Creativity on Wheels: Living in a Bus with Leon and Matt

Who says your home has to be tied down by a physical address? Instead, why can't it move with you? This unique concept of living and working becomes a reality for Leon and Matt having completed their creative bus build. This creative duo breathes life into and transforms a C-Class bus into a mobile living space that doesn't simply serve as a dwelling but also mirrors their values and aspirations.

In this episode, we'll venture into the thrilling details of their journey - from finding the perfect bus through the highs and lows of renovation to finally realising their dream home that's as much a testament to their creativity as it is to their determination. Our conversation takes a fascinating direction as Leon and Matt pull back the curtains on the logistics of living in a bus, financial considerations, and an overall peek into their life on the road. 

Matt and Leon share how they strive to utilise their bus as a platform to share their creativity, inspire others, and make a positive impact on the world. From plans of running their own business and attending music festivals to providing an immersive art experience and aiding indigenous communities, this episode is a fun deep dive and exploration of non-traditional living and a testament to the spirit of forging your own path. Buckle up and join us for an inspiring ride into the travelling lives of Leon and Matt.

Follow Leon and Matt on their adventures:

Leon: https://www.instagram.com/wanderous_/
Matt: https://www.instagram.com/matte0j/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today's episode is going to take on something
different, as we welcome ourfirst guest travellers to our
podcast series.
So with me I've got Matt andLeon and their large dog,
terrence.
We're sitting outside theirhome, which is this bus.
Thank you Well, yes these guysare in their early 20s.
Their story is something thatnot all of you may aspire to,

(00:24):
but we'll certainly know somefamily members or friends that
may be in a similar situation,such as struggling to find a
place to live.
My understanding is that Mattand Leon consciously seek the
work-life balance that is lessreliant on capitalism and
consumer culture that serves ourmodern lifestyles.
Yet, as expected, this comeswith significant challenges of

(00:46):
maintaining the basicrequirements of life, such as
keeping a roof over your headand having funds to eat and use
transport.
So, welcome Matt and Leon to theExplorers podcast.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Thank you for having us.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thanks for having us here.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
It's been awesome being able to listen to the
progress of your podcast so farand just get to the point where
you get to interview travellers,and we're actually really
blessed to be your firstinterviewer.
Because there's so many peoplethat you know out there who are
doing so many wonderful journeys, incredible adventures, yeah,

(01:23):
and there are like amazingstories and we're really proud
to be able to share our firststory.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, that was excellent having you on the
channel.
So let's start with whereyou're at today and then let's
take a few steps and we'll goback through the journey.
Basically, you guys left theidea of rental housing as this
became problematic with the dog,and instead you've bought a bus
, which is what we have heretoday.
It's in mint condition andanyone would be very envious of

(01:55):
the fit-out you've got.
It's got sink and fridge andyou've got everything in there.
You're cooktop, your bed, thedesk, the solar power, the
inverter.
But that's not how you boughtit and you've built this over
the past year.
So before we talk about the busitself, let's get to know each
of you.
If you wouldn't mind, I've gota few notes to share.
Leon, you say you're an artistfocusing on jewellery and

(02:18):
photography and performance art.
After finishing school, youstarted uni and design, but then
heard the call of traveloverseas and you got caught up
in COVID.
So that didn't work out.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah, I didn't actually get to leave for my
trip.
I had everything planned andbooked and backpack bought.
But yeah, it was on to pack inthe backpack and everything,
everything took some stepsbackwards.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Yeah, I'm sure a lot of people can relate to that.
There were challenging times.
You then bought a camper vanand decked that out and was able
to travel.
Because you're in WA, you areable to still access the broad
experience of WA and theNorthern Territory, and you
travelled for six months.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, six months.
It was an indefinite indefinite trip in the van and I
love building the van and it wasfit out perfect for me and it
was before the dog and beforeMatt and was travelling around
in that.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
And that was when the COVID restrictions were quite
tight.
So whilst you could move aroundWA and NT in South Australia
confidently, it didn't seemplausible about going further
east, did it?

Speaker 2 (03:25):
And it just didn't seem worth it, like there's so
much to explore on the west sideand the north side and, yeah,
just doing a half lap didn'tstress about trying to do a full
lap.
There's so much to see.
Like, just take it at your ownpace.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
I believe you were keen on heading to WA, though,
and possibly working over there,but you were getting enough
work and not happy about beingaway from Matt for so long, so
you did come home to WA afterthe six months.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, well, I met Matt like as I was finishing the
build of the camper van and itwas prepared to do solo
travelling for a while and Mattwas still working and had other
commitments.
But you got to fly up to Broomefor your 21st and we did like
three weeks through theKimberley into Darwin around

(04:16):
what like 2021 or 2021, and thatwas so that's when you returned
back roughly, wasn't it fromthat six months, so that was
like right in the middle of thatsix month trip when you got to
come up we travelled for that.
And then I had some, had sometravelling I wanted to do by
myself, but, yeah, just realisedthat there was no point in
going further, because Iactually wanted to go back and
travel with you more.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
And when you got back you worked as a photographer
and you and Matt have beenworking as tour guides in the
Perth CBD area as pedal riderson rickshaws.
Yeah, that's pretty funsounding.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, it's a really great opportunity to sort of get
to show off our city, which youknow growing up in.
I think in any city you sort ofcome off with the impression
that you're there's so much moreoutside of your city and
through this job we got toreally know our city, not just

(05:12):
how to navigate around our city,but also like yeah, I know it's
history and engage with thepeople.
Excellent experience.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah what actually goes on and how, yeah, how you
can, yeah, be a part of that.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
Excellent, I actually met with you on through pedal,
through that job right.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
So, matt, on to you my notes here.
You're a performing artist anda disability support worker.
After finishing school, youstarted uni doing stage
production and performing arts,but you found your niche with
the support work.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
You've worked with an agency that had a small group
of clients and the differentsupport workers would be rusted
on to spend time individuallywith a client for a few hours.
That could be a day of fun orexposure, or going to a session
that was booked by the carer, orstaying at the head office
doing activities.
Some of your clients arewheelchair bound, some are
non-verbal.
It says here none of themrequired aged care.

(06:07):
Your clients are mostly peoplethat are born with conditions
such as cerebral palsy, autism.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah, but also like our, like clients who might have
, like our, mental health issuesbecause of their disability.
Oh, of course, disabling mentalhealth issues because of
traumatic incidents as well, sonot all the time because like
our from birth, but, yeah, justa broad range of people.
I like working with kids, but Itend to just work with anyone

(06:39):
in the area who might need help.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
The world needs people like you.
I know you talk about yourclients a lot and I know working
in support's really resonatedwith you on a deeper level.
It's very rewarding.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yeah, and not just rewarding.
Like I got into support workbecause I didn't really enjoy
where Theodore was taking me interms of how I was understanding
working with people.
Like I really enjoyed Theodorebecause it's a platform to
explore human connection and theway that you connect or the way

(07:16):
that I was connecting at uniwith other people wasn't really
helping where I was going withmy Theodore and so I had heard
from a bunch of other peopleabout support work and how, like
oh, you'd really suit supportwork.
I never really understood it,you know.
Like that wasn't something thatwas taught at school, like it

(07:36):
was nursing or doctors andthat's it.
That's healthcare.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, very much so.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
So it's been a really awesome job, and the agency
that I was working for reallyhelped me work straight off the
bat with a range of people withdisabilities.
I didn't get to nitpick.
I only want to work with thissort of disability, or only
intellectual disabilities, or Idon't want to do this, don't
want to do that, you just go andyou're.

