James & Liana

After living in beautiful Exmouth for just over 5 years James and Liana realised, though the Ningaloo was paradise, it did come at a price. Day to day living was incredibly Exy as the locals would say with general living costs roughly 30% more than normal city life. As well as struggling to justify food and rent prices, it was also growing difficult for James to pursue his musical ambitions being in such a small and remote town.

“So the decision was made, we were going to convert a bus into a tiny home that would soon accomodate us and our needs. Sounds easy right?! After buying our 2005 Toyota coaster mid February 2018 we jumped straight into the build. Most of the work was done over the following two months, restricted only by money, we completed what we could when we could afford it.

The build was challenging and probably more expensive than it should have been given our remoteness, most days we were working in 35+ degrees and with little to no building experience everything took longer than it should have. We even built our kitchen twice! Haha, Lianas idea.

Liana and I were a washing machine stuck on manic cycle, after selling almost everything we owned we grew more and more addicted to the liberation of living so simply. Obsessed with the idea of a new life and the doors it would open for us we worked tirelessly on making it become a reality.

Holding onto only the bare essentials and our 6m boat we were finally free, so we thought……..

We also had a relatively new car at the time, that we planned on selling just before we left, to help fund the new lifestyle and also get us out of debt as we still owed money on the car. It was the final move that would truly release us from our financial bonds and catapult us head first into a new and exciting journey. However in the last few days before we were due to head off the car blew up!

Now Instead of flying freely through the sweet sweet air of adventure we had tripped hard and fallen face first into the reality of life.

As it happened luckily my sister and her husband were also living in Exmouth at the time, so we decided that we could leave the car with them until we were able to afford to fix it and so we were back in the game, ready to start the new year with our new home and this new way of living.

The day after my birthday we headed south and we haven’t looked back since, what a birthday present. We left with little more than $1000 in the bank but have been able to sustain our travels quite comfortably from James’s musical incomes. We plan to continue touring, using our new home to physically drive James’s music career to new levels and new part of the country, and maybe a bit of surfing and exploring along the way.

We are the Coast to Coast wanderers and this is only the beginning. Stay in touch and check out our travels and music. We hope to see you soon on the road around Australia!”

Thanks so much to James & Liana for sharing an insight into your transition from a stable home environment to living life on the road. It is not always easy and has its challenges like any lifestyle choice. We wish you all the best and hope to see you soon! Edited & published by Jonny Dustow. (one of the co-founders here).