Category Archives: Bus Adventures

Blog, Bus Adventures, Bus Conversion, Bus Life

Bronte the bus in travel mode. That’s Percy the Prado on our 3.5 tonne tandem car trailer.

Posted on by Tales From The Wild

Bronte the bus in travel mode. That's Percy the Prado on our 3.5 tonne tandem car trailer. Percy carries a few extra things on his roof rack, like an extension ladder (for bus roof access), beach gear and a 2.5 seater kayak. We also carry four bikes on the trailer. Our whole circus convoy is exactly 19 metres long (the maximum legal length for motorhomes) and approximately 16.5 tonnes fully loaded (well within our 19.5 tonne GVM rating). Bronte is a little slower than your average vehicle when taking off from the lights, but she builds up speed eventually and cruises comfortably on the open road at 100km/h (with the exception of hills,which Bronte prefers to chug up at a much more gentle pace). When we stay in caravan parks, we usually stop somewhere nearby to unload the car and uncouple the trailer before entering the park. It's a bit easier to manoeuvre the bus into caravan sites without the trailer. And we can then hook the trailer up behind Percy the Prado to get them parked on site too. We've fine-tuned the whole procedure over time and it really doesn't take us long. Also we tend to stay in one place for an extended period of time, so may only do this once a fortnight or so.At the moment, we've been stopped for a couple of months due to COVID-19 and are currently renting a remote property in outback Queensland.#buslife #busconversion #nomads #ontheroad #skoolie #skoolieconversion #buslifeadventure

Bronte the bus in travel mode. That’s Percy the Prado on our 3.5 tonne tandem car trailer. Percy carries a few extra things on his roof rack, like an extension ladder (for bus roof access), beach gear and a 2.5 seater kayak. We also carry four bikes on the trailer. Our whole circus convoy is exactly 19 metres long (the maximum legal length for motorhomes) and approximately 16.5 tonnes fully loaded (well within our 19.5 tonne GVM rating). Bronte is a little slower than your average vehicle when taking off from the lights, but she builds up speed eventually and cruises comfortably on the open road at 100km/h (with the exception of hills,which Bronte prefers to chug up at a much more gentle pace). When we stay in caravan parks, we usually stop somewhere nearby to unload the car and uncouple the trailer before entering the park. It’s a bit easier to manoeuvre the bus into caravan sites without the trailer. And we can then hook the trailer up behind Percy the Prado to get them parked on site too. We’ve fine-tuned the whole procedure over time and it really doesn’t take us long. Also we tend to stay in one place for an extended period of time, so may only do this once a fortnight or so.

At the moment, we’ve been stopped for a couple of months due to COVID-19 and are currently renting a remote property in outback Queensland.

#buslife #busconversion #nomads #ontheroad #skoolie #skoolieconversion #buslifeadventure

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Blog, Bus Adventures, Bus Life

Free camping in a rest area in western NSW a few months ago…

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Free camping in a rest area in western NSW a few months ago. Looking forward to hitting the road again in the coming months.#buslife #skoolieconversion #ontheroad #busconversion #nomadlife

Free camping in a rest area in western NSW a few months ago. Looking forward to hitting the road again in the coming months.

#buslife #skoolieconversion #ontheroad #busconversion #nomadlife

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Blog, Bus Adventures, Bus Life, Outback Iso

Last night’s bush television.

Posted on by Tales From The Wild

Last night's bush television. A crackling fire, red dirt on our boots, shooting stars, a full moon rising and dingoes howling in the far distance. This is how I imagined #buslife to be.#OutbackQueensland #SeeAustralia #ThisIsQueensland #campfire

Last night’s bush television. A crackling fire, red dirt on our boots, shooting stars, a full moon rising and dingoes howling in the far distance. This is how I imagined #buslife to be.

#OutbackQueensland #SeeAustralia #ThisIsQueensland #campfire

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Blog, Bus Adventures, Bus Life

Sunrise over our camp, down by the Barwon River at Mungindi.

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Sunrise over our camp, down by the Barwon River at #Mungindi. We spent a week free-camping here in this peaceful spot on the Queensland side of the river. Most of the town and shops are located on the New South Wales side of the river. It was a week spent mainly indoors, to escape the heat and rather abundant flies. We home schooled, played Lego and occasionally ventured out for a bike ride to town.This image was captured a few months ago #beforecovid19. Currently we are hunkered down and caretaking a remote homestead near Charleville in western Queensland. And I'm finally catching up and sorting through photos from our last six months of bus travels! Stay tuned for more. ~ Keiran.#buslife #offgrid #nomad #homeiswhereyouparkit #ontheroad #buslifeadventure

Sunrise over our camp, down by the Barwon River at #Mungindi. We spent a week free-camping here in this peaceful spot on the Queensland side of the river. Most of the town and shops are located on the New South Wales side of the river. It was a week spent mainly indoors, to escape the heat and rather abundant flies. We home schooled, played Lego and occasionally ventured out for a bike ride to town.

This image was captured a few months ago #beforecovid19. Currently we are hunkered down and caretaking a remote homestead near Charleville in western Queensland. And I’m finally catching up and sorting through photos from our last six months of bus travels! Stay tuned for more. ~ Keiran.

#buslife #offgrid #nomad #homeiswhereyouparkit #ontheroad #buslifeadventure

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Blog, Bus Adventures, Bus Life

An early morning family walk at Thallon in Outback Queensland.

