Family's new life in ultimate $22K mobile home found on GumTree
Many of us dream of leaving it all behind - but this young Adelaide family is actually doing it.
Meet the couple who moved back in with their parents to save money to convert an old church-bus and travel Australia with their two young children indefinitely.
Concreter Dylan Bergamaschi, 23, and his wife Kallie, 25, got married in October 2017. They had an unusual honeymoon road tripping around the Canadian Rocky Mountains, before retreating to the beaches of Hawaii.
The couple enjoyed their trip so much that they decided to rent out their home and move back in with their parents to save up the funds needed to buy an ex-church bus.
They converted the ex-service vehicle into a modern, upscale eco-friendly home on wheels and now travel the country full-time in it.
The $22,500 ultimate travel home
Dylan and Kallie paid $13,500 for the bus and spent $9,000 on renovations. The bus has been set up to be totally off grid and runs completely on solar power.
After months of eagerly waiting and preparing their home, Dylan, Kallie and their son Lincoln, 4, moved onto the bus in August 2018.
The three travelled for four months before returning home for the birth of their youngest son Zephyr on 4 December 2018. They stayed there for a few months before moving back onto their bus full-time and have no set date to stop travelling.
“We’re a young family from South Australia that got a taste for adventure after our honeymoon,” Mr Bergamaschi said.
“Since then we’ve been chasing our next adventure which is a lap of our own beautiful country.
After searching for the right vehicle online, they got to work.
“We found our bus, Nelly, on Gumtree. She’s a 1984 Nissan Civilian ex 22-seater church bus and is seven metres long.
“It took us five months to make our home and she is totally off grid, complete with 450 watts of solar power and a 360AH battery bank,” he said.
‘It helped us to reconnect’
The journey has given their son, Lincoln a unique opportunity to grow in many ways most other children won’t get a chance to, his parents believe.
“Travelling on the bus has been great for the kids. We can’t quite tell with Zephyr yet because he’s a bit too young, but it’s been great for Lincoln.
“He learns so much on the road and has experienced things many people never will. Not only has he been able to do these exciting things but to our surprise he still remembers a lot of it.
The family do not plan to end their journey and so long as they can continue to support themselves, they feel like they want to travel forever.
“A huge cost saver while on the road is staying in low cost or free camps, but the problem with this is they have no booking or hold system, so it’s first come first served.”
If you happen to be sick of the daily grind, the family encourages you to think about taking up the van life.
“We think van life is something everyone should try out at some point in their lives. Living in such a small space means that you have to minimise your possessions and it teaches us we don’t need so much stuff.
“It helped us to reconnect with each other and our environment. You wake up in the morning, make your coffee, step outside and take it all in.”
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