Today I share with you seven must know van life Australia tips and hacks for van
life. But first,
come with me to the top of a mountain here on the sunshine coast.
[inaudible] running down me
[inaudible].
Today I've ventured to the hinterland to Mount "Noo Noo" or more generally known
as Mount Ngungun. It's 40 minutes from Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast.
It's a very popular hike due to its relative ease and fantastic views.
So Epic, 360 degree views A
well-defined, grated track with steep sections will get you to the top.
If you've ever seen a picture of a hinterland summit,
it's probably been the top of this mountain,
arguably the most popular and photograph hinterland hike,
climbers love it due to its relative ease and spectacular views.
The Mount Ngungun summit walking track is about 2.8 kilometres that begins in
open forest and offers great views of the other glass house mountains.
Most maps say it'll take you about two hours,
but I did it in 20 to 30 minutes each way. At a fast pace.
And going up it was at 5:30 AM in the dark. So it's not too hard.
This is the ultimate hike to schedule for sunrise or sunset to make the most of
the 360 degree views and a stunning colour changing skies.
The first thing that I always get asked for my van life Australia tips is where
do I park? And I've made a lot of videos on this previously.
You can check out this playlist where I talk about stealth camping and how you
can get away camping for free most of the time. However,
some of the other tools that I use is festival downloading Wikicamps.
So I believe it's a paid app costs you a few dollars,
but that will tell you where there's public toilets, showers, um,
attractions that you might want to see in the area. Uh, information centres,
campgrounds, free camp grounds. The list just goes on and on.
It's quite detailed.
And what I like about it the most is that it actually allows people who are
using those places to pop in a review and then typically more helpful than the
actual, uh, the actual thing within the app itself.
So it's always good to check them out and to find some little hotspots around.
And the other, the other app that I use quite often is uh, Google maps as well.
So when using Google maps,
you can see by going on to satellite mode where there might be some places to
park. And like I said,
go check out that stealth camping playlist where I actually go into a Google map
and I'll show you exactly what I mean by doing that.
So that's definitely the first thing to think about. The next thing,
think about when parking is, you don't want to be parking around places where,
first of all, where there's a sign that says no parking.
But secondly where you think like people might be going to patrol.
And generally those places are the most popular places unfortunately,
and the most beautiful ones. So like next to oceans, next to rivers,
anywhere where there's a good view,
that's typically going to be the most frequented place and the place that that
will patrol the most.
Next up on my van life Australia tips is where do I shower and toilet. Again,
this is another one that I've answered so many times,
but I still get so many questions about it and first of all,
the best place is actually in your van and you can check out this video if you
want to say some of the van build mistakes that I won't mention based on what's
happening in my event and some of the things that I would do again and some of
the things that I wouldn't do again and I do dive into having a toilet and
shower there and more depth. But if you have one in the van,
it can be super convenient. I've used my shower less than a half a dozen times,
so I haven't used it too much. However,
the best thing about Australia and absolutely the best country in the world in
my opinion,
is that there's so many public toilets and showers all over the place.
I stick around on the coast probably at least 90% of the time,
as you can see right now from behind me, these amazing spots.
My eyes are actually watering is a little cool and windy up here this morning,
but there's a lot of amazing spots around Australia and there's public toilets
in most of those places. So for example,
I'm in the glass house mountains here on the sunshine coast right now and I
stayed just in town right next to where there was a public toilet that was open
all night. Not that I needed to use it at night,
but there's always options out there and people sort of forget about that.
And you know, people might have a little bit of an issue with public toilets,
which I can totally understand. However, most of the time they're pretty good.
So I'm sharing at beaches and um, around surf clubs,
places like that. Sometimes it's an open shower where you have to wear your,
your swimmers and other times it's uh,
it's one way you can be behind a closed door and actually have a proper naked
shower, which is always fun. However,
you do need to get used to cold water and cold water.
Showers can be a bit of a challenge at times. However,
they are actually super beneficial. If you look into Wim Hoff,
so he's this crazy dutch guy. He calls himself the crazy Dutch guy, um,
where he is big on cold exposure and cold immersion.
And that's something I've been diamond into a lot this year to not only help me
having showers but because of the health benefits that go alongside that.
So I encourage you to check that out if it is of interest. However,
then there's other places to toilet and shower. You know,
I sometimes drive past shopping centres and I'll go to the toilets there. Um,
you know, when I was living in the city and Sydney,
I would actually go and use the toilets in a pub at night or you walk in just
completely confident as if you're looking for someone and just head straight to
the toilets. They don't even know. I don't even think they would care.
And then ultimately you can also have a gym membership.
I did that for about the first, almost 12 months and that was good as well,
especially in winter. If it's really cold, you can go in and have a hot shower.
So there are the places that I typically use toilets and showers.
And then of course you've got, um,
you know when you're on the highway you've got rest stops,
your fuel stations and all of those places that um,
have public toilets for people to use.
Now my next van life Australia tips is to ask people where to go.
And you can do this by asking the internet.
You can do this by asking your network or you can do this by asking friends,
people on social media. I'd like to find this place,
the top of a new new mountain here.
I went and I put that into Google for the best hikes around the sunshine coast
area and like look at it in the background there. It's completely amazing,
right?
