Living life on the road
Travelling around Australia with a dog can get complicated, especially if you are working as you go, but it is possible and many of us would have it no other way. This blog outlines our experience of travelling and working with our dog, an English staffy, Beni.Read More »
So back to the summary of our trip so far and the lessons we have learnt along the way.
We worked for a few months in Sydney, saved a bit of money and set ourselves up for freedom camping, armed with Wikkicamps, my new bestie, we could not drive out of Sydney quick enough. Still under twelve months on the road, we had learnt a lot but still had lots to learn.Read More »
Questions about how to find work when living on the road often pop up on my Facebook feed, so this post will describe our experience.
There are a lot of things to consider when looking for work while traveling around Australia. What do you want to do, how long do you want to stay, where do you want to be, where are you going to live, what skills do you offer and how do you be competitive for the job.We don’t really want to do the same thing twice.Read More »
Heading north in the hope of warmer weather and employment we made it as far as Rockhampton. We spent a week in a caravan park at Yeppoon, where we desperately searched for jobs. Obviously, the small amount of money we saved was not going to go far if we had to pay for a caravan site. It was here I learnt one way to drastically reduce costs of living, and this was to offer our services in exchange for somewhere to park our van with access to power and water. We got an offer within a few days of posting an ad on social media and gumtree. We moved to a large block of land between Yeppoon and Rockhampton, where Thomas helped with the renovation of a house in exchange for a powered site. This gave us some time to apply for work while practically living for free.Read More »
We had a great job at Borumba Deer Park. In exchange for our site and a bit of pocket money we worked a few hours a day, five days a week. We cleaned the amenities and checked people in who arrived after the managers went home and kept an eye on the park over night. The caretakers site was under cover and had a fireplace, a fridge, a TV, a lounge and a bathroom. We were also offered additional paid work. I worked in the reception and Thomas helped with rubbish removal and grounds work.
So off we go. Tenants paying the mortgage and $2000 to our name, we say goodbye to the kids and our beautiful new grandson and head from Newcastle towards Queensland. Read More »
We gave ourselves three weeks to sell a house full of souvenirs and apparent necessities for life and find reliable tenants to pay the mortgage and we pulled it off. Bigger items sold cheaply through social media and gumtree, one huge garage sale where things were practically given away then a call to a local charity to come and get the rest. We were mopping the floor towards the back door as the new tenants moved their stuff in through the front door.Read More »
In April 2016, my husband Thomas and I were living in our house in Newcastle, NSW Australia with our English staffy, Beni and a cat Mossy. We had jobs and we had a mortgage. We had health insurance. We had two beautiful grown up daughters and our first grandson, who was five months old. We had friends, we had a computer and wifi, we had a big tele, a dishwasher, a coffee machine. We had a couple of cars and a boat. We had everything
Looked good on the surface but something was missing. We weren’t happy. We were both getting bored with our jobs and looking for better ones. Would new jobs take away this feeling of just working to pay our bills? The feeling of being dictated to by society’s rules…… “work hard until you are 65, 67, 69; take four weeks holiday a year; paying off your mortgage is your first priority; you must have health insurance;” etc etc.
Even though we both worked, we didn’t seem to be saving much money. It seemed to cost a lot to keep those vehicles insured and registered, to keep the mobile phones connected, to have health insurance. It costs money to have the clothes you need for work, petrol in the cars, social outings to keep us stay connected.
So one day we decided to sell everything we own, buy a four wheel drive and a caravan and hit the road in search of happiness. Almost three years on and I have the urge to share this experience, so started this blog. I will start at the beginning, write often, sharing our experience of travelling around Australia, with our dog, working as we go to fund the trip. Welcome aboard!
The3ofus 