Meet Salty: the ultimate nomadic abode on wheels story

We are thrilled to introduce you to Salty! This nomadic abode has been meticulously crafted by its owners, Madie and Mark, who embarked on a journey and travelled in Salty for over a year. With their shared passion for adventure, they transformed Salty into their very own home on wheels, allowing them to traverse breathtaking landscapes, embrace the freedom of the open road and guess what? Salty is now available for hire so you too can experience their home on wheels.   We recently caught up with Mark and Madie to hear more about their adventures from fit out to full lap.

What inspired you to take on this bus renovation? And how long did it take?

We both love travelling (who doesn’t) and really wanted to explore more of Australia. Our original thoughts were to get a four wheel drive and do the top end, but that soon changed into wanting to do a full lap around oz. After exploring what vehicles were available and for the best value we soon fell in love with the idea of doing up a Toyota Coaster bus. In the end we loved our decision and wouldn’t have changed a thing and always recommend it when people ask. The comfortable amount of space in the bigger vehicle means that we have more room to move, cook, chill and keep out of the bad weather. We had the bus for about 4 months doing little tasks and planning before jumping into the conversion full time. With no experience in camper conversions or skills in any trades it took us about 3 months. It was super challenging and a big learning curve but looking back it was a great experience, we learnt so much and would happily do it again now with our new knowledge (now that we have forgotten all the blood, sweat, curses and tears lol).

What were the non-negotiables when designing and completing the fit out? And what's now your favourite feature?

When we were looking for the perfect bus it needed to have the big rear side door, this was a rare aftermarket design for wheelchair access. For us this was always going to be the key to beautiful sunsets and sunrises from bed. We also wanted to have as many homely things as we could but without sacrificing the open feel to the bus. This meant keeping a lot of the windows unobstructed so we could let as much of the outside in as possible! Other than that we really just wanted a comfortable bright space with a minimal feel. We managed to squeeze many features in that often surprised people we met on the road.

We both love cooking so we absolutely love our kitchen and all of its features including the big bench top and the oven. We know it sounds funny but we absolutely love our hallway space. It makes living in a bus so much nicer when you have freedom to move around and stretch out. There’s always enough space, whether you’re squeezing past the person cooking or inviting your new camp friends over for breakfast pancakes or even the occasional late night boogie, that spacious hallway takes the cake.

How long did you spend travelling around Aus in Salty?

We were travelling around in Salty full time for just over a year in which we made it right around Australia. Working on the road as we went. We both came back individually once to visit friends and family and even had some come visit us. We've been on a few more shorter stints since then back over to South Australia and here in NSW.

What was your favourite spot along the way?

This is a question we have been asked a lot and it is always so hard to answer! We’re going to be those guys and say there was no favourite, there are way too many to choose from! But a few spots we absolutely loved for different reasons are:

• The Eyre peninsula in SA has so many beautiful free camps right on the beach and you'll most likely have them all to yourself too. We had a fun surf with dolphins right out the front of the bus and caught some big fish too!

• Just North of Broome, WA. We met a great bunch of people here and spent 2 weeks camped up on the red cliffs with them cooking up delicious feeds, fishing and playing beach volleyball. An absolute core memory for us was our time spent with these gorgeous humans.

• Ningaloo reef, WA. Absolutely beautiful coastline with lots of coral and sealife, a must see.

• Esperance WA, oooof this place is unreal! Without a doubt the brightest bluest water we have ever seen, and again very quiet. We camped up here for a while and caught little longboard waves most days, fished and took in the unreal natural landscapes this place has to offer.

I'm sure you can see the pattern, we bloody loved our time in Western Australia. However, everywhere we went just seemed to have beautiful places to explore.

Any recommendations for people wanting to take on a bus fit out?

As cliche as it sounds, just do it and have a crack, you won’t regret it. You couldn’t have less experience than us when we first tried and it was the best thing we’ve done! You will learn a lot of new skills and at the end be able to look at what you created with your own hands! A mini home that you're about to have a blast in. There are so many people out there willing to give a helping hand and the adventures that await are well worth the stress and headaches. You can do it!