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An early morning family walk at Thallon in #OutbackQueensland. We stayed overnight here a couple of months back, to view the spectacular painted silos. There's a good sized free camp area near the silos.This image was captured #beforecovid19. Currently we are hunkered down and caretaking a remote homestead near Charleville in western Queensland. And I'm finally catching up and sorting through photos from our last six months of bus travels! Stay tuned for more. ~ Keiran.#paintedsilos #thallon #buslife

An early morning family walk at Thallon in #OutbackQueensland. We stayed overnight here a couple of months back, to view the spectacular painted silos. There’s a good sized free camp area near the silos.

This image was captured #beforecovid19. Currently we are hunkered down and caretaking a remote homestead near Charleville in western Queensland. And I’m finally catching up and sorting through photos from our last six months of bus travels! Stay tuned for more. ~ Keiran.

#paintedsilos #thallon #buslife

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Blog, Bus Adventures, Bus Life, Home Schooling

Tending the fire. One of our favourite pastimes of life on the road!

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Tending the fire. One of our favourite pastimes of life on the road! Before hunkering down at our current location, we spent a few weeks free-camping by the weir at #Mitchell. This friendly little town is a wonderful place to stay. The locals recognise the value in welcoming travellers and we were sure to spend our dollars in many of the town's businesses. I even bought a new akubra at the local outfitters! Be sure to stop by Mitchell when the current travel restrictions are eased. - @keiranlusk.#busconversion #buslife #bus #tinyhouse #skoolie #skoolieconversion #schoolbusconversion #offgrid #nomad #wanderlust #homeiswhereyouparkit #ontheroad #buslifeaustralia #buslifeadventure #outbackqueensland #outback

Tending the fire. One of our favourite pastimes of life on the road! Before hunkering down at our current location, we spent a few weeks free-camping by the weir at #Mitchell. This friendly little town is a wonderful place to stay. The locals recognise the value in welcoming travellers and we were sure to spend our dollars in many of the town’s businesses. I even bought a new akubra at the local outfitters! Be sure to stop by Mitchell when the current travel restrictions are eased. – Keiran.

#busconversion #buslife #bus #tinyhouse #skoolie #skoolieconversion #schoolbusconversion #offgrid #nomad #wanderlust #homeiswhereyouparkit #ontheroad #buslifeaustralia #buslifeadventure #outbackqueensland #outback

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Blog, Bus Adventures, Bus Life, Outback Iso

Home, for now. This is mulga country, Bidjara country, just beyond Charleville…

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Home, for now. This is mulga country, Bidjara country, just beyond Charleville, in south-west Queensland. It’s been a long while since I lived somewhere with a red dirt driveway. In recent times, we had been slowly plodding along through outback Queensland in Bronte the bus, free-camping by quiet rivers in small country towns. We were planning to head towards the Northern Territory (and ultimately Western Australia) when the COVID-19 health crisis began to escalate in Australia. With the sudden closure of campgrounds, national parks, free camping reserves and many caravan parks, we had to make some quick decisions. Like thousands of full-time travellers across Australia, we had no actual ‘home’ to return to. We either found a caravan park that was still open for ‘essential travellers’, some land to park the bus on or we rented a house somewhere close by. With the prospect of being locked down for six months or longer, we decided that the best option was to find a rental property. We were so very fortunate to find the perfect homestead for rent nearby.

The property is just beautiful, with extensive gardens surrounding the house, a river nearby and lots of space for everyone to breathe. It’s remote but we’ve always enjoyed solitude (it reminds me somehow of our lighthouse days). We are living in the bus at the front gate to the house. There’s no furniture in the house, but Sam has an office in the house to continue her remote working arrangements and the boys have a dedicated Lego room (which everyone is pretty happy about). I have been kept busy with some physical work around the property like mowing lawns, tending to gardens, checking pumps and tanks, fixing irrigation and getting the veggie garden started. We are truly grateful for the opportunity to stop here for a while and acknowledge how privileged we are at this moment to still have an income, somewhere to live and our health.

This is my first post for 2020 (with huge thanks to Sam for keeping the social media going in recent months) and I am hoping to share more photos of our outback life in the coming weeks. Thanks for following along. Hope you are safe and well. – Keiran.

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Blog, Bus Adventures, Bus Life

Parked under these river gums, out west on the border, with no neighbours…

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Parked under these river gums, out west on the border, with no neighbours save three very insistent but delightful geese, who don’t seem to mind sharing their riverbank with us..
.
~ Sam.

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Blog, Bus Adventures, Bus Life

And just like that, the season of slog that seemed it would never end is done, and we are underway.

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And just like that, the season of slog that seemed it would never end is done, and we are underway. With our full rig: bus, trailer, car, kayak, bikes. Embodiment of almost four years’ invention, sweat, tears, sleeplessness, never-give-up resourcefulness. A lot more of it all than we bargained. So, this is what it takes to breathe life into a dream. The only challenge that remains is to make it all it could be. We’ve got a lot of rest and time in nature to catch up on. Let’s start there…

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Blog, Bus Adventures, Bus Conversion, Bus Life

Sunlight, tea and forest views.

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Sunlight, tea and forest views. Good morning from Bronte the bus! Hope you have a great weekend!

#busconversion #buslife #bus #tinyhouse #skoolie #skoolieconversion #schoolbusconversion #vanlife #offgrid #busbuild #rvlife #busnut #busrollwithit #livesmaller #nomad #happycamper #wander #wanderlust #homeiswhereyouparkit #ontheroad #buslifeaustralia #buslifeau #mybuslife #buslifeadventure #livingtinyproject

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