AdVANtures

As mentioned in my previous post, Living like a nomad, there are quite a few budget-friendly ways to find accommodation while living like a nomad.

I decided to dig into the unconventional option of meeting someone online and met up with someone I swiped right on a dating app.

WAIT, ISN’T THAT LIKE SUPER DANGEROUS? 😮

Of course, it can be. But I was cautious and checked a few things before running off to an adventure with a complete stranger.

The way I see it, it’s basically the same as meeting someone in a hostel or through a Facebook group and travel with them for a while. As long as you discuss your intentions and ask the other person to keep an open mind, it can be quite an adventure. And in my case, it was one heck of an adVANture.

The van 🚐

Do you know that feeling where you meet someone, and you know you’ll get along within the first five minutes of talking to them? Lucky for me, this is how it felt meeting my fellow traveler who is cruising through Australia in his van. Being Aussie himself, he knew his way around the area pretty well which meant I could just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

What a revelation to meet someone with a like-minded attitude and a “let’s just pretend it’s going to work out and lock us in for a trip in a van and see how that goes” mindset. I am exactly the same, but up until then I was considered ‘kinda weird’ for it. At least I wasn’t the only weird one on this trip.

Anyways, moving on. We met up in South Yarra, Melbourne, where he picked me up with his van. How I knew which van to look out for? In a city full of big white vans, a big dark blue one with a bright yellow Betta electrical graphic on the side was pretty hard to miss.

Off we went. On to the first adventure of the day, which was figuring out what to do with our lives in general. No, just kidding, we did that too, but we also stopped in Mornington for a takeaway chai, a toilet break, a peak into Australian beach life and planning the next few days of the trip.

After deciding I was going to start a new platform dedicated to my love for chai latte, we documented the whole second round of ordering and drinking the chai lattes. We were getting quite comfortable around each other, which helped, especially myself. I can be a bit of an awkward potato from time to time. Just wait until I launch my platform and you’ll know what I mean.

The interesting thing about the place we were going to explore next, Sorrento, just a bit further down the road from Mornington, is that it’s located at the eastern end of the bay that’s around Melbourne. This meant that the walk to the absolute furthest point, Fort Nepean, was insanely beautiful at sunset. It almost felt like the sun set in the ocean and the water was extremely wild on one side and pretty calm on the other side of the pier.

On the hike from the parking ground to Ford Nepean, there were a lot of sights like ‘yet another’ London Bridge, which we climbed. Brave little Domi, right? Honestly, this was completely influenced by my travel companion, but it was the best influence I could ask for on a trip like this. By taking a little detour to go to London Bridge, we extended our walk by about 1,5 hours. We saw a beautiful ghost town on the way there which was petty creepy looking when we passed it in the dark later that night.

Speaking of creepy, there are these dungeon like tunnels underneath the ford you can walk through, which I would not recommend to the faint hearted.

The view up there was amazing though.

The walk back to the van was pretty magical since the stars started to appear and it was close to a full moon. We walked backwards to enjoy the last views of the color pallet produced by the sunset and saw a few wallabies by the side of the road.

After returning to the campsite, we had dinner in the van, which we parked at a campsite next to the ocean. There was no actual view of the ocean, but there was the sound and the idea which made it worth the experience.

Just to confirm your thoughts: yes, this story is pretty much any adventurous backpacker’s wet dream. Getting picked up by a stranger, have a great connection, go on adventurous trips, sleep in a van and feeling safe and at ease while exploring and testing personal limits.

What a great trip.

Xoxo Domi