(08:01):
It's a really flexible andadaptable job and that's that's
like the sort of person that Iam.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
So one of the reasons that I wanted to cover some of
your background there before weget into the story about the bus
is because people listening areprobably going to wonder
where's this connection going tocome from.
So what I want people to knowis just that little intro about
you, to understand what makesyou tick and what you've done
before, because this is going tocome into the whole story we've

(08:27):
got today to share.
What I want to talk about withyou both now in this episode is
how you came to be living in thebus that's here in front of us
today and how this will serveyour life goals in the future.
I'm aware the bus has beenquite a huge part of your lives
for the last 12 months since youbought it, and neither of you

(08:47):
have actually been able to fitin much work, which has been
quite stressful.
A bit of a chicken and an eggscenario, wouldn't you say?

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
So what I'd like you to tell our listeners is when
did you get the bus and, moreimportantly, why did you get the
bus?
Then we can talk about the busitself as a whole.
Reason we chose this topictoday is the buses actually been
sitting on our front yard herefor the past year, and if anyone
has looked at our YouTubechannel, you'll see a couple of

(09:16):
shorts showing what this buslooked like when you first got
it, and looking at it here today, it's a completely different
beast.
So obviously, we'll end updiscussing the whole story about
the process of turning this businto your home over those past
12 months, but we'd also like tohear what bus life is going to

(09:37):
be about, because you're justabout on that pinnacle of making
that brave step.
The bus is running.
You've done a few shakedowntrips, but we want to hear about
why you've chosen thislifestyle and how that aligns
with your values.
So to kick it off, matt, we'regonna start with you.
Tell us about the bus and wherethe idea for the bus came from.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, well, I think like one of the biggest things
I've learned from this is thatwhen people say that they've got
a busload of work to do, theyreally don't know what a busload
of work is, until you're toyour work in day to day, to day
to day and watching your familywork day to day to day for like

(10:25):
together, for our dream.
So it's been such a big journey, a humbling journey.
Big journey and for me, like I'mnot as mechanically equipped as
Leon and his family and in that, like I was devoting a lot of

(10:48):
my time to working so that wecould pay off.
We could pay off the bus and um, not, that's just like who I am
as a person, like I can.
I think it's also who you areas a person, like we would just
sort of Commit to something andreally devote all of our love
and passion to it and then andit in sort of the grand scheme

(11:11):
of our shared dream and on.
It's just taken so long to getthere and Even before we had
that shared dream, there wasalways this call to go traveling
.
For me, like even before wewere together and I would always
.
I took trips in different typesof vans with friends and like
my own Vehicle.

(11:32):
But it wasn't until I was ableto travel with Leon that I
actually got to reallyUnderstand and embody the off
road, the off-grid, off-roadsort of living and and being
self-sustainable.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
So you have some different experiences already
prior to this bus doing somecamping.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Tell us a little bit about that well, yeah, when,
when you were working as much asas Matt does, you're only,
you're only, you know, take afew weeks out of the year to, to
give yourself that time to likereally just like immerse
yourself in nature and likebeing that holiday.
But like like mindset, and whenit it must be hard to like get

(12:15):
into that holiday mindset.
If it's only for a short time,well, you're not like in
something super long, long term.
That's why I love like the ideaof motorhomes, because you can
really like find that balancebetween work and life and like
what you, yeah how you had whereyou want to go from that.

(12:37):
And it was probably this timelast year that we decided to get
the bus.
It was after we did a short,like two-week trip in your time
off Up to Xmouth.
We had traveled in the van afair bit At that point and so no
one knows about the van.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
Oh so now we're talking about van.
This is the van that you, wemet, we met in.
Yeah right.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
So we just so I finished the build on the van
and we meet and through throughthat trail pedal path job and.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
That was.
That was coming up to threeyears ago now, so that was in
2020 he won that we like sort ofmet and and also went traveling
together and we had seen eachother around and and at that
point I think Leon had justgotten his van- I was still
working to get my license atthat point.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
So what model that?
What make a model van have yougot?

Speaker 2 (13:33):
So that is a Kia pre-geo 2005.
It's a diesel, it's a manual.
It like yeah, it got me to thepoint where I could have a
driver's license and Traveledaround with another mate of mine
and his motorbike.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
And you've got that all fitted out with a bed.
And what?
How was that set up?
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (13:52):
so when when we bought that, it was empty, it
was an old electricians van andand the, we kitted that out with
, yeah, just like a 160 wattpanel and and a 15 watt invert,
15k what inverter?
It's got one, a GM deep cyclebattery and this is a guy.
It's got a 22 liter like fridgefreezer.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
It's got a couch that converts into a bed, that
converts back into a couchreally easily, and underneath
that couch is Like heaps ofstorage.
There's like heaps of minilittle spots of storage that are
really conveniently Hidden andare and like everything is
really ergonomically designedbut you didn't buy it that way,

(14:39):
Did you?

Speaker 2 (14:39):
you built that yeah obviously with with dad over
there behind the camera.
Mr David Martin, mr Explorer'sbrain yeah, none of this is
possible without him, and andyeah, I owe a lot of what I know
and what I drive to to him butone of the limitations that you

(15:04):
guys had with that van I wasreally when yeah came, when we
got the dog really.
So we loved traveling in thatand at the time we were just
taking it on shorter trips,weekend trips, one week to two
weeks maximum, and it was.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
It was really fun for that, but knowing that we
wanted to do this like more longterm, yeah, because, because at
that point we were sort ofreally Overtly aware that we
were just traveling to escapethe rat race.
To come back to the rat race,yeah, and plan to escape, go
again, and this endless sort ofperpetuation of working and and

(15:45):
we realized that the van is isreally good for one person.
And then we got good for twopeople and we ended up getting
the dog you got the dog as well,and it just is big as another
person.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
And because we treat him like you know.
We give him the space that hedeserves and Don't all dogs come
on, lots of traveling loversout there.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
I'm sure this thing that totally get that we
actually initially got Terrence.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
Well, like firstly, out of the devotion and love for
our relationship, because wejust realized that that's what
our relationship has beencalling, and it was a year after
we had been together and wejust kept on seeing dogs and we
ended up getting him.
It was also after a fewhaunting and harrowing weeks of
living in a rental where we Homeinsecurity had a robbery, and

(16:40):
then a few weeks later we had abreak in and assault happen.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
And, and so, and, and it was.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
It was a real violation of everyone and on,
yes, so unexpected and and I gotsecurity cameras and it didn't,
it wasn't you know anything.
And so the dog has been thebest sort of exception to that
rule of Living on your own, youknow, and he's such a beautiful,
gentle dog with, with a bit ofa like you don't want to mess

(17:08):
with me energy, look about him.
But when we brought him back toour roommate Didn't tell them
that we were buying a dog,because it was like, hey, like
this just needs to happen.
It's happening.
What's the?
What's the phrase?
It's like you're.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
You asked for forgiveness, not for permission.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah, so we did so we did so.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
We had that experience and then like, yeah,
like through that Was requiringa new place to live.

