Where it All Began | VAN LIFE

G'day everyone and good morning from sunny Australia. I'm Max. I'm Leigh. And we have been living in a van for the last year and a half. Normally we're in our van in South America. Lately we've been in Kanga Blue in Australia. But today we want to do something different. We want to take you guys along for the ride as we go down the iconic Great Ocean Road. It is a road trip that Leigh and I have done multiple times during the initial phases of our relationship. And it is actually the place where we really decided we wanted to build a van of our own and try a van life long term. So today we're bringing you along with us for a day in the life. However we thought why not do it in a classic Australian style. And we're leaving Kanga Blue here and we're taking out this guy. Good morning. And I raise my hands to the sky. What a feeling. Cause I feel like dancing high. Got a feeling. Time to feel it. This is where it all begins. Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh. This is where it all begins. So the last three years I was in Australia I was living in Geelong and Geelong is pretty much the start of the Great Ocean Road. It's a great sort of starting point to head down. Surf is all along this coast and really where Leigh and I spent a lot of time exploring and yeah just having a good time. Yeah it's a very special place to us and today's trip is even more special as we're taking a combi this time which we've always wanted to do. A huge thanks to Alice and George from Higher Combi for letting us take out Applejack. We're really excited. First things first. Max what are we doing? Coffee. I was going to say check the surf but we can also make a coffee. Best spot for a surf check. So unfortunately it's actually a little bit onshore. The wind's coming from the east and easterly wind on this west coast of Victoria is never a good thing. Good news is it means now it could be time for coffee. So if you're like us and you've never been inside a combi let us show you the inside of our van. So as you can see here this is our table that sets up. Underneath has all of our cooking supplies. Right here is actually an extra seat so we can both sit. It's actually really cozy in here. Yeah and we do have a pop-top here so when we set up for the night and for cooking we want to spend more time inside we can pop the roof up but for just sitting down there's tons of space. Smell that sweet sweet goodness. And while Max is preparing his coffee I am finishing some birthday cake that we had last night. We just came off a weekend celebrating with all his friends. Everyone who turned 30 this year and our friend Jess made cakes for everybody so she made Max a coffee cake. I don't love coffee but I definitely love coffee. Thank you Jess. She nailed it. And then back here we have a couple picnic rugs, all of our bedding, the couch that Max was sitting on earlier pushes out into the bed and I'm sure you wake up with some beautiful views. All right on to the next. Yep time to find us some koalas. I wanted to give you guys some quick facts about the Great Arsenal. It's bumpy, fact one. Actually for the most part the road's really good especially as opposed to South America. When we're together, the band is playing. When we're together, the world is singing along. When we're together, the sun is shining. When we're together, I'm home. I've got the world on a string. I've got a new pair of wings here. You've got me in the palm of your hand. You can silence the noise when I hear your voice and you say you're coming home again. But it is a 243 kilometre stretch. We are on the south eastern coastline of Australia in Victoria and it was actually built by returned soldiers after World War One and is the world's largest war memorial. So quick fact for you there. And so in last week's video we showed you kangaroos and we found them on my grandparents farm which I loved. This week we are on the hunt for koalas. Almost positive I can find you some because I've got a little spot off the Great Ocean Road here that I think Leigh did. I got you there. Yeah Max sent my sister and I and a couple friends there three, four years ago on our first big trip down the Great Ocean Road and we definitely saw koalas. That was my first time seeing them or second time seeing them in the wild so I'm very excited. Keep your eyes peeled. It looks like there's someone else on the hunt. A bit bigger than us. Yeah this is a very good sign Leigh. I see one and he's facing away from us but definitely there. Leigh I reckon we can find someone a bit closer. Let's get going. Go over up there where it's safe. All right he said Leigh the master spotter has found one. Where is it Leigh? Oh yep there he is. He's up this tree. He's a bit further away. He looks like he might be having a bit of a nap. So cute. I'll zoom in for these guys. I wonder if my other camera can get it. Oh yeah no that's got it. So that's him right up there. So koalas only eat eucalyptus leaves off the gum trees in Australia and they're very well known for that fact. In fact they very rarely ever come down to drink water. They get the majority of their water from the leaves. So when Australia is going through a drought and a heat wave koalas have been known to fall from trees before which can lead to legends. Leigh what legends that lead to? Legendary drop bears. The drop bear. If you don't know about the drop bear google it. Also I think how to be able to tell a eucalyptus tree from the rest is you can see how the bark changes colour because it actually sheds its bark right? Eucalyptus trees. Now I'm learning something. I think so but if you look at all the other trees versus these ones these ones always have like light colours and browns and they always just kind of naturally shed. And Leigh do you remember the most Australian song ever that involves gum trees? Now I don't know if you can see this guy but there's koala number three. If we pan this way right there koala number four. And now I think it's time for lunch. Have a look at this blue. We're making our all-time favourite sandwiches. If you watched our video a couple weeks ago you will know this recipe and if you want to learn the recipe we'll link that video up here. But it's a very classic dairy-free senga. Senga as they say over here. Hells yeah. Along this stretch. But first thing I need to address something that happened two videos ago. A few of you are very observant and noticed that there were a couple scenes where I wasn't wearing my seat belt. That was absolutely my mistake. We always do try to make our safety a priority in the van since we are on the road so much. And funny enough Max's mum is actually a mental health professional who works with road trauma. So she got right on the phone to us right away when she noticed that and just wanted