Taking the Leap – How Our European Motorhome Dream Became Reality
For years, our dream of doing a motorhome tour across Europe felt like one of those half-spoken fantasies—something you'd talk about at dinner parties or while staring out the window on a stressful day. But during the pandemic, when the walls of our house felt tighter than ever and the world seemed so out of reach, that dream began to take shape. Slowly, then all at once, it became real.
It started with a spreadsheet — budgets, numbers, route ideas, timelines. And when we ran the numbers properly, we realised something wild: it would actually be cheaper to take this journey across Europe than to keep living in Australia, grinding away, paying for rent, childcare, utilities, and petrol (which, in holiday season, seems to double in price). The moment that realisation hit, it wasn't just a "crazy dream" anymore. It was possible. It was logical. And for the first time, it felt urgent.
So, we did something that still gives me goosebumps to say: we left our jobs.
For me, it was long overdue. My last role drained the life out of me — not because the company was bad or because my direct manager wasn't nice. He was and we're still mates now. But I was so caught up in the role, in the chaos, in the performance, that I became addicted to it. The hours were insane. The internal politics were worse. Eventually, I became what they call a “quiet quitter” — still there, still working, but emotionally done. I gave just enough, while slowly detaching from a job that had stopped giving back. And honestly? If it weren’t for one particularly toxic guy, I might’ve stayed stuck. But thanks to him being so bad, I finally hit the eject button. So, if you're reading this — thank you. You pushed me straight into my dream.
Gabby’s story was similar so yeah, here’s a lesson: sometimes the worst peope help us make the best decisions. Cheers to that!
What About the Kids?
Ah, the other big question. Our twins are just at that age where school starts to creep into the picture — the "prep" year in Australia. But it’s flexible. Some kids start at five, others at six. That window gave us the perfect moment. We thought, if we don’t do this now, when? Once school begins properly, you’re locked into the calendar, the holidays, the price hikes, the traffic. Ever tried driving the Sydney M1 from Hornsby to Brooklyn on a long weekend? It's basically a car park with lots of highway patrols.
So after one epic birthday party for the kids and a round of emotional goodbyes to grandparents, cousins, neighbours, and friends we took off!
Renting Out Our Home
We thought renting the house would be the easy part. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.
We decided to rent it fully furnished and quickly realised just how much stuff we had. It felt endless. Twenty to thirty carloads later, we’d filled up a self-storage unit to the brim. And then, just to spice things up, a cyclone and massive flooding hit our area. As we were boxing books, we were boarding windows. As we were folding clothes, we were reinforcing fences. It was chaos. We were working from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. and honestly, without our amazing friends and family I don’t think we would’ve made it.
One of the hardest parts was saying goodbye to my car — my Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in hybrid 4x4 project baby. Instead of locking her away, I asked a good friend to keep her, drive her, and enjoy her. There’s a great option in Australia to insure a car in your name while someone else drives it. Allianz, AMI, ING Bank, and even Budget offer these kinds of policies. It gave us peace of mind and kept her on the road.
Telling Friends and Family
When we first started telling people about the trip, the reactions were... expected. A few raised eyebrows, some polite nods, and a lot of “yeah, sure bro…” But once we left our jobs, rented out our house, and packed our lives into bags, it became real to everyone else too. Our parents got nervous. Our friends got excited. And everyone — everyone — wanted to hear how it was going.
That’s why I started this blog. And why Gabby launched her blog. It’s not just about documenting the journey — it’s about sharing the realness, the chaos, the beauty, the breakdowns, and the breakthroughs. It’s for our friends, our family, and for anyone sitting at their desk dreaming of the wide open road.
If you’re out there reading this, hey friends! We miss you! One person who surprised me is my former colleague who I’ve remained friends with. While enjoying a cold brew in Manly overlooking the sunset he told me his story, how he missed doing the same trip but didn’t and “Now I regret it, because my kids are in the system and I lost that opportunity” he said. That conversation stayed with me. It reminded me that we did take the leap. We chose to live our dream, not just dream it.
So here we are. In the airport. 16 bags. Two buzzing kids. Nervous smiles. Full hearts.
Scared? A little.
Exhausted? Definitely.
Excited? Absolutely.
Ready? 100%.
This is us — taking our lives back, one kilometer at a time!