Speaker 3 (17:37):
So we we ended up finding another place with
another group of friends andtheir other Dog and they got on
really well for like a good,good amount of time a good
amount of time, a few months,and they ended up going on some
trips and traveling and, likeTerence, still being like fairly
New to us in our, in oursituation, he was like yeah,

(17:59):
there was just some dogs justsort of just got a bit jealous
of how to understand andregulate each other's emotions
and and there was a few attackincidences where where the the
result was for us to move onagain.
And so we're in this sort ofjust phase of like, oh my god,
as I'm sure so many people wouldbe, because you know about
couples, like wanting dogs inrentals or having to move out of

(18:22):
rentals.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
And Even when we adopted Terence, we were asked
like, really rigorously likelike do you live in a rental?
And what would happen?
Yeah, we can't live in thereanymore and we basically like
straight up said, like that'snot gonna happen.
Like we want this dog more thanwe want to live in a rental
anyway.
Like, yeah, we'll make avehicle work for us and yeah,
being being in, yeah, beingwhere we are was really ideal

(18:44):
for that.
I actually did look at adoptinga dog when I was traveling in
the Northern Territory and I wasgonna look after another
traveler's dog for a few daysbecause he wanted to explore a
national park and I wanted tosee how a dog would be in the
van and just like if I wouldenjoy having a dog around his
company.
And and we didn't even need togo through that for me to

(19:05):
realize that, like travelingwith a dog it's just something I
wanted to do, and likerealizing that traveling
overseas Just wasn't ideal orethical or in my like timeframe
for now like yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
Lots of really compelling reasons and issues as
to how you got to this point.
So let's move on to how do youthink the bus life will change
the way you live and how will ithelp you reach your goals, and
what is the plan?
Because that's what we're hereto hear about.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah, well, we mostly want to like yeah, enable
ourselves to to, to to live toour full potential life.
I feel like we have a lot to to, to continue to learn as we
travel from the connections youmake and the incredible people
out there, and also a lot tolike create and provide and and

(19:58):
be inspired by.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
Yeah, I think there's Like working in a city.
There's always this struggle tolike work alongside doing your
art and um, and where we'vereached a point where All that
we want to do with our lives isto vote Our work ethic, our life
, to making art and to beinglike self sustainable and then

(20:27):
self-sufficient on the road, andWe've now got a very
self-sufficient off-grid vehicle, but Everyone always says, once
you say that you're going to betraveling for like an
unreturned date or for multipleyears.
Oh so so how are you gonna like?
Are you gonna?

Speaker 2 (20:45):
How are you gonna work?
How are you gonna make money?

Speaker 3 (20:48):
There is the opportunity to work at farms and
to work at bars and last wetopen to doing that.
We're more looking at justfully enabling the independence
of our like professional livesin like Lou, of our personal,
our creative freedoms right.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
So this is really interesting because this subject
about traveling long term andhow do you fund it the reality
of that Is the thing that scaresa lot of people and what you've
just said is true.
So, but it's interesting becauseI've spoken to you before about
this and I've heard you talk toother people.
You're not out there Saying weare going traveling or we're

(21:30):
going on a holiday.
This is a lifestyle and it'snot, and it's also not
necessarily a destination, andyou're not saying, oh, we're
going to go the here, here, here, here and here.
What you're seen to be sayingis that you're just going to try
and use your new home as a wayto enable a, a different way of

(21:50):
living and a different way ofworking and you will let that
evolve as it happens.
And obviously, you're here inPerth now and you've got
networks and contacts and you'vebeen working on trying to make
that Separation from what youhave been doing because
obviously, matt, with yourdisability work, you're working
through an agency, so theyemployed you and you went to a

(22:12):
workplace, so you've separatedfrom that and, leon, you were
working with Photography andyou've had to separate again
from the employer employee.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
There's an L relationship.
Yeah, I think there's anelement of like wanting to work
for yourself but then also likehaving, like, your own ethical
battles within doing that.
Yeah and yeah, building these.
But building this boss has beenlike, yeah, super knowledgeable
for me in that aspect of like.

(22:42):
Like we do need, like we'reboth pretty into our
environmentalism and ourEnvironmental activism in in
certain aspects.
But, um, yeah, there's a lot of, a lot of like personal,
ethical Almost dilemmas that goon when you're, like you know,

(23:04):
needing parts and tools and oiland just like equipment and also
wanting to Create more of thatto share it's.
It's.

Speaker 3 (23:14):
It's super interesting and I learn a lot
from from you guys doingexplorers on on how how it can
be done and, and especiallybecause of that connection with
explorers, and, and, and, andhow your parents have have sort
of created and inhabited theirpersonal Creative freedoms into

(23:36):
their own professional businessis like what is like a super big
drive for you and and it's,it's really amazing.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
Sorry, made life hard for you, so so growing up.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
So growing up, you like yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yeah, I'm used to do what you've got to say.
I was gonna say well growing up.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
You make, you make some, you make some people who
can travel the cunt, travel fulltime with like Just gold
nuggets in their pocket thatthey've picked up on the side of
the road.
And then you meet other peoplewho are traveling in in their
massive rigs that they've, youknow, physically dug the country
to to drive in, and there's anelement of like that needing to

(24:16):
happen, but also like showingthat there are other ways of
moving through the world and andalso like that there are other
people out there to support youdoing that, you to do that and
for you to support them on andand when, like I've left my

(24:37):
agency and I've like left a fewof the few of the people who I
was once working with on, therewas sort of this fear that maybe
I won't be able to.

Speaker 3 (24:46):
You know that they'll lose the create like the work
that I've done with them.
But but like there's also nowthis drive towards like sharing
the work that I'm doing withpeople with other people out
there, whether in indigenouscommunities or rural towns and
and even outside of disability,disability support work, like

(25:07):
working with like performancecompanies and and Different
sorts of and even just basking,like when you need to just get
from one place to the next, likeEveryone loves to be
entertained and like why not beentertained by another person?

Speaker 1 (25:22):
What's your entertainment trick?

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Well, people love fire twirling and I love fire
twirling and there's actuallylike I get.
I get a bit like nervous andpeople Like, oh, can you like
show off some?
Like I mean, yeah for sure.
But like I got to get myself inthe zone first, I'm like always
excited to like push myself inthose sort of aspects and
boundaries and yeah, just justcreating that little environment

(25:46):
for people to dance.
And I remember working in thevan.
I worked in the NorthernTerritory for a bit at a fairly
remote shout out to pink Pantherpub In Laramore.
I worked there for a while andthat was just like we had such a
diverse group of ourContractors come in to to work
on the space and working withthem was super rewarding and

(26:07):
gained a lot of experience andjust shared a lot of you know,
travel II, travel II knowledgeand ended up playing didgeridoo
and bongo drums with them everynight.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Was super fun and I think one of the stories from
that Location is you werehelping build a crocodile
enclosure for a massive, bigsaltwater crocodile.
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, I think salty Sam is his name.
It's pretty old croc and and,yeah, he had lived in this one
pen.
So there was two pens with thesalty Sam and there was I forget
the freshwater Crocodiles name,but they built the contractors
that came, we built another penfor the freshie near the pool,
so they got to move him and thensalty Sam got to hop on over to

(26:52):
the other side while his Poolwas cleaned out and I actually
shoveled his probably three tofive years worth of Crocodile
waste over the fence and andthen, yeah, later that week, the
boys made a new fence and therewas a very, very close Cole
with a crocodile.
He was.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
He launched at the boys, basically so putting in
the new so northern territory,crocodile tradesmen I can
imagine that we're pretty,pretty intense down time that
you had to play and entertainand do fire twirling and chats
around the campfire, I canimagine.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
Yeah, well, you learn to drink somewhere as an
Australian, I guess and For it'sgolden the northern territory.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah.
So, boys, I'd like to ask now abit more about how the bus is
going to help you reach thegoals.
What's the plan?

