah.
Speaker 7 (57:23):
I wish we'd started it sooner, because like we were
basically traveling together for two months, like a month going
up the Coral Coast and then a month next month. Yeah,
it's like the whole thing of being with your partner
in twenty four to seven. We were kind of with
the four of us twenty four to seven and bea.
Speaker 3 (57:45):
So yeah, that was good when we started doing that.
Speaker 1 (57:49):
That's one of the biggest highs for me in terms
of this lifestyle is that the people you meet are
so outside who you would be hanging out with at
home that it builds so much more perspective into your
own life and gratitude and the awareness of how privileged
(58:10):
what we are doing, how privileged we are to be
doing what we're doing, and just how many amazing, happy,
adventurous people exist who are so welcoming and open and
every time where something's gone wrong, we've just been flooded
(58:33):
with help, yeah, or people checking in and saying, how's
this been going? Are you okay? Or there's such a
nice community out on the road.
Speaker 5 (58:46):
Definitely, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (58:48):
So I think that's a good way to you know,
wrap this up less and.
Speaker 1 (58:52):
On a high.
Speaker 4 (58:54):
Let's each go around and talk about, you know, what
was the best thing we've had in the past year
or two years for you guys.
Speaker 6 (59:03):
I think for me personally, it's been x Mouth.
Speaker 4 (59:06):
I think everybody talks about how great Xmouth is and
it lives up to the hype.
Speaker 6 (59:13):
The amount of people up there, like you were saying.
Speaker 1 (59:15):
The community is insane. We ended up hanging out four
coasters all.
Speaker 4 (59:22):
Together on Square Square. We watched Shrek in the middle. Yeah,
we camped on the beach some more. I'm really into
spearfishing and the spearfishing of theirs insane. Yeah, just like
the amount of happy memories from the month that we
(59:42):
spent in Exmouth is yeah, next level. And I think
even without ever going back there again, I think it
will be my favorite place on the Lap for sure.
Speaker 1 (59:57):
Yeah. And it's so contextual, like it you could be
somewhere that there's nowhere else on earth like it, and
it's so beautiful and if you're with the wrong.
Speaker 6 (01:00:16):
People, so true.
Speaker 4 (01:00:18):
I mean the difference between Xmouth and Esperance, like the
obviously we were we were there in Esperance, so you
had a great time. Like the community around the community,
not the travel community around.
Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
It, but the.
Speaker 4 (01:00:36):
Life that the people that live in that area lead.
Speaker 6 (01:00:42):
Was so different to the life that most people led
in Xmouth.
Speaker 4 (01:00:46):
I guess for one, Exmouth is majority, the majority is
where Esperance is a town, and just like the amount
of amazing things in both places is huge, and the
beauty of that place is immense, But the feel that
(01:01:11):
you get from the people that get around it is
really what made it so much better for me in
Exmouth versus Esperant was because everybody there was having the
same good time, and everybody was there to be in
the beach. Everybody was there, I can't speak. Everybody there
(01:01:32):
was there to be looking at whale sharks and soaking
up the sun and meeting other people in coasters and
having a great time, Whereas an Esperance, every other person
there was a resident and they didn't want tourists there.
Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
The facilities on there.
Speaker 4 (01:01:51):
Yeah, and like yeah, the council is actively trying to
keep travelers out.
Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
And the weird thing about that is that when the
facilities are there, people are more respectful. Like we've we've
found unfortunately, the baseline isn't that everyone picks up their
rubbish or respects the environment completely, which sucks to see,
and it's worse in Wa than anywhere else in the country.
(01:02:20):
But when the facilities are there, that's such a difference.
There's a space for people to free camp or for
people to go somewhere safe, there's usually a better community
or a better feel. And when the fear of a
ranger pulling up and giving you a ticket or all
(01:02:43):
the locals hating that, people like why are people here
to see?
Speaker 4 (01:02:49):
It's a positive or a negative feedback loop depending on
what facilities are there, because if there are facilities, then
people are happy.
Speaker 1 (01:02:58):
The locals are happy that you're not.
Speaker 6 (01:03:01):
In the woods.
Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
Well you're out of the way as well.
Speaker 4 (01:03:04):
So if there's you're not camping in their parking lot,
yeah something.
Speaker 7 (01:03:07):
Yeah, I don't know. It's kind of hard to pick
a specific high. I mean Xmouth was up there for sure.
Speaker 5 (01:03:17):
I think just.
