Hi! We’re Alesha and Jarryd, the co-founders of Van Life Theory. We’re a married Australian couple in our mid-30s, currently travelling around Australia in our 2008 Mercedes Sprinter 518CDI campervan. This website was born to document our experiences, stories and misadventures as we go.
We are actually professional content creators, photographers and digital marketers (you may have seen our work over at NOMADasaurus), and being digital nomads has allowed us to create an incredible life of freedom as we travel the world.
We are Sony Digital Imaging Advocates, official brand ambassadors for World Animal Protection, are part of the GoPro Family and are Ted’s Masters.
But the real star of the show here is Marlee! Here she is in all her glory:
While living in a van has become pretty damn popular recently thanks to social media, we’re not exactly new to this lifestyle.
Let us share a bit about our history.
Our #vanlife journey actually started back in Vancouver in 2008, when we bought a 1986 GMC Vandura for $1600 that we named Latoya.
We spent the next 3 years travelling across Canada and back, living an extremely budget life but having amazing experiences along the way.
Latoya was basic, but beautiful. With red velvet carpet, Venetian blinds, a big bed, camp stove and fluffy dice, she had everything we needed.
The plan was to drive Latoya to Alaska, but just 3 weeks before we were due to depart the driveshaft snapped while we were out buying supplies. As we sat on the ground watching a tow truck take her way for repairs, we took it as a sign that she wasn’t cut out for such a massive adventure.
We ended up selling Latoya for $500 and buying one-way tickets to Guatemala. Our van was gone, but the memories lived forever.
At the end of 2012 we were living in Margaret River in Western Australia and bought our second campervan, Big Randy – a 2004 Mitsubishi Express.
He was an upgrade to Latoya, with a fixed kitchen and little sitting area, and while we never lived full-time out of him, we loved going on week-long adventures around the state.
Big Randy got sold when we flew off to Southeast Asia to start our mission of travelling from Thailand to South Africa without taking a single flight. That’s where NOMADasaurus was born, and our travel blog soon became a business.
During our adventures, we rented campervans to explore Ireland, Chile and New Zealand, and we always talked about buying another campervan one day. But with our online businesses booming and us travelling internationally 365 days of the year, there was never any time for it.
At the beginning of 2020 the pandemic hit, and our international travels came to a halt. We decided to start our search for a campervan again, when we eventually came across a 2008 Mercedes 518CDI LWB super-high roof that was fully decked out. Check out the blog post of our van tour for more info.
We had originally wanted to build our own van, but not having a home or any tools meant we didn’t really have anywhere to do the conversion ourselves. The fact that this van was good to go was a real surprise, and we immediately bought her.
Now we’re travelling around Australia while we run the main business at NOMADasaurus, our digital marketing agency Peak Evolution Media, and exploring the best adventures and landscapes this country has to offer.
We love meeting up with fellow travellers and van lifers, so connect with us on social media and reach out if you ever want to grab a beer or go on a hike together. Happy travels!
Don’t forget to follow us on social media, where we share the real story of what it’s like travelling and living in a van full-time!