Speaker 3 (27:48):
So obviously we've just sort of detailed a bit
about what we do, who we arelike, like Leon, on Leon's like,
creates jewelry and does thisflow I do yet takes photos.
I do music, theater.
So we want to be able toProvide our, our creatives, like

(28:10):
yeah, yeah.
To to the world and and we alsowant to diversify what we have
to create for the range ofpeople who want to consume what
we have to create, and so a lotof that, like including with
support work, like we, we dowant to, like go to rural
schools and be able to whatwe've learned, like in the

(28:35):
education sector, but then alsoif we get the chance to work
with indigenous communities,families, then then we will.
Yeah, yeah, we'll have thatopportunity.
I'm sure your skills would bevery much desired in
environments and and I, like Ipersonally have a lot of like
inspiration for the indigenouscultures and to work with them

(28:59):
and to To sort of share thespace to like knowledge make
with them, I think would bereally and and story tell with
them especially would be such araw and Beautiful opportunity,
wow.
But, like on top of that, whatwe're doing right now, like in
the city where we're doingimmersive art, music
installations and One of theguys that we're working with

(29:21):
wants to like go traveling- he'sgot knowledge of touring and
tours all week, yeah, I want to,like do more of a busking tour.
It's gonna be interesting and sothere's there's this um, this
idea to do like sort of liketraveling circus tour on and on
top of that, what?
What we are working on rightnow is working towards a

(29:47):
business rebranding sort ofpartnership.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah, we can offer to people and businesses which
incorporates like running theirsocial media, anything and
developing them.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
A website.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
Or it could be even just repainting the sign at the
caravan park.
Yeah, like anything forrebranding.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
Yeah, and so so just on photo lab able to promote
that and advertise that and justHone in on those different
creative like endeavors as wellas, like, yeah, other endeavors
that we're working on becausewe're really into the music
scene as well.
So so that means that we'll beattending like a lot of
different music festivalseventually, um, down the east

(30:27):
coast and and offering out andin.
What we've been able to do withgoing to music festivals in the
bus Is like be able to sort ofcreate a space like a chill
space and immersive Art spacefor people to come to and make
art in.
On because we've got ablackboard.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah, just see the art that's in there, like yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
Yeah, it's a whole art piece in itself and a lot of
people Will gain a lot ofinspiration and respect for we
might have to do a walkthroughon one of our upcoming.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
YouTube oh, we might do a whole.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
Spotify.
You can watch this on.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
So obviously, this bus then becomes a lot more than
what a lot of people have withtheir caravans and motorhomes.
It's actually their, theirtransport, and they're going
from place to place andexploring destinations, but your
motorhome that you set up yourbus here is actually going to be
your workspace the vessel ofcreative transmutation.

(31:30):
The TARDIS by the sounds of it.
So that's really reallyinteresting insight, because
it's not just we're goingtraveling and that's what it's
about.
It's really embodying.
How can you sustain yourselvesworking and living From a

(31:53):
motorhome, from a mobile vehicle?
So you're leaving the rentalSituation, yeah, taking your dog
with you, and you're going tohave some challenges.
People that have attempted todo some of these things before,
but you're young and you'remotivated, so I can't wait to
follow you.

Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, and there was.
There was this like rule,moment of like, maybe like two
to four weeks of Looking atother buses before we got this
one and we definitely knew thatwe wanted the Toyota co-star
sort of look Because we couldn'tafford, you know, like a
double-decker or one of the oreven buying or yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, it was really tempting, but obviously like
that much more work and alsogetting new licenses and and
like yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
So this is a C-Class bus which means that you don't
need an additional or extra orlicense or anything like this.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
Has a C-Class license , so that means that anyone with
a regular driver's license candrive this bus.
And what length is it?

Speaker 2 (32:54):
That's good to notice .
That would be a good thing toknow.
We just attached the back, theback box, on the towbar, so it's
now longer than a car parking.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
I think on the YouTube, the way we've set this
up, you can just see the backbox and the bikes on the back.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
Can you get to know?

Speaker 1 (33:10):
okay, anyway, so it's a bit over powerful.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
So it's longer than your car parking space, but if
you think like in a safetysprinter, it's probably.
I couldn't tell you a lengthright now.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
Right, right.
Well, we better add that toyour list.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
I better know that before I go to a car park.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
If I go to a car park , All right, so tell me a little
bit about how then you chosethis particular one, because
it's not a coaster.
That you told me it's not acoaster, and yeah we were
looking for a coaster becauseobviously they're.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
They're the one you know.
It's where the coaster is Gotthe name well known.
Yeah, and there's plenty of themout there still kicking around
and there is probably Not manyof these still kicking around.
So finding finding this littlegem that we did in the state
that we did was, for the price,that we did was, was definitely

(34:02):
a journey.
He was actually down in Albany.
So so this, the workshop webuilt him at, is, you know,
north of the river northernsuburbs and we were trolling
through marketplace looking atdifferent buses.
After we we were in Xmouth andwe decided the boss was going to
be the next week.
We knew, kind of we knew wewanted to go to Xmouth and I was

(34:24):
ready to do any Kind of rig.
That wasn't the van.
I'd done a lot of traveling inthe van.
At that point I was almostready to go back to swag camping
.
That's what I grew up doingwith you, lovely folk, and and I
so, yeah, I was really keen forlike swag camping.
Just getting back to that, thereal basics again.
And you were driving a superforest at the time and it was

(34:47):
pretty, it was fairlywell-kitted, it had a really
nice like a really big bull barand awning roof rack.
Solar panel even had a dualbattery system in it.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
We bought it like that you don't see many set up
that way, I must admit yeahgoing from a van to a to a
Subaru was was unknown, yeah,just not as liveable, because
the whole idea was that it wouldforce us to like be outside
more, but also just likeconfines every anytime that
you're inside the the carbecause you've got all of your

(35:18):
of your stuff like packed insideon, and so so Leon bought the
van, bought the bus in Albany,and so Mazda T3000 and it's from
1983.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
That means it today, 1983?

Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, it's pretty old , pretty old boy and yeah, so,
so we could, we test driven afew around Perth like coasters
and I think we tried like drivensome of the 35 there's a T35
thousand as well and justdifferent engine sizes.
And yeah, we test drove a fewand the fitouts, the ones that
were in our budget, the fitoutswere just not what we wanted to

(35:59):
live in and Like same same whenI chose the van, there was just
like Nothing about someoneelse's build that I wanted to
live in yeah and when there was,it was then, you know, then
there was mechanical issues withthe vehicle.
So so we found we see, the oneswe test drove in Perth were just
two out of our budget for whatwe were getting.