to remind us to be safe. She's given me this t-shirt which is shine a light on road safety. The organisation is called Road Trauma Support Services Victoria and yeah a lot of people don't know there is service available. It is a non-profit organisation that she works for. They offer free counselling to anybody who's been on the road and has dealt with any trauma from accidents or family or friends who've been in the same situation. When I was a paramedic they were someone we often referred patients to and it's not just patients that are in an accident it's also people that witness an accident or are in any way affected by road accident can call these guys for free and book in free consultation and you might even get my mum talking to you. And they make a big difference and yeah get you back feeling better about it again. Yes so thank you everybody for looking out for us. We will make sure our safety is a top priority in the van and yeah off to 12 Apostles. We have finally made it to the 12 Apostles, well the car park and it turns out the secret's out. They are a known thing. There's a few people here. We're going to give you a quick look from the main lookout point because that's where you get the best view of all of them and then I've got a nice little beach that's nearby that hopefully won't be quite so busy. Every breath holds a moment. Every one a chance to take. You can see it if you close your eyes. So it was way too windy to talk about the 12 Apostles out there but essentially there are only eight of them left and they are limestone stacks that I think have just... Well we're actually not sure if they've broken off the land or if the land has receded and they're left over so we're just not going to... We're not tour guides. Who are we kidding? We're not tour guides. I don't want to say this because people will be like why didn't you do your research? What? They can do research. We don't know everything. We're just normal people vlogging about our day. It's true. They're limestone stacks. If you want to know more about the 12 Apostles look them up. We showed you them. They're beautiful. We may even pin your comment. Put it in the comments. Let us know. Let us know the answer. We'll pin it. That's a good idea. All right let's go to the beach. And I have to say it is chilly water being pushed up from Antarctica down here. The Apostles you can really understand the perspective of how large they are when you're down at the beach level. We would love love to put our drone up however there are no drone signs everywhere and there are multiple helicopters running tours all around so not a good idea. So we'll enjoy the beauty from the ground level on this one. We're just taking a few minutes to actually sit back relax and enjoy this combi life. Yeah and I know it's late in the game in this vlog but what's everyone else think of this hat because I like the hat itself and Leigh likes it on me but I don't think I pull it off. I think you pull it off. I think if you open it up to the public you're gonna get a lot of both ways. I think people are gonna say yes and people are gonna say no. It's not gonna help you. Be kind. We are now at the point of needing to find a campsite for the night. A follower told us about the app Campermate which is it's not iOverlander unfortunately there's no iOverlander in Australia. No there is an iOverlander it just doesn't it's not heavily used. It's got hardly anything on it which you know if everyone most people will know that that's our bible back in South America but it's not here or it's not heavily used here so we're on Campermate checking out for a spot and uh yeah we have no idea where we'll end up at this stage but it's getting dark in probably an hour. We do know that we've bought delicious food for dinner and we're excited to cook in here. Okay we better turn this off we don't have much camera battery left and we cannot charge it. I'm just so happy living the combi life. Keep going. Tonight we are just having a good old veggie stir fry. Very easy just broccoli, onion, garlic, peppers, sorry capsicum and chickpeas. Mushrooms. Mushrooms. Lettuce, spinach. Lettuce, spinach. Chickpeas are the thing to kind of bulk it out and get a bit of protein in there and we have a delicious honey soy garlic sauce to sesame honey sesame yeah sesame soy garlic sauce to go on there and uh yeah. Come on this is one of the best parts of van life is you can move your home wherever you want for dinner and this is our after dinner view right behind me. We're pretty happy campers you'd say. This broccoli tastes really good. It's really good once again Leigh chose to put a lot of spice in it. What? I don't find it spicy at all. My nose is just running a little bit but guys we hope you have really enjoyed today's adventure. We've had a lot of fun we've probably driven a little faster than we normally would to cover the ground because we wanted to show you the 12 apostles as well which were a bit further away but we kind of felt you couldn't do a Great Ocean Road trip video without showing them. Yeah so we hope you enjoy coming along with us experiencing the combi life with us. Again if you're in this area you're going to be doing the Great Ocean Road hire combi is a family-run company it gives you a taste of what it's like to be inside one of these old school vehicles the old steering the old stick shift the setting up set up inside it's so different to our Sprinter van it's been really fun. Yeah it's definitely a different mode and I think as Leigh said it's a good try before you buy if you're thinking about getting into the van life and especially if you're thinking about doing it down the combi line this is a great way to start. Yeah and we're wrapping up here because tomorrow we plan to turn off the cameras and just enjoy each other's company and the beautiful beaches it's a message that we want to spread online because yes we are working online and we enjoy interacting and plugging in but we also enjoy disconnecting and getting out there and we want all of we want to encourage all of you to do the same yeah make sure you check in on Sundays to see what to see what's going on but still watch our videos but then otherwise disconnect take some time off get outside you know do your thing away from it's all about balance and yeah I think that's what kind of combi life van life is all about yeah healthy balance yeah so if you're new to this channel and this is the first video of ours you've seen make sure you watch last week's because it was an absolute cracker and also hit that subscription button because there's going to be plenty more Aussie adventures to come in a few weeks we are back to South America and yeah and the adventure continues yeah we'd love you to come on board with us all right guys we'll see you next week see you next week