Simone and Jan - Travel Family
From City Life to Bus Life and Leaving it All Behind
Simone and Jan, a couple living in Australia, embarked on a life changing journey in 2019, trading their city life for a nomadic existence in a converted Toyota Coaster bus. With their young son Arnie and later joined by daughter Grace, they have travelled extensively throughout Australia, embracing the challenges and rewards of bus life.
From City Life to Bus Life: A Journey of Transformation
Simone is from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and Jan was born in Germany and raised in Alabama, USA. We met while both working for the same company in New Jersey, USA. We were in a long distance relationship for 3 years before Jan moved to Sydney to live with Simone. Simone worked in the Qantas head office at this point and received heavily discounted flights which was definitely one of the reasons we were able to stay together - we spent all of our spare time (and money) flying to meeting points around the world. When Arnie was born in early 2019, we were living in a sweet little 1 bedroom apartment by the beach. We loved hiking, climbing, beach going and hanging out with friends on the weekends. Sydney is a great city to spend your twenties, especially if you love the beach and work a corporate job. But we knew we didn’t want to raise a family in the city and craved adventure and being closer to nature.
The Spark of Adventure: A Moment of Realization
About a year before Simone fell pregnant with Arnie, we began playing with the idea of taking a year off corporate life to do a lap of Australia in a troopy. Simone particularly was feeling the corporate burnout and we wanted to do the lap before kids (because who’s crazy enough to do it with kids!?)
When we fell pregnant, a little earlier than expected, we realised Simone could just take maternity leave for the trip (without having to quit) and figured it was a sign that the timing was right to take the plunge. With a baby on the way, we explored different vehicle options and landed on a Toyota Coaster bus.
We purchased our partially converted bus from a lovely French Family (who we have since stayed with, in their new home in France). It didn’t have a bed inside, only a rooftop tent. It was basically a kitchen on wheels. With the help of Simone’s Dad, Jan built the King bed and wardrobe. We have since undertaken several other renovations and upgrades including adding a dry toilet, replacing the household stovetop for a legitimate caravan stove and grill, adding in more storage, and building a new couch/bed (bed for Arnie) area when our second baby Grace came along.
Decluttering and Letting Go: A Journey of Minimalism
Having both travelled extensively and living in a small apartment, downsizing wasn’t too difficult. In saying that, we could have got rid of a lot more. We put most of our furniture and household items into storage and 2 years later ended up selling most of it anyway! We have some of our more sentimental items, stored at our parents' places. Over the years we have culled what we have in storage, to now be the bare minimum.
As a result of living this lifestyle, we have learnt what we REALLY need and become less attached to the extra stuff. We are constantly donating and picking things up from op shops and the Facebook marketplace as our needs change and our family grows. We basically have a one in one out policy for clothing. It’s amazing what you can live without and how quickly you adapt!
Setting Sail: A Moment of Freedom and Uncertainty
We left Sydney when Arnie was 5 months old. Fortunately, our maiden voyage was travelling alongside Jan’s parents, so they were able to help look after Arnie while we packed up our lives.
Simone: “It was an incredibly stressful day moving out of our apartment and into the bus and when we left there was nowhere to stand or move in the bus. It was chaos but the sense of freedom that washed over me as we crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge into a new life of adventure was a feeling I'll never forget. Within an hour, a pot plant had slid off the counter with dirt going everywhere. The first week we drove north to my parents in Queensland and every day felt like more sorting and reorganising and further culling down. I don’t think we fully felt settled into bus life until about a month after leaving Sydney”.
Jan: “I was definitely nervous about uprooting our lives like that because I tend to become a creature of habit and this was going to be a major disruption, but one that I was also excited about. Travelling around Australia seems to me to be like a rite of passage for many locals and travellers of Australia. I wasn’t sure what to expect but that usually leads me to be pleasantly surprised. Having my parents around and bunking with us in caravan parks on the way was helpful at the time although now we don’t travel like that anymore, we’ve evolved. As Simone says, we first travelled up to the Sunshine Coast and already learned so much about what we really need in our bus in that first week. I don’t remember how we celebrated but it was with our families”.
Staying Put: The Art of Slowing Down
It really depends on where we are. Some places are really great for low cost camping, and we’ll park up for 4 or 5 days. Other places we move around constantly. We often find ourselves spending a week or two in the bigger regional towns as we restock and get some life admin things ticked off. We have slowed right down over the years as we’re in less of a rush to “finish the lap”. When we like a place, we hover around and really get to know it. Immerse ourselves in the community and live as part of it. For example, this year we have spent 6 weeks in the Albany/Denmark area and another 6 weeks in the Margaret River region. We have a general plan of where we're heading but stay as flexible as possible so we can take advantage of good weather and places we vibe with. .