(36:21):
And when we found this inAlbany, the ad read so well and
she was very confident in hismechanics and had a check door,
roof, you tires, before listingit for sale and she was selling
it with all the accessories thatwere in it.
That just seemed like a greatplace to start.
For what?

Speaker 3 (36:37):
we wanted.
So it wasn't a shell, it wasn'tlike like it didn't have seats
in it, it was already ready togo.
It was a converted like boss.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
It had done a few laps.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
It had done a few families.
It had done more conversionsthan the ones that it had been
in there.
Yeah, yeah, and um like, um shehad traveled in it with her
three tape age kids and herself.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
And Loved her.
So people and the bed was hugeso you could fit more people.
Then there was storage spaceeverywhere, but with minimal
Storage and um and there wereholes everywhere.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
That's the main part of the story is that there was
grass everywhere.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
So the way that we bought it, we could have bought
it and traveled in it andprobably, you know, gotten
halfway around or three yearsinto a trip and then had to
Urgently think of something elsebecause it just would have been
falling away as we were driving.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Falling away from.
Rust Honestly if do yourself afavor and jump on the YouTube
channel and explore ours and goto the.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
Benji shorts and you can see a quick little See how
much thrust there was.
Oh, and people show me theirbands now and they're like, oh
my gosh, I need to fix this hole.
It's like me or you go to.

Speaker 3 (37:59):
Wanderis underscore on Instagram, where Leon has
uploaded all of the bus progress.
And so we should go there, butwe'll update that later.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
We'll definitely make sure thelittle Um listeners can have a
look at those accounts for sure.
So we'll make that clear.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
So it was last year around this time, which was
October or November, that Leonand his dad drove down to Albany
to look at this.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
Bus, just to look at it, because the ad read so well
and it would have been, it wouldhave been a six-hour drive One
way just to look.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
Yeah, six hours is from.
Is from Perth to Albany.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
Albany in WA, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
Yeah, so the ad read too well and we were to
communicating too well not tomake the journey to see it right
and then we get there and dad'sscratch in his head and he's
like oh my gosh, what are youabout to do to me?
And I'm like well, you're nottelling me that we can't do this
, so let's do it.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
So did you know at the time that it needed any
other work?

Speaker 2 (39:06):
We knew we were gonna start it, I mean a year's worth
of work is what it's taken.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
Was that part of the original plan and it was like a
full-on year, like a full-onyear.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
So no, it was not part of the original plan.
The plan was to have a rig andtravel within like three to four
to five months of working on it.
And we saw the rust that was inthe first part and we thought
that was super scary and it'sgonna be the hardest part of the

(39:35):
thing, and we brought it backto Perth.
Somehow.
We had a night.
We bought it first and had tosurvive that night.
What have we just done?
What have we just got ourselvesinto?
And, yeah, brought it back tothe workshop.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
So it drove, no problem, all the way back from
this takes our drive from Albanyto Perth.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
That's not an easy drive the hardest part was, I
think, dad dealing with the leanand the racing seats that were
in it.
It had racing seats in thefront.
Racing seats yeah, like somesedan seats or some more car
seats.
They weren't bus seats or vanseats or anything comfortable.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
All right.
So you've got this van thatmoves.
It works.
It's the model you wanted.
It looks good.
It's got a conversion.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
So some of the hard stuff's already been done, yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
But you're telling me about the rust.
You obviously thought when youinspected it that it was doable,
so talk to me about and leteveryone know what then
transpired.
The first thing that youtackled was what.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
So when we saw it, it had everything that we wanted.
It was going to be the perfectstarting base, and just how much
we had to take back when it wasunknown to us.
Really, it was just the one tostart on.
And sorry, where were we?
Where did we start?

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Yeah, because it was a bit of a long process of like
are we just going to keep thekitchen as it is?
Are we just going to keep this?

Speaker 2 (41:09):
And it sort of ended up like why would we just
fucking rip?

Speaker 3 (41:13):
everything out.
And you know what you get?
A swear word.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
I wish you could see Dud's face behind the camera.
No, it's all going as long asyou don't put in the closed
caption.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
That's all right, yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:27):
So yeah, it turned out.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
No, maybe halfway through we brought it back and
within the first 24 hours wewere like angle, cutting the
main pillars of the door frameout and just putting major holes
in the floor Because one of thedoors didn't shut.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
Is that what the issue was?

Speaker 2 (41:46):
The passenger door was hanging on with no joke.
One bolt and like half a thread.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
So my recollection of this that you told me was that
the owner had disclosed therewas a problem with this door.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
And she had said she had sent me photos of all these
rust spots around the vehicleand yeah, they were all like
surface rusty and you know,maybe a little hole or something
.
And then when we got there andwe saw the hole in the floor, it
was like a full on hole in thefloor and the door was like
fully rusted.

(42:20):
You know that when the watertravels down the floor frame,
yeah, the gutters were allcrumbled away.
There was no gutters you couldpoke holes in it at different
parts.
But we didn't really see thedepth of that when we bought it
and even like when we bought itto the workshop the first few
days, it just kept getting worse.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
And even beyond that, like with any second hand
conversion that you buy, like ifit's not completely redone from
the inside out, like Leon'sjust done with his van, like you
really don't know how manyyears worth of rot might be
laying for you.
In this case, it was 40 yearsworth, and so when we removed

(43:00):
the bed, of rusting, just peoplesiliconeing it back in or
painting it when we removed thebed like the mattress we saw,
like the frame which was reallypoorly put so that you can only
access the spare wheel under theentire back part, like storage
capacity Only you could grab thespare wheel underneath the bed
and you couldn't access any ofthe spare space.

(43:22):
All down the sides and aroundthe frame was just like mold and
the rot.
Wet carpet, wet wood, like floor, just like that.
And so, whether you changed themattress or changed the
something was going to be leftwith rot and it just worked out
to just the recovery.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
Yeah, it sounds a lot like home renovation you start
pulling up one thing, and thenit leads to another revelation
of something that yet has to begutted.
And that's basically what youended up doing a complete
gutting of the entire internaland re-manufacturing.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Yeah, and that's what we treated it like, like our
first home build.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
Yeah, some young people that's at your age.
That's exactly what they'redoing.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Some people work for it, some people build it, or
whatever.

Speaker 3 (44:16):
So, very fortunate, there's been maybe I don't want
to offend anyone here there'sbeen maybe three to five
instances where we've gotten no,three instances where we've
gotten someone else to try anddo something else for us.
That includes the awning, theservicing and something else,

(44:40):
I'm sure.
But every time that we've giventhe bust to someone else to
look at or do or work on, likenothing, like nothing was given
back to us, like nothing wasworked on no progress.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
It was too scary.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
They didn't want to.
It was too scary.
Their phone fell in the pool,and so they couldn't work.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
That's what a tradesman told you.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
Yeah, yeah, after he told him he needed to look for
parts of the birthday.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
It was just a bit ridiculous and I've come from a
family which is very much justif there's a problem with your
car, take it in and get itserviced and I've really come to
understand that most timestaking it in service, you come
back with more problems.
And so it's been a reallyawesome and rare opportunity for

(45:27):
me to witness the entiredestruction and reconstruction
of this vehicle from like everyaspect of it.
Like I was, knowing that I wasgoing to be more handy on the
design part and the aestheticnature and function of it, but
still learning from David andLeon about the electronics, the

(45:51):
electrics, how it all works andconnects, how what we're doing
is making ourselves sufficient,how it ergonomically fits in the
space to then reach every otherpart of the space where all of
our plugins are going to go.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yeah, you've had lots of questions along the design
phase.
I recall this where you werebeing asked to make decisions
about the positioning of wheredo you want this plug, where do
you want that?
And it was before you werereally quite ready to understand
how important some of thatwould be in the lifestyle
because you hadn't actuallylived in it yet, yeah, but with

(46:31):
the time that you've investedinto it, looking back, what a
journey.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
It's still very fresh to look back on.

