Feature: Earth With Us

One ray of light the pandemic has provided is an appreciation of one's own home and country. Without the ability to travel abroad, more people have settled into the idea that you can happily be a tourist in your own space. It's important to make the best of things and Alex and Taliah (@EarthWithUs), have surely done just that. Traveling by road across Australia provides stunning scenery and opportunities for adventure and if you're ever in doubt, just jump on their Instagram to live the Aussie road life vicariously through them. We're so thrilled to have our Sirocco II Elite onboard and hear about how it's making their time more comfortable. 

Where are you right now, where were you before and where are you going next? 

We have enjoyed travelling around Australia in 2020. We went from Melbourne all the way to the tip of Australia. We visited Thursday Island Bamaga. We loved travelling around the east coast of Australia. We are currently in Melbourne spending quality time with family. After travelling for most of 2020 it’s great to be back with family. At the end of this March, we are going to Tasmania for two weeks. We can’t wait to travel around in a van and view Tasmania‘s beautiful landscape.

Tell us about yourself. Why’d you choose your lifestyle? How long have you been at it? Any plans for the near future? Distant future? 

We have been dating for 2.5 years and after 18 months of been together we decided to buy a van and jump on the road to travel Australia. We decided to choose this lifestyle as we were young with the desire to explore and experience different things. Taliah will be starting her PhD in neuroscience in June 2021. We will balance travel and studying with our lifestyle. We love this lifestyle and want to create a similar one for the future together.

Tell us about your rig. How long have you had it, how much distance have you put on it, where have you taken it? 

We have a 1984 Toyota HiAce van. Her name is Chub. We’ve had Chub for a year and a half now. We have done about 18,000 km in Chub. We have done the whole east coast of Australia and Chub’s been a great van for it.

What product(s) of ours do you have onboard? How’s it working out for you? 

While travelling around the east coast of Australia we have had the Sirocco II Elite from SEEKR by Caframo. When we hit the top of Australia the temperature rose to 41° and we were lucky enough to have the Elite in our van. Made the nights a lot easier to sleep and the general experience a lot easier to enjoy. The fan was everything we could’ve imagined and more.

We found you through an online community you’re part of and seem to be actively involved with. What’s the vibe like these days? Are you finding more people are starting to live the way you are? 

After the pandemic we have found a lot of people valuing different things in life. And van life embodies all these things and more. We love meeting different van lifers on the road. Sharing different stories and van life hacks. We have shared the hack of having a Sirocco II Elite in your van to be very helpful.

It’s a weird time for the world. How have you been affected personally or how has your lifestyle changed recently? 

We couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to travel the east coast of Australia during the pandemic. Being from Melbourne, a state that was severely affected by the pandemic, we were very lucky to be travelling to the top of Australia during this time. Our lifestyle hasn’t changed but our view on life has definitely changed during this time. We appreciate the smaller things.