It was after the Olympics finished in Sydney in September 2000 that we started shopping around for a vehicle that would take us not quite the length and breadth of Australia, but at least some of the way around this vast country.  Our mission was to drive the west coast, from Darwin to Perth, in time to spend Christmas with friends.  

Shopping around for second hand vehicles in those days meant hot-footing it around all the hostel notice boards searching the “for sale” ads, and then finding phone boxes to call the sellers and arrange viewings.  No mobile phones for trawling the internet back then! 

In early October we found “Spot”, a 17 year old (1983) Nissan Urvan pop-top camper van.  Spot had already done a few miles around the clock, and he came complete with pretty much everything we needed for an Aussie road trip.  There was a lounge area which doubled up as a bed, a fully equipped kitchen with gas stove, a 3-way fridge, and a microwave.  He even had a tiny TV, and a CB radio!  He had a 40 litre water tank, and the shower was a portable solar shower bag.  The toilet was a shovel for digging a hole! There was a great big lockable box secured on the back of the van to store the awning, the camping table and chairs, and other miscellaneous stuff.

We paid a whopping AU$7,000 in hard cash (the equivalent of about £3,000 back then) to a couple of backpackers who’d already had their time in the van touring around Australia.  

We christened the van Spot because we picked him up in a place called The Spot in Randwick, an eastern suburb of Sydney, and plus what 17 year old doesn’t know about spots!

We hit the road on the 10th October, and by the 13th the van was in the garage for major repairs having lost the gearbox!  Not a great start to our tour down under, but considering that was our only major mechanical issue in an adventure that took us almost 18,000kms (11,250 miles) wasn’t too bad in our opinion.  We did get one puncture, and after an incident with a kamikaze kangaroo we suffered a bit of damage to our water tank, but those are stories in their own right!

After five months of adventure on some of the most remarkable roads we said goodbye to Spot in Perth in February 2001 when we sold him for around AU$5,000 to a couple from Dublin starting their Aussie road trip.

Van Life Lessons

We learned a lot about van life and van travel in those five months in Australia:

• A fixed bed is an essential for us.  Despite taking only 5 minutes twice a day to put the bed up and take it down, it becomes the most detested chore!  Not only do you have to find space for the bedding, but if one of you wants to go to bed and the other doesn’t then you have a stand-off!  
• Even with a pop-up top it is difficult for anyone 6ft or more to stand up straight. 
• Having the ability to survive off-grid and be self-sufficient opens up so many more places to you.  It takes a bit of planning though especially when there are no services for miles and miles.
• Water is the most precious natural resource. Always carry more than you think you’ll need.
• Digging your daily toilet hole wears thin!  Much easier to have a waterless or chemical free loo on-board that doesn’t need emptying daily.
• Air conditioning is pointless as once you switch it off it is a lot harder to acclimatise. Keep the windows down and feel the wind in your hair! 
• A 3-way fridge will not work in very hot climates no matter what the power source!
• There is no such thing as mosquito nets that work – there will always be at least one that finds its way through.