So far, we have travelled, 54,000km in 3.5years in our bus in Australia. Our trip map would look like spaghetti. I will also add here that in 2022 we spent 18 months in Europe, travelling in a motorhome through Italy and France for 2 months of that and living in Germany for the rest. As well as shorter trips throughout Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark.
Moments of Clarity: Realizing the Dream
Waking up to magnificent views of Bruny Island from our idyllic rented cottage in Southern Tasmania as Australia was plunged into lockdown in April 2020. We realised very quickly that we couldn’t have been in any place better to ride out the storm. We ended up renting that cottage for 4.5 months as we weren’t allowed to travel around. Once we were allowed, we continued to travel around Tassie in the bus for another few months while the interstate border was still closed so we basically had the island to ourselves from a tourist perspective. It was a once in a lifetime way to experience Tassie. During those 10 months, we fell in love with the place.
Simone - Anytime we find ourselves somewhere magnificent to park up or at the end of a long hike that takes my breath away. I just think wow, I'm actually living the life I dreamed of sitting at my office desk all those years ago.
Unexpected Adventures: Surprises and Challenges Along the Way
We didn’t plan to or expect to have a second child whilst on the road! That changed our plans as we decided to head back to Queensland to be close to Simone’s family instead of continuing to South Australia after Tasmania. Grace was born on the Gold Coast in 2021. We were then “stuck” in Queensland for another couple of months until the border to South Australia was dropped and we headed straight down there when Grace was about 5 months old.
Simone: “Before we left on this trip, I didn't realise you couldn’t just park up and go to sleep wherever you wanted. Each state and council have its own laws and some places are very welcoming to travellers, other places are not at all. We are currently in Western Australia and finding it the hardest state to find free camps (that aren’t 4wd access only) and it’s also the hardest state to spontaneously stay at a caravan park or national park as everyone books months in advance. For the first time in 5 years, I’m finding myself booking national park sites 2 months out and still not being able to string a few days together”.
Simone: “Also, rainy days are nowhere near as bad as I thought they would be. The bus is extra cosy in the rain, so we like to make popcorn, enjoy a family movie and then go out and splash around. I find the super hot days harder than the cold rainy days”.
Jan: “When the Turbo gave out 6 months into our trip. A coolant leak dripped onto the electrical housing of the turbo and just like that we were $6000 out of pocket. Definitely wasn’t expecting that. Also, it’s incredibly hard to work from home/working remotely while travelling fulltime with your family. I have yet to meet a family that has successfully done this”.
Navigating Close Quarters: Maintaining Privacy and Space in a Bus
Simone: “Oof, this is a constant evolution as our family grows. I've been postpartum, pregnant, postpartum again and now Mum of two wildlings and there are definitely days when it’s overwhelming. Over the years our routines have changed but it’s always been important for me to take some time out each day to practice yoga or go for a run or hike alone. As a couple fulltime parenting, it can be hard to find time alone together if you’re not disciplined about it. I hear this a lot from other travel parents. We make sure the kids are down by 8 every night, so we can enjoy an hour or two to connect over chocolate and tea after a hectic day. I think that parenting is hard no matter how you do it, so I would rather be out adventuring and enjoying the time we have together than stuck in the suburbs!”.
Jan: “We the parents make our own personal space when we can get it. As for the kids, they don’t have that luxury even though I know our oldest is craving having his own room/playroom. When we’re parked up for a few days, we actually pop up the rooftop tent and that has become the kid's dedicated playroom during that time. They love that”.
Memories from the Road: Tales of Adventure and Connection
Oneness: On our maiden voyage to Cooktown, we met an old timer hippy called Oneness who also travelled in a Toyota Coaster bus and had been nomadic for most of his life. He imparted all sorts of useful and not so useful wisdom, but he mostly just gave us some confidence that we were doing something really powerful by choosing to raise our child in nature outside of the societal norm. I found it comforting.
2020 in Tasmania: After 3 months of exploring Tasmania in early 2020, we were preparing to leave in a couple of weeks' time. We were just ticking off a few last spots in the North West of the island when one morning we were told that all the campsites were closing down immediately due to COVID and that all tourists had to leave the Island within a week. There was a mad panic to either book the return ferry or bunker down and find somewhere to “live” as within 48 hours we wouldn’t be allowed to be camping or touring. Within 24 hours we were making our way back down to Hobart. It was an eerie 5-hour drive on quiet roads, and it felt like everyone was eyeing off our mainland (NSW) number plates willing us to leave their island. We even put a sign in our window saying we were moving to Tasmania as we had heard accounts of locals egging interstate cars.
