Category: Dispatches
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Mary Kathleen Uranium Mine: Queensland’s Most Beautiful Toxic Lake
Hiking to the Mary Kathleen Uranium Mine: A 12km Mistake Worth Making The sign said 6 kilometres to the mine. My brain, for reasons that remain medically unexplained, translated this into 6 kilometres return. They’re very different journeys. It was about 11.30 when Will and I left the long-abandoned township…
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The Rule of Three: How We Afford to Travel Australia Full-Time on a Budget
How to Travel Australia Full-Time on a Budget People often ask how Will and I can afford to travel Australia full-time. They assume we’ve won Lotto, inherited a mining company or have a suspiciously successful OnlyFans account. Sadly, it’s much less glamorous; we follow what I’ve started calling The Rule…
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Can a BLUETTI Keep Us Off-Grid for a Week? Our Last Days in Mount Isa
Our BLUETTI has finally arrived and, assuming I don’t accidentally electrocute myself during setup, the new system should let us stay off-grid for close to a week at a time. Between the van’s existing battery, rooftop solar and the BLUETTI, we’ll have enough power to run the important things: Starlink,…
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Camooweal, Queensland: The Tiny Outback Town with Two Caravan Parks and One Pub
Camooweal: Cold Beers and a Rest Day in Queensland’s Tiny Border Town We’ve made it to Queensland. Camooweal, to be exact. Population: enough people to keep two caravan parks in business. The town sits just eleven kilometres from the Northern Territory border and was established in 1884, back when explorers…
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Why We Love One-Star Caravan Park Reviews
You can tell a lot about a person by the reviews they leave online. Will and I have developed something of a hobby. Before staying at a caravan park, roadhouse or dusty rest stop, we sit in the van and read the one-star reviews. Not because we’re trying to avoid…
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Day Two: A Crocodile Closes Bitter Springs on Our Darwin to Boulia Road Trip
Day Two began much the same way as Day One, with two unemployed blokes in a van heading towards Boulia for what is essentially the Melbourne Cup of camel racing. Our first stop was Katherine, where we needed fuel, groceries and a few essentials. Petrol was $1.72 a litre, and…
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Free Camping in the Northern Territory: Day One of Our Darwin to Boulia Van Life Road Trip
Day one is done and dusted. We escaped Darwin and made our way south to Adelaide River, stopping at a few waterfalls along the way because when you’re unemployed and living in a van, standing near moving water somehow counts as an activity. After topping up the fuel, it was…
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Drinking Snake Wine in Vietnam: A Mekong Delta Adventure to Remember
Today began, as many questionable travel decisions do, in a bar. “So you like a drink?” the barman asked. “I don’t mind a tipple or two,” I replied, which was both true and wildly misleading. He smiled. “I take you to snake wine.” And just like that, a casual afternoon…
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Why Vietnam’s Egg Coffee Might Be the Best Coffee I’ve Ever Had
Today’s side quest was egg coffee. Calling it a quest might be overselling things, as there were no maps or dangerous river crossings, and nobody attempted to sell me a cursed monkey’s paw. I simply walked out of the hotel, wandered down a side street in Da Nang, and there…