The Story of How I Bought My Campervan (And Accidentally Changed My Life)

How It Started

If you’d told me a few years ago that I’d buy a campervan and travel around Australia solo.. there is not a single part of me that would have believed you. 

At the time, I was doing what so many of us were doing pre 2020, saving every spare cent for a big Europe trip. I had the Pinterest boards, the itinerary organised, the outfits planned. And then… the world stopped.

Suddenly, overseas travel was off the table. Which lead me to start looking into travelling my home country, Australia! 

The Year Long Search 

My craving for travel and adventure was growing. If I couldn’t cross borders, maybe it was time I explored more of my own backyard. I started casually browsing vans online, and "casually” quickly turned into “obsessively.” I searched online, daily, for almost a whole year. Nothing felt quite right… I hadn’t so much as even enquired about a single van, until one day, there she was.

The perfect van appeared. With a custom built interior from a like-minded, solo van lifer. It was simple, soulful, and somehow exactly what I’d been searching for.
But, of course, it wasn’t that easy..

I was in Victoria.
The van was in South Australia.

The Unsuccessful Flight

I organised with the owner to fly over, meet her, test drive the van, the whole lot. I booked my flight, packed my bags, had my heart set, and the morning I was meant to leave …. COVID.

Panic set in. Just my luck that after avoiding this dreaded virus for a whole year,  I copped it right before my flight.

 My year long search had lead me to this point. The van was perfect, but now I was stuck.
So, I postponed the trip by a week, changed my flight, crossed my fingers and sent every manifestation into the universe hoping no one else would swoop in and snatch it up.

A One-Way Ticket to South Australia

A week later, healthy and determined, I boarded my one-way flight. 
Meeting the seller felt like meeting future me, independent, creative, and totally in love with slow and simple travel.

And then I saw the van.
Now I’m not too sure if I believe in love at first sight. 
But I swear, it was instant.

So I did the most impulsive thing I’d done in years..
Right then, right there. With literally the last of my savings, I made it mine :)

The wildest part? I’d never even sat behind the wheel of a van until that day. In fact, my car at the time was a tiny little hatchback that could practically park inside this thing! But despite my lack of experience, something in me just knew I'd made the right decision.

But that confidence was short lived.

The crazy return to Melbourne 

The first night in my new van was a chaotic mix of excitement and absolute nerves. I slept in a beach carpark, reacting to every tiny noise and convinced I’d be caught stealth camping at any moment.

After a restless night of sleep, came the drive home.
I’d never driven anything bigger than a hatchback, so piloting a whole house (dramatic I know) across states felt intense.
But I set off the next morning feeling brave. 

Within the hour, the tears began to flow.

Quitting van-life before it had even begun 

Less than an hour after hitting the open road, I realised I had absolutely no idea what I was in for.
I ran straight into the strongest winds I have ever experienced. To this day, after years of travelling in my van, I have never experienced winds like that again.

At the time, I didn’t know this. I just thought I was terrible at driving vans. I was being blown out of my lane, my arms were shaking from gripping the steering wheel so hard, and I was trying to keep the van straight through blurry eyes. 

By lunchtime I was convinced I’d made the biggest mistake of my life. I truly believed that I could not hack the van-life. If driving was going to be this difficult, then count me out. I quit.

I actually had to stop halfway and rest because my arms were numb from fighting terrestrial winds for hours. 

Thankfully, by the next morning the weather had calmed, and I made it home safely. 

It wasn’t until later that I learned I’d driven through extreme wind conditions.
Honestly? Surviving that first drive feels like one of my bravest moments.

And that was just the beginning.

The Best Decision I Ever Made

Looking back now, buying that campervan interstate, with no idea how to drive something that size, and battling the drive from hell, ended up becoming the best decision I have ever made.

It taught me that timing isn’t always perfect. Plans change. Money shifts. Life throws pandemics, plot twists and even catastrophic winds at you. But sometimes, the most spontaneous and chaotic decisions are the ones that change everything.

I never made it to Europe in 2020.
But I found something better.

A tiny home on wheels, an undeniable sense of freedom, and a whole new version of myself.