We hit the jackpot finding an idyllic mudbrick cottage to rent (which was usually an Airbnb) to live in on a month by month basis. Everything was so unknown at this point that our landlords just kept it as an open arrangement. I remember the day we arrived, it felt like paradise, a cosy cottage, with Bruny Island views, a fireplace, forest with stunning fungi and wild berries and the owners brought us a big basket of their own produce.
I spent my days practising yoga in the sun, taking Arnie on walks down to the beautiful D'Entrecasteaux Channel and the local cafe and starting my recipe blog www.ithappenstobevegan.com. We repainted the bus interior and built our toilet. Once we were allowed to travel locally we took some trips in the bus, continuing to find new places to explore even after having already completed a lap of Tasmania.
Inskip Point: The worst thing about being on the bus is being sick. Fortunately, because we aren’t usually in really congested areas, it doesn’t happen often. When Grace was a few months old and we were taking a lap of Southeast QLD, we made plans to camp with our friends who also have a Toyota Coaster. We found a lovely spot at Inskip Point (near Rainbow Beach) and after a fun afternoon together we started dropping like flies. We had picked up the infamous Inskip Gastro bug, likely from the drop toilets. Our friends beelined 4 hours home to the Gold Coast to the comfort of their own bathroom. We just had to deal with our situation. Mum's strength meant I didn't get hit hard and was able to take care of everyone and the mass amounts of laundry. It was a pretty crap week, to say the least. I have recently checked Google reviews and people are still getting gastro from this area, almost 3 years later!
Travel Friends: The biggest blessing throughout our experience has been the people we have met from all walks of life. Australian and International backpackers, grey nomads, kind locals inviting us to stay and other travelling families who we end up travelling and camping with. This experience has really shown me that there are unlimited ways to live and raise a family and we don’t need to be bound to society's expectations if it doesn’t feel right. Life is here to be LIVED and I'm inspired every day by the people we meet living life their way.
The Evolving Journey: From Simple Lap to Lifestyle
5 years ago, we set out on a 12-month nice simple lap of Australia… and we’re still trying to complete the loop!
During this time of having no fixed address, we have also spent 6 weeks visiting family in the USA, accidentally moved to Tasmania, had a second child, completed 3 laps of South East QLD waiting for the border to drop so we could leave, travelled to Norfolk Island and Tahiti, moved to Germany for an intended 6 months and stayed for 18 months, tried van life in Europe and have now finally made it to the West Coast of Australia.
This adventure has turned out to be WAY bigger than we envisaged, and instead of just being a simple tour, it has become our lifestyle.
Our travel style is evolving as our family grows and we are now in the phase of playgrounds, bike riding, swimming and Lego! Simone is regaining some independence, undertaking some big solo hikes and filming Nature Immersion films for YouTube.
We do have a plan to complete our lap in the coming year and find somewhere to call home base. We will always be a traveling family but would love somewhere to lay down some roots.
Words of Wisdom: Pro Tips for Aspiring Bus Life Nomads
Simone: “Expect breakdowns and account for downtime for maintenance. These times stressed me out in the beginning but I have learned to roll with them. We now factor those costs into our budgeting and embrace the downtime to enjoy the areas in more depth while the bus is being repaired. We have NRMA premium roadside assistance which often gives us a hotel and a hire car when the bus is at the mechanic. We have been able to take mini-breaks in Townsville, Cairns, Lakes Entrance and Port Elliot using this insurance and I wouldn’t travel without it!”.
Jan: “Agreed, get yourself a really good roadside assistance package that’ll pay for your accommodation and long-haul tows.
Wake up and move before the rangers come around if you’re not allowed to stay overnight or are unsure.
Go slow. I know some people are planners and like to hit deadlines but if you can, go as slow as possible and just enjoy.
Be present. Everyone always takes too much (or too little) with them when they first start out, that’s okay! Don’t try to have everything perfect before you leave, just go. These are the experiences you need to make to mould this lifestyle to suit you. You can save a lot of money by doing/fixing things yourself. Not the big stuff, like engine repairs or whatnot, but little things like the solar system or even some cabinetry things. I urge everyone to learn a little about how 12volt solar systems work because they’re actually super simple, there’s just too much information out there which can be daunting. You don’t have to be an electrician to be allowed to work on 12-volt systems”.
To continue following our explorer Simone and Jan’s journey or simply want to reach out and say Hi, you can connect with Simone, Jan, Arnie and Grace on the following accounts:
Travel Instagram: @coastingwiththe90s
Youtube Channel: Nature Immersions - Cinematic Soundscapes https://www.youtube.com/@NatureImmersions
Children's book “I am Little Yogi - sweet yogic teachings for little souls” for purchase at www.sacredbloom.com.au/i-am-little-yogi/
Simone’s Yoga Instagram: @sacredblo.om
Recipe Blog www.ithappenstobevegan.com
