As the vanlife community grows up, a new generation is being born into the bohemian travelling lifestyle. Doosie Morris meets the couples who take their lives, and babies, on the road
In October 2020, 34-year-old Karstan Smith had just returned from a 15,000km drive. Four months earlier the Newcastle native had set off in a 1968 Kombi panel van with his childhood sweetheart, Maxine, and their baby daughter, Zuri, and headed north. Within a week of being home, he’d thrown out 90% of his clothes, purchased a map of Australia and a box of thumbtacks and started planning the next family adventure.
For most parents the first year of family life is a wild enough ride in its own right, the very steepest of learning curves, never mind enduring the whole discombobulating scenario while living in the back of a van.