What’s life been like living in a rooftop tent?

It has been approximately two months since Alex and I set off from our home in Perth and it definitely still feels surreal. And ok yes this post may be slightly ahead of some other posts to come but that is one reality we have had to get used to while travelling and in some sense being off the grid. Internet is rare if you are with Vodafone and Wi-Fi is few and far between in a majority of remote places within WA and the NT as we have found. So bear with us while we catch up on other posts, but in the meantime this is a summary of our last two months and a little insight into our trip thus far, what we bagan with, what has changed and ultimately what we would like to maybe happen next…

Quiting our jobs and undertaking this surreal and liberating experience has been the best and most exciting thing we have done. The words “I’d love to do that eventually” or “We will go there one day” was always a common saying with us and people we know, and after all life just happens, things get going and you settle into a routine, or at least we felt we did. And for us we did not want to fall into any trap made by ourselves where that would become our reality. We loved travel and the whole process of planning trips, after all we met over seas and have been travelling every year together since. So thank goodness we made this decision! We are having the best time discovering Australia, firstly my home state of WA. We are loving living in our car of sorts and the notion of taking each day at a time and enjoying all that it brings. In fact we are having so much fun and loving this choice so much that we do not want it to end, EVER! It is probably what everyone thinks and says when they go on a long holiday, or even quit their jobs and just get in a car and drive, but oh my goodness can this never end please?!

This trip for us was a thought for a long time and after many chats about what our plans were in regards to work and country to live in, a somewhat quick plan came together. We looked into everything for about a year just in a dream context and discussed it in seriousness for quite some time, but once it came to actually making the decision, notifying our employers and moving our stuff out of our unit, everything fell into place so quickly. Within the space of a few months the reality of resigning, selling up and heading into the somewhat unknown was quite liberating but also a little scary as you can imagine.

There was a lot of stress and anxiety as you would have read in one of our first posts, and that I think is quite normal right? However after a few weeks into our trip the stress disappeared and a realisation that we were just starting an amazing trip sunk in. We settled into life on the road quite quickly.

For the first month there were three of us, wih Alex’s sister joining us from the Netherlands. We had some much fun and after she headed home it was a little different to now just be the two of us. In that past month where it’s just been the two of us, in the middle of nowhere with no coverage, have been some of the best times. It really is amazing to be completely off the grid away from everyone and everything. You hardly notice what day or time it is, that our phones were in fact dead or that all of a sudden it was 10pm and we hadn’t cooked dinner. And we have and continue to find ourselves enjoying these moments and looking at life in a different way. We have limited our future planning to just a few dates here and there, but otherwise we take each day as it comes and enjoy what it brings. A little selfish in some ways, but its too delicious of a holiday to worry too much about the rest right now #livinglife.

So ultimately everyone wants to know how living in our car is going? Well technically we are living out of our car, sleeping in our rooftop tent and mostly spending our days outside. Who knew we were outdoors people! Or that I could achieve a tan! Life is wonderful.

But honestly living in our car, or as my brother likes to call it, being homeless, has thus far been bloody fantastic.

We can rock up to any location and spend a night, which we have done since we left Perth, just looking at our few camping and road map books, seeing how many km we are happy to drive that day and then setting off. Australia is blessed to have so much space where there is always somewhere to pitch our tent and spend the night. We have tried out already a number of different camping spots, free and those in caravan parks. For a large part we have enjoyed the free camps more. Of course the free aspect plays a big part in a long trip with no jobs, but they also have emphasis that aspect of remoteness and rely on just what we have with us to ‘survive’ in a way.

It’s amazing in relation to our situation not knowing where we will sleep each night. We don’t think of it as being without, but freedom to just go where we like without any strings attached.

I must note one let down of free campsites, which is the fact that we have to endure some interesting, to say the least, toilet situations…

These spots often have never emptied toilets or no toilets at all. Now I wont give you to much of an image but when you prefer to visit the bush on the side of the road, with trucks and cars driving past over a toilet with a door, or no door in some cases, and that you can smell for quite a distance, you know they not great toilets. But you know not having your own toilet just comes with the whole being houseless situation, and really we are fine with that, most of the time…

So really when you think about it, if the only let down is the lack of a personal and most times hygienic toilet, life is pretty great right? We definitely think so!

As I said, waking up each day and getting to just do whatever we like, wherever we like is really amazing. I’m really making it hard for you to sit at your desk and read this right now aren’t I?

A life where the only shoes we have worn every day is a pair of thongs, and yes Li reluctantly our water shoes at times. Where we maybe don’t shower for a few days and rely on baby wipes. Where we have found a way to still cook all of our normal (mostly Jamie Oliver recipes) meals even in the bush, is shaping up to be something we can seriously get used to.

