Overland Travellers' Matt and Holly know what it takes to live on the road, having been travelling full time for the last two years. Since then, their YouTube channel has taken of and their journey is not slowing down any time soon. We had a chat to Matt and Holly about how they got started and how they keep their dream life going.
How did Overland Travellers start?
In 2016, Matt’s Dad bought a new Toyota Hilux as his old one had a few issues. He told us if we wanted to fix the old one, we could have it. That’s how we came to own a 17-year-old farm truck with a hundred thousand miles on the clock. We soon realized that this old four-wheel drive could get us places that we couldn’t go before.
Living in Sydney at the time and getting a bit tired of the 9 to 5, we found ourselves camping more and more. Every weekend after going away camping, we would turn back towards Sydney and talk about how good it would be to go the opposite way and keep going. So, we picked a date 18 months in the future as our leave date, and slowly but surely set up our Hilux for overlanding and saved as much money as we could.
Matt has always had a passion for photography and during our first few camping trips he was getting more of an opportunity to get back into it. He was also watching a lot of YouTube at the time to see how other people were setting up their 4WD’s for travelling and overlanding so it wasn’t a huge stretch for us to decide to start our own channel for our trip, even if it was just our parents watching!
It's been two and a half years since we started our lap around Australia and we’re still going. We have built an amazing community of like-minded people who sit down and watch our videos every week and it’s been an awesome process.
Why do you think people love to tune into your YouTube channel?
Honestly, we just hope people genuinely enjoy it! We’ve been putting a lot of effort into the production quality lately, something we hope sets us apart from other touring channels. Besides that, I think the way people can watch what they want instead of whatever is on TV, and delivering a more genuine presentation of real-life people travelling are also factors of why people tune in.
What is the hardest part of the job?
YouTube being the way it is demands consistency in uploads and performance. There is definitely a large amount of pressure to upload new and exciting content regularly which has been hard over the past year.
What is the best part of the job?
We spend our time working hard but it’s exactly what we want to be doing. I think people find it so hard to achieve a work life balance that suits them, so for us it’s about combining the two. Always having adventures to look forward to and being creative are huge perks for us but we also really love the people we’ve met through the channel; some we consider lifelong friends.
How does someone get into the full-time travelling lifestyle? What is your number one tip?
If you can do your job online, push hard to make this a reality. Travelling is great but to do it full time you need to earn money while doing it. Now more than ever has proven that a lot of work can be done anywhere. But even if what you do can’t be done online, there are options. We know many people with trades that travel around and work in blocks or people that have a hobby like photography and make money that way. You just need to find a way to make money or do what we did; set a budget, save until you reach it, and travel for a set period.
What do you listen to on the drive?
A combination of things. We like Podcasts, Hamish and Andy is one of our favorites as well as Conversations or anything that catches our interest. Besides that, Audible is a great resource to listen to books. We did ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ in one sitting on a big drive and ‘Down Under’ by Bill Bryson was a great listen about Australia as we travelled around on our lap. Besides that, we make sure we have plenty of playlists downloaded on Spotify.
What are your top three tips when thinking about your vehicle’s electrics?
- Write down what gear you need to power and have a REDARC technician help you design a system to suit your needs.
- Have a way to monitor your state of charge. Knowing how much power you have left can save you a headache in the future.
- Spend the money and get the system you need. When we first started travelling Matt did a budget build himself. Long story short, it was a nightmare, didn’t really work, and was unnecessary stress while on the road. Having peace of mind in your setup is crucial and will ultimately save you money in the long run.
What’s your favorite camp cooked meal?
Tuna bucatini. Cheap, easy, fast, delicious, and all the ingredients can be canned. It’s always good to have tuna bucatini as backup!
Why do you feel makes the REDARC/Overland Travellers partnership so successful?
I could tell you about how good their gear is and how it’s changed the way we travel and work on the road (with all our camera and computer gear we need a reliable system) but honestly, REDARC are just great people to work with. They’re an Aussie company that is extremely passionate about what they do. We really appreciate the help that they have given our channel and audience, and the faith they had in us. For us that goes a long way.
To follow Matt and Holly on their adventures and learn a bit more about them you can find them on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. Watch their video below to learn a little more about their latest build, A HJ47 LandCruiser named Elsie.