Speaker 7 (01:03:19):
Yeah, freedom to do what you want. Not working has
been fantastic. I was working at like full tilt for
since graduating UNI, high stress job, and since yeah, taking
the year off, it's just been so refreshing. I feel
like my nervous system has calmed down, my skin has
(01:03:42):
responded in positive ways. Like that's been really nice. And
I think just like being out in nature a lot
more like even though you're still inside in a bus,
like you're basically living outside for the most part, especially
with the bus, Like it's all windows, being in tune
(01:04:03):
with like seeing the sunrise and sunsets every day, being
in tune with the moon, Like I've never paid attention
to the moon so much before, and like the phases
that it's in.
Speaker 1 (01:04:15):
We don't know what date is, just how big the
moon is.
Speaker 7 (01:04:17):
Yeah, Yeah, and just also like all this like it's
eye opening, all the eye opening experiences that you get
living on the road, meeting people who are doing the
same thing, but everyone's doing it a bit differently, how
they're making money, Like it just opens you up to
(01:04:38):
so much more and like alternative ways of living. So yeah,
I feel like it's my high is just like, yeah,
everything that burn life has given me in that sense, What.
Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
About you guys must have been the highest high? Do
you have it?
Speaker 5 (01:04:58):
Yeah? I think multi day walks for me.
Speaker 3 (01:05:05):
Being in nature, yeah, and I think, yeah, I'm just picturing.
I'm thinking about how I felt being on different walks,
and yeah, it's definitely the most like grounded I've felt.
Speaker 5 (01:05:22):
And I feel like when.
Speaker 3 (01:05:26):
Where on those walks, I feel a lot of gratitude
for being able to be in these incredible places where
there's not many people around, and I guess to see
things where we wouldn't be able to get to, Like
we've had to walk into this place to be able
to I don't know, swim in this waterfall where you
(01:05:50):
wouldn't be able to drive to it.
Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
Ye know, your body's capable of doing it too.
Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
Yeah, as there's been so many walks where yeah, I've cried,
where I've been so tired or exhausted from the heat
or you know, like that.
Speaker 5 (01:06:07):
It's hard. It is hard.
Speaker 3 (01:06:09):
But I think that's probably my high, my high for what.
Speaker 6 (01:06:16):
We've been doing.
Speaker 5 (01:06:19):
Did you guys do multi day hikes before? Like living
in Sydney.
Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
Much we mainly did day hikes. I think I was
the only one that had done a multi day hike before.
Speaker 5 (01:06:28):
My first multi day hike was three Capes in Tasmania. Cool. Yeah, Yeah,
we'd love to do that one day. Difficult with the cat,
but we'll get there. Yeah, that's your high.
Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
My high would be living in Sydney and having a
job or different jobs that you're constantly using your brain
and by the end of the day you're exhausted. Shot
(01:07:05):
what no no, no, no no, as in I never
had the space two learn, or like I guess flipping
it into what the hihre is. On the road, you've
(01:07:28):
got as much downtime as you want, which means you
can read as many books as you want or learn
any subjects you want and apply them to yourself. So
if you have always wanted to learn a specific thing,
you finally have the time. That isn't after work you've
(01:07:48):
got to cook dinner. You want to relax, so you
don't really want to delve into this thing about yourself
or pick up a hobby or learn a skill, Whereas
on the road you can actually spend a day practicing
and implementing what you're learning. And you have. We've we've
learned and grown so much because of that, And yeah,
(01:08:11):
you don't need a lot. And when we go to cities,
all we do is just spend and feel stressed. I
feel like we have to be doing stuff. And the
pleasure we get from putting the hammock up with a
book under a tree with the sound of waves like
that that beats anything.
Speaker 4 (01:08:33):
The sense of peace that I felt living in the
bus is unmatched.
Speaker 6 (01:08:40):
All right, beautiful, Well, thanks for coming on to our
podcast today. Yeah, it's really good talking about all these things.
Speaker 5 (01:08:49):
Yeah, it was a fun chat.
Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
Thank you. That's cool.
Speaker 3 (01:08:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (01:08:53):
Thanks to Van Life Series podcast for having us on.
Speaker 4 (01:08:57):
Like, comment, subscribe, smash that bell button. If you'd like
to follow either of us on Instagram. We'd really appreciate that.
We are coasting out back on Instagram and Adam and Clara.
Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
Are tourist Underscore the Bus.
Speaker 3 (01:09:16):
That's all, folks, Love you, bye the Van Life Series.
Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
Subscribe to The Van Life Series wherever you get your podcasts.
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