And for the next few months that is our reality. At first this trip was going to only be 4 months, which morphed into 5 and now we are thinking it may go for 6ish -7sih months depending on how long we want to take and of course how long our money lasts.

For instance, we just took a small trip to Bali and have just brought tickets to New Zealand in a few months. This is to break up our trip and for a few other reasons, which is where our few set dates come in. But the ability to just go, ‘ok we feel like going there’ and having that as an option each day is amazing! We are still pinching ourselves.

Now, we have encountered so many questions about this trip from where will you be travelling to, and how long will you go for, to how do you fund this?

To share just a little insight into our trip here you go J

Where will we be travelling too?

We began our trip in Perth, Western Australia and have thus far travelled up north along the coast visiting places such as Exmouth, Karijini National Park, Broome and the famous Gibb River Road. We are currently in Darwin and have recently been to Bali, Indonesia. We plan to head to Kakadu after Darwin and then make our way over the NT/QLD border to Cairns.

How long will we be on the road?

If we have any say in it, forever! Haha nah at this stage the plan is as mentioned above, 6ish months. We plan on heading to the Netherlands in late December/early January to start our next adventure. But who knows what will happen along the way 😉

Just how are we funding this trip?

Well we worked damn hard and saved our butts off. Simple as that really. And we are working on a ‘lets see how it goes’ budget. At the end of the day you can make a trip as cheap or as expensive as you like. We are enjoying the inbetween and making it last as long as we can.

Why travel Australia?

Well firstly why not? It is an amazing country with so much, if not too much to see even in the time frame we have given ourselves. Secondly it is where half of us is from, that being myself Alyce. It is very easy to never leave your home city or state, because after all WA for instance is sooooo far away from everything. But why not see my country and explore it with my man, see the country from two sets of different eyes and find out all the differences in between.

What has been our favourite place so far in WA?

Ahh there are so many to choose from and really it is maybe impossible to pick just one! WA is ridiculously big I mean just look at a map, it is almost half of the country and has an insane amount of beauty to share. To be honest we never realised even living in the state how much there was to see. We had never been further north than Exmouth. But if we had to list the best it would be Exmouth for its amazing beaches, beautiful reef and the memories it brings. Karijini National Park would be next, just Google it you will see why. Broome is amazingly warm all year round, although visiting in June was the best and those beaches are just breathtaking! Last but not least is the Gibb River Road. If you want an amazing experience then please do yourself a favour, get a 4WD and take two weeks to just explore the many beautiful spots it has to showcase.

See I told you there was just too much to do and see, WA is a beast of a state! Check out our other posts to see what we got up to in WA.

So hopefully that gives a little insight into our lives thus far on the road and now ill hopefully get back to whatever point I started on in the beginning of this lengthy post, I hope I still have your attention..??

In this past two months we have really appreciated every moment in every day and all that has been presented to us. We are extremely blessed to be able to go on an adventure like this and know that our hard work to get here has definitely paid off. And we have loved detailing each day and journey through this blog. This is our record, and our journey, which we love to share with anyone who is willing and has the time to read about it. We hope that it in some way it inspires others to tour some of the places we have seen or to take on this adventure themselves. See Australia!

And as this trip morphs so does this blog writing thing in a way. It is of course just an enjoyable part of our trip, a way of jotting down our memories and expressing our trip in a different way, but it is so enjoyable that it would be the best thing in the world to do this everyday forever! And that’s the dream really isn’t it?!

Our little trip hobby is morphing into a large trip and a large hobby where we are looking into ways of expanding it into a space where we can continually talk about our travels, inspire others to do the same, whilst showcasing our weird and funky adventures as possible ideas. There are ways of doing this full time and yes this is turning into a little dream but who knows it could become a reality one day. And you know if it doesn’t then it will still continue to be a place where Alex and I will now share our adventures. After all we had the travel bug when we met, it has grown while being together the last four years and this trip has just become a whole other passion on its own!

So after two months on the road we are dreaming of a life where we can work from anywhere, online, touring the world and detailing all its beauty to people through our adventures. It’s a long shot, a seriously longgggg shot, but maybe just through an enjoyable hobby something may come from this.

And so it comes to that big moment where we ask anyone who wants to help us reach that somewhat impossible dream, please like, share, repost and talk about us. If not to do this forever, but help us at least be cool to others outside of our friends and family 😉

Two months down, already some major changes and additions to our plan, who knows how much longer to go, and a life time touring the world no matter what with the man of my dreams.

Life living out of our car and in a rooftop tent is a decision we will never regret!

Alex and Alyce xo

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