Speaker 1 (46:41):
You see a photo of the old paintwork and it's like
well it used to be this vehiclewithin a year as well, because
it's not only been a completegutting and floor Shazzy was
re-strengthened, or the floorframe, yeah well, we put new
floor boards in new insulation.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
All we insulated it.
There was just foam sheets inthere.
Before we rebuilt the entiredashboard, we rewired the whole
really electrical system of it.
Building the dashboard was veryfun, new experience.
Positioning mirrors like wefound the coolest mirrors for,

(47:22):
like you know, the best onlineprice and obviously they are the
hardest, most important thing,most annoying thing to get right
.
And they're just the mostimportant thing, which you don't
realise until you try and finda new mirror, and what about
driving it?

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Having gone from a much smaller vehicle, you've
never driven a bus and whilstit's, still on your C license.
How drivable do you find it?

Speaker 2 (47:49):
I love it.
Personally, I honestly find thesmaller cars really hard to
manoeuvre and I love driving thevan and you're very close to
the front.
You don't really have thebonnet and I guess I'm shorter.
You drive the bus so well.
You drive it better than me,honestly.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
I drive the bus with a bit more respect, I think, for
the bus.
I think you drive it with, likeI'd built this.
I'm in the bus.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
Oh, the truth is coming out now.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
I'm a bit more humbly , small in the bus, which makes
it sort of wet and it's good.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
This is great.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
I've driven the van for quite a while as well.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
You've worked for it.
I know I've had a mover in thevan as well.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
And you can't help.
But I can't help in a car Ithink it's the way my brain
works is just to feel likeyou're going fast and then you
just end up looking down andgoing like 120 and you're like,
oh, how'd that happen?
You slow down and then getcaught up with it or use cruise
control and then you just don'tlook up to your car and you see
what you guys.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
Okay, that's your story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've got astory.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
And a lot of people are aged come on.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
Like getting the chance to drive slow and to just
not need to worry about speedor going anywhere, or Are you
saying it's not a very fastvehicle, so it's not a
supercharged V8?

Speaker 1 (49:28):
Oh, it's not turbo, it's not a 3.0 turbo.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
it's just a 3.0.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
It's a 3.0, she's diesel, at least, of course.
But yeah, it's been a reallynice opportunity to not have to
stress on the road and if otherpeople are stressing behind you,
that's on them.
It's totally on them.
I literally cannot do anything.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
That's nice, though.
That's nice to hear that you'refinding it not stressful, and
it has allowed you to take astep back with your driving
habit.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
A lot of people think that it causes more stress.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
It has for me at certain times, just because I
would know what the truckdriver's feeling like when
you've just been driving forthat many hours and you're just
trying to do what you've got todo.
So, yeah, having a UHF is goingto be fun for those moments in
the future.

Speaker 3 (50:18):
It was funny when we started driving the bus after
the paint job and we renewed itand went on our first small trip
.
Every time someone would passus there'd be a little horn
signal and we couldn't help butfeel like it was a bit more
aggressive than like Nice bus.

(50:42):
We were navigating behindeveryone who was overtaking us
and they'd be like what's yourproblem?
And now you just can't holdexpectations of what other

(51:05):
drivers have of you.
You just got to drive a slowcar and be that slow person.
So we've got a really coolbumper sticker.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
It says it's not a fast car.
No, it's not a slow car, it's afast house.
It's a fast house.
And yeah, it could be a fasterhouse, but it's a very rare
house.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
So what's your favourite part of this bus?

Speaker 2 (51:35):
Honestly, just because it's maybe one of the
most recent additions, likeevery bus that I've ever seen
from pre I haven't even seen anew bus that's not a trans-Purth
bus, honestly but I've neverseen buses with like a complete
inside step, like all of themhave the raw fillers and just

(51:58):
like very dangerous lookingfront step areas.
So finishing this is one of thelast jobs has been really,
really exciting and making it alot more homey.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
So for audio listeners, only just explain
what you've got here, whichpeople on the YouTube probably
can see if it's not too dark.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
Yeah, so we've got like a super well, because it's
new.
It's a shiny, checker plate,aluminium bottom step with like
a fresh trim, and then we've gotthat second step that goes up.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
This is the funky thing.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Yeah, and we've put AstroTurf over that and I love
the AstroTurf look and it'sgreat for wiping your feet and
whatnot.
And then, obviously, thesliding door opens and needs
brushes.
Most of them have brushes todeal with the weather protection
and such, and, yeah, we managedto find brushes.
We used paint brushes for thebottom covering and I think what

(52:58):
works well with our bus is alsothe security screens.
That was a big drawing point towhy this was a good one to have
with the security screens,because you can lock yourselves
in but still have all the freshair with the screen.
Yeah, they provide a lot ofairflow, also like visible
privacy and also like all ourwindows work Like every window

(53:20):
opened and had the right glassand it wasn't broken.

Speaker 3 (53:25):
That means that we can like if we needed to leave
tarrants in the car, so we'relike exploring places.
Shopping or whatever we canopen all of the windows and like
angle the car for really niceairflow and that way people
can't actually still break inbecause our windows are open and
I can vouch for the fact thatbecause this van is the buses

(53:46):
quite tall, the amount of freshair flow there actually is quite
effective.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
I went in there a couple of days ago when it was
40 degrees and I couldn'tbelieve you guys were in there,
because it was actually reallyhot just outside stepped out
here, and as soon as I went inthere, it was actually very
pleasant.

Speaker 2 (54:03):
It was like sort of walking into a house.
It also really helps with that.
Like I chose the blackoutcurtain material because I knew
from doing the van choosing,yeah, getting the material that
actually blocks the heat comingin, Like you can have the light
if you want, but blocking theheat is really important.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
So you've been on the machine, on the sewing machine
and you've sewn an entirebusload of curtains so that
every single window has slidingcurtains, and he's also
patchworked all of our oldclothes together into our roof
lining.
Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 3 (54:36):
So our roof lining is like an amalgamation of
different squared textures, ofdifferent colors, of different
things that we have to use anddifferent, like memories in the
cloth that are like on our roof.
And that includes, like somereally cool aesthetically
functional features such as likepockets.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Oh, they give away all our secrets.