But I'm sure if you're a traveller then there's a lot of friends who you meet
who are probably like you as well.
So I'm sure that there'll be people who will know certain places that you might
know, might not know.
One little bonus tip that I do and because I'm single at the moment and using
dating apps,
when I go to a new place I'll match with some girls on dating apps and ask them
where their best hikes are and I typically get a pretty good response from them
as well.
Next up on van life Australia tips is charge your gear as you are driving.
So one of the best investments you can make is to buy one of those little USB
cigarette lighter charges where you can plug in your USB and charge things as
you're driving.
Now most people actually have them already or you have like a USB outlet in
your, in your van or in your car. However,
this is pretty much essential because not always is the sun out.
And even if you've got solar on top,
sometimes your batteries will be running low.
And if you're using your camera a lot,
if you're using your phone a lot and you want to be able to have the ability to
charge those things while you're actually driving.
So the best thing to do is just have it in,
in the front seat somewhere or in a box.
I've got mine in a box right underneath where it needs to be charged and it's
always sitting there.
So it always reminds me the two things that I've always got charging as I'm
driving is first of all, my little Bose speaker.
So it's a little speaker that I use both while I'm driving.
And also while in the back of the van and I'll always have music going.
It's like one of my favourite things to do is just to chill out and listen to
some amazing music. So I've always got that charging.
And the second thing is obviously always my phone,
whether I'm using maps as I'm driving and I'm finding the way to go or just
charging up in between because I need to use it as a hotspot next time or I'm
currently filming on that phone right now. Um, whatever it is,
I also have the ability to charge my backup camera by USB and there's a whole
host of other things that you can do.
I believe you can even get USB charges for a lot of laptops now,
which is pretty cool. Also use a backup phone here.
I'm using it as a speaker right now.
All my camera gear right now is super minimalistic,
definitely charged things up as you go and you make life so much easier for you
instead of trying to figure it out,
trying to find a plug when you get to your next place. Um, you know,
if you find an outlet to plug into 40 volts in a public area,
people actually look at you funny.
They think that you're actually stealing power from their local place.
So you know, if you don't mind a few funny looks then go ahead and do that.
But sometimes I just find it easier to do what I can as I'm going and then I
know that it's ready for the next time. So charge your gear as you're driving
[inaudible]
and continuing on and talking a little bit more about the solar.
That is something that I really had to think about myself and that's my next big
van life Australia tips is to make sure you have enough power,
especially if you're a digital nomad like me or digital marketer,
someone who works online for a company having enough power is absolutely going
to be essential for so many reasons from charging your staff to keeping your
laptop running.
And I even use mine to power a blender so I can have a smoothie each day as
well.
So what I did was I actually got a gold zero lithium battery pack.
I've actually got two of them now,
so one of them is equivalent to what would be a 40 amp hour battery and another
one is equivalent to what would be a a hundred amp power battery.
So you don't need these. If you're spending a lot of money on your solar set up,
it's probably going to cost you what, four to $7,000 for a setup. However,
I bought these battery packs.
The smaller one costs me around about seven or $800 and it's got an in-built
inverter. That's an inverter that I use to power the blender.
So it works quite well.
And then the other one with a solar panel would actually cost me around about
$2,000 I believe. So those battery packs have really saved my life.
And if you're finding that your solar and your battery setup is not working,
then check those out for sure.
And my next tip for van life Australia tips is make sure you've got somebody to
put your dirty laundry.
That's something that you definitely want to be thinking about when you design
your bag is I didn't design my band, I actually had to find a little spot.
And here's my little spot here.
So normally there's a cushion that goes on the top.
It's up there with all the other mess, but I just take that off
right there. Is my laundry bag super accessible, uh, for an I need it most,
but most importantly locked away with a little bit of a cover on top so that
it's not going to smell out the entire van too much as well. Hopefully. Uh,
so all I need to do is then grab that bag as I take it into the laundry mat.
And it's super easy to do. So have something for your dirty laundry.
It's so it doesn't smell.
This is honestly my favourite part of the day. Every single day.
Do you want to dive deeper into what's in this drink?
I actually made a video right here. It's a really great coffee alternative.
Super healthy, tastes delicious. So go check that video out after this one.
If you do, which what? Sorry, I'm not sure.
I'm not sure if I've showed you this yet, but how cool is my painting?
So a good friend did that for me on my 30th birthday, which is pretty cool,
right? So I drank my medicinal cacao tea.
I wanted to give you the final tip in Vanlife Australia tips and that is where
do you park during the day?
Especially if it's a weekend and there's too many people at the beach or too
many people by the river.
Sometimes it's not fun parking in an actual car park and there's people going in
and out all the time. It's loud around you and cars driving past.
So one of the best places that I've found is sporting ground car parts and not
only for during the day,
but sometimes at night as well because typically Brown grounds aren't frequented
by many people. They're nice, big open grounds, fairly quiet,
and generally you can park right up next to the field.
So you've got some nice grass that you can like spread out on and set it up,
set up your outside office on or something like that. So sports grounds,
car parks are really good and I've never had any issue in any of them.
Um,
a lot of the times they also have toilets available in that particular area as
well. At least in Australia they do. So it's a really great alternative.
So you'd pop during the day.