1500 Days On The Road | Remote and Isolated...still

1500 days. That’s how long it’s been since we packed up, hit the road, and started living life on our own terms. What began as a dream of semi-retirement and travel has turned into a full-blown lifestyle — filled with remote station gigs, dusty tracks, fishing trips, and plenty of lessons learned along the way. Australia has a funny way of humbling you, teaching you, and giving you moments that make you stop and say, “How good is this?”

September is always a special month for us — it marks the anniversary of the day we both quit full-time work and chose a life of semi-retirement. Looking back now, we can honestly call ourselves fully fledged semi-retirees! We’ve found our rhythm, settled into the lifestyle, and things are moving along even better than we imagined.

As I write this, it’s been over 4 years — 1500 days — of living life on our own terms. In that time, we’ve trekked across some of the most remote and beautiful parts of Australia, met some absolute legends along the way, and learned more about ourselves than we ever did working a 9 to 5.

These days we’ve found a bit of a groove with property caretaking, and it suits us perfectly for this chapter of our travels. We’ve got two more cattle stations to look after before we start making our way back toward the southwest of W.A. sometime in late 2026.

The Past 12 Months

The past year has been filled with remote living across the NT and Far North Queensland. We did manage a trip home to the Southwest W.A. over Christmas — catching up with family and friends, doing a bit of cray diving, slaying a few hezzas, and then trekking back up into the Top End.

We’ve been based on a property in Far North Queensland, which is more of a fishing retreat for a group of owners than a working station — and it’s been... interesting, to say the least. We’ve learned a lot up here — mostly about people, and a fair bit about ourselves too.

It’s been a unique opportunity and the fishing has been next level — but let’s just say I wouldn’t recommend the job to anyone else! You live and learn, hey.

Our Setup – The Dmax & The New Tiny Home

The old Dmax is still going strong, having just clocked over 105,000 km. We’ll be keeping it for a few more years yet, a few more mods to come — it’s been a solid all-rounder and continues to do the job brilliantly.

Earlier this year, we said goodbye to our old 1988 Viscount caravan after making the decision to buy a brand-new Snowy River SRC16. We ordered it back in December 2024 and finally picked it up a couple of months ago on the East Coast. It was a tough decision to buy new, but one that made sense for where we’re headed next.

We don’t feel the need to justify the upgrade to anyone — we just wanted something a little more self-sufficient. The new van has all the mod cons: onboard ensuite, air-con, and hot running water. It really feels like we’re towing a tiny home now, with everything we need to live comfortably on the road.

As we’ve always said, our setup is constantly evolving. We knew the old Viscount wouldn’t be our forever van — it got us out there, helped us learn what we needed, and guided us to the right choice. We did our homework, narrowed it down, and landed on one that ticked most of the boxes.👉 Check out our full Snowy River SRC16 walkthrough video [link below] for the full rundown.

The Next 365 Days

Next month we move on from “Fantasy Island” to our next adventure — heading closer to the NT border to look after a cattle station in the Queensland Gulf for our first wet season gig! It’ll be good to get back onto a big, working cattle station run by actual farmers. We’ll be there until around mid-April (weather pending), before heading back across into the NT to the property we looked after last year.

We’ve also got a few friends and family planning visits next year, which will be great — can’t wait to showcase such an epic part of Australia.

After our NT stint, we’ll be trekking back down to the Southwest to get ready for the 2026 Hezza Slaya World Champs in Augusta in early November — that’s going to be a cracker of an event!

Looking back on 1500 days of this life, we wouldn’t change a thing. Sure, it’s not always smooth sailing — the isolation, missing your friends and family, and those coastal windy days can test you — but the freedom makes it all worth it. We’ve traded routine for adventure, deadlines for sunsets, and commutes for campfires.

Here’s to the next chapter — more stations, more tracks, more memories, and maybe a few more fish along the way. Thanks for following our journey, Team. Until next time — trek, camp, hunt....everyday!

Thanks again everyone for all your support, we have some epic times planned for Year 5 and we can't wait to share the journey with ya'll.

Much Love,

Team Jelly.