Speaker 1 (54:59):
That's alright, don't gerble.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
No one can say We've got little zippers like pant
pockets that are still like onthe roof, so you can actually
like, so we can have like littlepockets inside and store it
spots on our roof.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
I love this story about how much you have put into
this bus parts of yourselves,considering that when you bought
it it had an immaculate rooflining, it was like the best
part of the bus.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
It was a bit of a decision to take it out.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
Yeah, so it's amazing how it's evolved into this and
the ultimate repurposing ofparts of your old life with your
materialism that.
I know you've had to workthrough all of that, because now
you're no longer living in ahouse and I've watched you pack
up things and a lot of stuff'sgone to the opt shops.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
Yeah, you've done so well.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
Yet you've managed to keep the special fabrics, which
were meaningful, and they'vebeen able to come with you on
the roof.
I think I really love this partof the uniqueness that you can
get with a custom-builtmotorhome.
Yeah, because it just keepsgoing, I'm sure.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
Leon can detail a few of the technical specs.
We talked about his specs inhis car.
We didn't really talk muchabout the bus's specs.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
The other one should have sold by now, but we've been
doing a lot of work on that tosell it again.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
So, the electrical specs for the bus include,
include.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
So we've got three 160 watt panels on this one and
we've got the 2000 watt inverterand We've got two lithium
batteries.
Yeah, yeah, go.
Oh.
So it was such a game changer.
Yeah, super exciting topurchase.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
Yeah, because you had a couple of house batteries or
something in there and they'requite heavy, yeah, and we had,
we had to buy the two batteriesas well.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
So everything runs on the parallel secret.
So even our starting batteriesare like two six volt, two
twelve volt, however it works,and, and so our house batteries
also Just came out that wewanted to run them in parallel.
So we got two lithium batteriesI think they're like just the
smaller side ones 120 watts, andwe did, we did just go for the.

(57:12):
We did we, we went with a lotof renegade kit for the, for the
specs, and we did choose, wedid choose some Kings Geo, just
because it was the right, theright one for us.
The fridge that it came withoriginally was like a gas and
Electric, like to medic threeway to medic fridge, the same as
what was in our ultimate camper.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
Yeah, I just a slightly older model and yeah,
we knew how they were eyes andit just seemed right.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
But like thinking about it more and going through
the build, like doing what wewere Doing and like fully
building it exactly the way wewanted, yeah, we just realized
that it was Gonna be a lot morecost, time and like stress
effect.

Speaker 3 (57:53):
With the pace of our lives, being born in the digital
age, we want to be able to likeset up and start start going.
We don't want to have to likehave a massive setup.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
Yeah, yeah turn the valve on quick flick the buttons
and there is still that,they're still that.

Speaker 3 (58:09):
I've never had a problem system before, not as
much, and especially withkeeping your food stuffs
Refrigerated is like.

Speaker 1 (58:18):
I think that's like a priority to just keep the
electricity running like youknow, yeah, the new fridge is
really really been good for you?

Speaker 3 (58:27):
Yeah, 110 litres, and there's a freezer compartment.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Yeah, that's all we need as well like we had 23
litres in the van.
That was perfect for me and Icould do the two-week kind of
cycle where you need to go stockup and for us it was like just
going too quick and we didn'tneed a full-size fridge.
I love people have been like oh, why don't you?
Have a full-size.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
Yeah, it's like there's, there's other things
that require that spacePrioritization in our life.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
Yeah, we don't, we've got.
We've got a filtered, afiltered tap and an unfiltered
tap.
Yeah, we've got diesel heaterwhich is built into our diesel
tank, so our fuel yeah, they runvery small amount of fuel when
we turn the diesel heater on,into the deep into the heater
and and it the, the heating ofthe arm of the of the space is

(59:16):
like amazing when we do turn iton.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
We've got a 12 volts fan.
That was super important for me.
Getting a 12 volt fan liketraveling in the territory with
no air-con before I actuallywent to every bunnings and every
Kmart trying to find a handheldfan just to get through each
day and they were sold outeverywhere and like I would
never get rid of my little, mylittle handheld fan.

Speaker 3 (59:37):
We've got a lot to get it.
We've got two handheld fans, soone for each of us, but we've
also got a fan Corner it'shard-wired.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
That's actually a really good one.
You bought that online, yeah,what brand is that one?

Speaker 3 (59:51):
It's like a caravan.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
Yeah, I'm not sure the brand, but it's a very
standard.
Sorocco yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
I know David's a bit jealous of it because we can't
have well, we don't have thatoption in our ultimate camper at
the moment.
We'll see how we go, but sowe've got a bit of canvas.

Speaker 3 (01:00:09):
Another thing that the bus has is a built-in toilet
that Leon and I will pull notfully built.
Use, yeah, yeah it's a littlespace that you can put in a
portable toilet and we've madeit Use it use it inside the
inside the boss in its own space.
But yeah, we're pretty, we'repretty feral in our lifestyle
choices and I'm sure that wewill be mainly going outside to

(01:00:32):
do that.
There is activities.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
But this is coming on the back of a few episodes of
our podcast.
Yeah we were talking about, youknow, disposing of waste.
And I know, you guys, you know,aren't saying that, you're just
gonna.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
Yeah, also in the places where we have to pay
money to go to an RV site andthey're like do you have a great
water solution?
Exactly, you do, exactly on,and the only thing that we don't
really have, I think, with thisis a shower, but like where
we're pretty open to being ableto solar shower bucket.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
Yeah, you know, just yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
Well, you're probably gonna be chasing the sun a bit,
yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
And in yeah, you poke some holes in the bottom.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
Yeah, do you have hot water on tap?

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
We don't have hot water on tap, but we do have the
the four stove gas cooker.
Yeah so it came the, thefit-out came with a range hood,
the stove top and the whole sinkspace area, no what, that's
what we've kept and that'sprobably like the most that
we've kept, and the locations ofthose things and and kind of

(01:01:40):
location of the bed and otherthan that we've just built what
we want around it.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
Yeah, which is our life, you know, like this, fully
stores life and.
Exemplifies our life.
And just to finish off yourlast question, which was what
was your favorite part about thebus?
Oh, that is like the artworkand and like what it does.
To like do you when you leavethe bus.

(01:02:05):
So we invite people in andthey're like wow, I've been
looking at this bus.
Oh my god, I want to see insideit.
It looks amazing and they mightcome back an hour later.
And they're like wow, I lovethe pattern, the design.
And then they go in, and thenthey, we, we chat and they meet
us for 30 minutes some of themcan't even.
Around the bus and and then weyou know like we settle in and

(01:02:28):
we start talking and stuff andwe just get lost in the space
that we've created.
Yeah, and then we leave the busand you just forget that, that
you're in this Like, that you'rein this paint job, that you're
in this artwork.
You come back down and you'relike oh, that's where I was in.
Like, because when you're inthere it's a whole nother space.

(01:02:49):
There's so much.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
That's why it's the TARDIS.

Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
Exactly that's what I mean, and you take this space
Anywhere that you want and andit's such an awesome opportunity
to have, and I think we havesuch an awesome country to
explore with, like.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
And that's what we wanted to represent in the
paintwork as well.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
Yeah, um.
So this beautiful design Represis not to look like a school
bus with the orange, but it mostdefinitely part of the
inspiration, like everythingjust came together with this,
with this one.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Like I loved the classic coaster school bus look
with the orange but this waswhite and blue when you got it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
So, you have completely Changed the color
scheme.

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
And we had a few other color schemes that we're
looking at, but as soon as Leonwhipped up this one, it was like
, oh yeah, this is, this is yeahyou did pretty good on your
graphic design to do the mock-upwhich we all saw.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
So you've what sort of painting and how did you go
about the painting, leon?

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
um, that's, that's one almost to bring in Mr David
over there.
We did, we did all two packpainting on on this and we
painted it kind of where it isright now.
We painted it outside noworkshop that we could find
that's unfathomable to somepeople, I know.
But here in WA.

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
Yeah, um, we have fairly much predictable and
consistent weather patterns, soyou can know ahead of time that
you're not going to have rain,um, and it won't suddenly change
during the day.
So you were able to work aroundthe weather, and most of it you
did in the summertime.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
Yeah, it was just coming off off the end of summer
into winter.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
And we were almost.

Speaker 2 (01:04:28):
We were almost losing the the time frame and we were
going to a like a week-longfestival out in coolland and we
wanted to do the paint jobbefore that, before that week I
think and I think it ended up.
We taped it all up and did itthe day that we got back pretty
much and, yeah, it was super fun.

(01:04:48):
How did it go?
We did white first white firstand we did it probably down to
just past where the rent starts.
And then we did the yellow, andthen we did the orange, and
then we did the red and then theblack.
Uh, we did the black line firstand then the stencils.
All the artwork on it weactually did by First projecting

(01:05:10):
the images that we wanted ontoa piece like a massive piece of
paper inside the house likecross paper.
Yeah, like cross paper and thenwe cut that out as like a paper
template thing and I think allof us head of a go.
We all got a spot on the car.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
You did the grass.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
Yeah, that did the eagle on the other side and some
other trees.
And so what we then did was weput masking tape, like painting
tape, all On the paintwork andactually then stuck our template
on and got a craft knife andactually cut Very, very scarily
onto the paintwork yeah, to peelaway the paper, the tape.

(01:05:49):
Yeah, that you then leave.
We like the outline of the ofthe tape that you then tape more
around and you just spray,spray that in.
So, yeah, it was veryinteresting figuring out,
figuring out that yeah, thetechnique to do it, yeah, yeah,
excellent.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
It's come up just beautiful and, as you say,
you've had lots of beeps fromonlookers.
I remember you coming back onyour first day that you actually
drove it finished down to thebeach.
It was a beautiful afternoonand you did a coast drive Along
the Perth beaches and it you,you were more than 10 minutes.
We thought you'd had abreakdown.
We thought you're just goingdown the the beach, which is

(01:06:24):
literally two kilometers downthe road, and you came back an
hour and a half later and youwere on cloud nine.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
Yeah, I think we'd driven it up.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
So it's really nice when you've built something
yourself and you can hear it inthe way you two are talking
about it that you've really.
You have a much greaterconnection with your, your
vehicle and your home, which iswhat it's going to be when
you've built it yourself andlooking at the dashboard that's,
you know, even starting to getcracks.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
It doesn't matter about, it's like you, we built
that and yeah, the whole, thewhole thing Is beautiful and
even like.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
Like you know, I joined this relationship trying
to be like a custom myself toLeon's van and and Leon's van
rules and where things go.
In Leon's van so getting toactually build and make the
space with him, and and.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
It's been a real partnership.

Speaker 3 (01:07:11):
For my life as well, it's.
It's really awesome to be ableto drive to places and like and
share that life.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
Oh, it's, fabulous.
I bet you've got a lot of veryinvidious friends.

Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
Look, we'll have to start moving on.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
We've got a few more things I want to get through
before we finish up the podcasttoday.
So, um, very quickly, have yougot some instagram accounts or
youtube accounts that we canpromote for you?

Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
Yes, yeah, firstly, the youtube.
I just updated our custom URL.
It is rugged world 83, soyoutubecom forward slash rugged
world a3.

Speaker 3 (01:07:48):
Okay, yeah and then you can also find us on
instagram personally at matty ojand at tp0j and and me, you
also got rugged world.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
This is one word for my jewelry making and just hang
off, because we've got a verynoisy helicopter.
And I'll just speak closer tothe microphone.
Yeah the my lifestyle life.
My social media page is uh,instagram at wanderers, so a

(01:08:20):
underscore wanderers underscorew a and d er us underscore.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
Okay, well, I'll follow up those and confirm with
links On the, the blog and onthe youtube channel for people
to make that easier.
Um, and on those accounts, isthat where your jewelry?

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
Yeah, so rugged world has the jewelry.
The youtube has got like a bitof a longer term video
Collection.
It takes us a while to edittogether videos, but they'll
they end up there eventually andwe'll hopefully be able to be
like collaborating together inthe future.

Speaker 3 (01:08:53):
Like all about travels.
Yeah, I'll put in those videosto youtube, as well as our
instagrams as well.

Speaker 2 (01:08:58):
Yeah, instagram, like our personal pages, are where
you can see a lot of matt posts,a lot of our like art um
installations and collaborations.

Speaker 1 (01:09:06):
And I guess.

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
I've posted a little bit more of the vehicle stuff so
far but, they'll, they'll crossover eventually.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
Yeah, all right, and so one last question for you
guys about this whole lifestyleand this experience In hindsight
is there anything that you wishyou had known Before you
embarked upon this that youcould now give as advice for
anyone that's thinking that theywould want to do something like
this?

Speaker 2 (01:09:32):
Oh, it's a tough one, if you Like.
It's pretty obvious whether youknow you want to do a full
drive or a motor home.
Um, that's kind of your firstplace to figure out how you want
to travel.
Do you want a full drive or doyou want to be really
comfortable long term?
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:09:51):
I think, like for me, like you're, you're never Hore
or broke or like, not enough tolike, pursue your dreams and or
to to buy your vehicle, to buythe thing, like, like it, it
will make it happen.
Yeah, and you've just got tomake it happen because you will

(01:10:12):
end up working your entire lifeand towards that dream and if
you don't just do it, you won'tget there.

Speaker 1 (01:10:19):
I love it, that's that's exactly how we started
explorers.
However long ago that was, I'vementioned it before 23 years
ago, 25 years ago, we left ourlifestyles and and did the
unthinkable.
And it's taking that leap offaith, having that, taking the
risk, in the face of all thecomments that your friends and

(01:10:40):
your family will say oh, if youget out, you'll never get back
in.

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
It's that and it's making the most of what you've
got when you've got it as well.

Speaker 3 (01:10:47):
And there's also dealing with people who who'll
be like, oh like, are you sureyou're ready or you're not
really ready?

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
Yeah, I'm sure they've criticized you because
you're young and all that, butthe truth is you're never ready
until you're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:10:58):
You know like that's what you're doing, and you're
learning from it every step ofthe way and just like, yeah,
pushing through the challengesand the boundaries, like Like
traveling by yourself or withanother person, like you
experience the same Chalengesand it's way more fun with you.
Um, it's been an incrediblejourney by yourself and don't
fear it If that's, if that'scalling you.

(01:11:18):
Like, don't think you likenecessarily need someone to
travel with.
If you think you know, you'vegot got got the know in.
Move around.

Speaker 1 (01:11:28):
Well, there you have it, folks.
Thank you, leon Martin and MattJones, for being on the podcast
today and sharing All thoseparts of your journey.
It's been a real pleasure havingyou and I hope our listeners
have enjoyed getting to know youa bit more and We'll try and
put some more footage up of thebus on the youtube in coming

(01:11:50):
times.
It we've deliberately held offbecause it's been a bit of a
whole big reveal and, um, yeah,it's a big project.
So thanks very much for tuningin to the explorers podcast and
thanks again, folks.

Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
Thank you, bye, bye, let's.