2019 was the year where I collected a big part of my worst travel moments. Partially because I moved into a van while road-tripping Australia, but mostly because my name is Sonia and I am very good at gathering embarrassing and scary moments.
I am fully aware that some of those worst travel moments could have been easily avoided with a little bit of thinking and planning, but experiencing non-necessarily happy moments are still part of living and, most importantly, of travelling.
Writing this blog post made me laugh at what once I considered the worst day of my life and, to be honest, I cherish those moments because made life a bit unusual and, once the epic fail was gone, funnier too.
8) The broken rear windscreen
It was almost winter in Sydney, and my boyfriend and I were working every day, trying to save as much as possible to start travelling again. We were not particularly enjoying that period because of the cold and busy lives, but we had to go through.
One evening, as I was working, I got a text message saying “the rear windscreen broke, I am so sorry, see you later”. Wait, what? How did the windscreen break? what happened?!
Turned out my boyfriend had just finished working and was getting ready to pick me up. As he was facing the wrong direction, he had to turn our van and, in the making, he hit the parking pay station standing in a blind spot.
The rear windscreen exploded completely and pieces of glasses were literally everywhere: on the ground, in our kitchen, even in the bed!
After realizing there was no time to freak out, he cleaned all the glasses from the streets and went to pick me and told me this story all over again, this time freaking out a bit. He looked so depressed but, honestly, I was feeling worse for not being there and support him!
In the end, things didn’t end so bad. We slept for a couple of nights with the broken windscreen, covered by a black garbage bag and a white blanket, but it wasn’t a big deal.
Driving in the highway made this episode one of the worst travel moments! Every single car was watching us and having no rear windscreen meant we had an extremely noisy and cold ride to the mechanic!
A few days later we had a shiny, brand new windscreen and we had a big laugh on this unfortunate episode!
7) “Not placing the seatbelts correctly”
We had just finished our farm works and we were rushing towards freedom and society. As we were approaching our first “populated” city, I glimpsed into from the rearview mirror and realized the police was just behind us, with its fleshlights turned on.
I pulled over and two police officers approached us to speak with us separately. The officer I was talking with was really nice, he was from Uganda and we were basically blasting compliments over Australia and its wonderful weather, therefore I assumed everything was alright.
As he left and went consulting with his colleague, my boyfriend looks at me and says “they are fining me for not placing my seatbelt correctly”.
This is when I knew I was about to add another worst travel moment to my list!
Obviously, both of us were wearing seatbelts but, apparently, his seatbelt was overhanging his shoulder, and he was fined $400! As a driver, I “should be responsible for every passenger’s seatbelt” and I got cautioned as well.
Welcome back to society.
6) When the dogs ate my clothes
We were in Sydney, house-sitting two cats and two insane dogs for the first time. One dog, Selkie, was extremely hyperactive and had a biting problem (alongside with many more problems, but that’s another story).
She was going through a very intensive training we had to keep up but, since she was still a puppy, she didn’t really give a shit she was still very playful.
One morning we woke up, and my leggings were gone. Completely ripped off and, from an objective perspective, no one could possibly tell if that piece of fabric was once possible to wear (and if so, how?).
This slightly bothered me but, at the same time, it was my fault as I left them nearby that biting beast the dog. It was quick to forgive and forget.
Expect that, the next day, my favourite t-shirt was gone. With last day’ same criteria, the crazy dog had destroyed every single part of my beloved singlet which was now laying in the trash.
But that’s okay, right? Clothes are just things, this shouldn’t bother me.
This quickly became my routine, as everyday something was ripped off, smashed, eaten (and then vomited of course) and I was throwing everything in the trash, completely defeated.
This routine turned into one of the worst travel moments when I woke up and realized my only pair of SHOES was gone. As for the rest of my clothes, they were ripped off from inside out, all around the house. I cried.
My already small wardrobe was halved, my shoes were nonexistent, and my sadness turned into anger. In fact, I stopped talking to Selkie (yes, I was that mad) until, one week later, I picked my shoes back from the repairing shop, and they were not that bad.
5) Ride with an Aussie spider
If you follow me on Instagram, then you probably know everything about this one already, but here’s the full story anyway.
We were in Canberra, heading to a shopping centre for getting some food. As we were driving, we saw this black, medium-sized, hairy spider slipping from the outside of our rooftop to the front windscreen.
No big deal, I might have screamed only a couple of times but everything was alright, it was outside after all. We agreed on removing the monster without killing it but, as obvious as it may seem, we lost it.
The best idea was to get some food and, once back, we had completely forgotten about the spider. In the following days, we wandered around Canberra, caught up with a friend, had some stealth camping and arrived in Sydney, where we were about to start our regular vanlife routine.
We were chatting about how wonderful was to be back in Sydney, in our favourite spot, having breakfast in the park… As I reached for my glass, the same black, hairy spider came out from nowhere and was hanging on the curtains, right next to where I had slept for two whole days!
This time, we agreed on setting our van on fire capturing the motherfucker and torture it, which luckily turned out easier this time. After taking a huge breath in, we compared the various pictures we had taken both in Canberra and Sydney and, thanks to the universe, we were able to confirm it was the same spider!
4) Got locked out of the van on a total fire ban day
Our first trip with our brand new van was along the Great Ocean Road, and marked the beginning of my worst travel moments series. The Great Ocean Road is arguably the most famous road trip, where we were able to drive extremely close to the ocean, explore wonderful and ancient rock formations, and get ourselves locked outside of the van, first thing in the morning.
To be completely fair, this happened a couple of weeks after we purchased our van, so we were still adjusting and were not really experienced.
Last summer was boiling hot and, probably to avoid bush fires emergencies like this year, a total fire ban was taking place in Victoria and New South Wales, which made our experience even more unfortunate.
To get straight to it, we picked probably the most remote campground available and had a wonderful evening. The next morning, we decided to take a shower using our solar shower and, by doing so, we firmly closed the door, realizing our keys were locked inside, together with everything else.
Half-naked, speechless, and confused, we were standing in front of our window, looking at both of our keys, laying on the driver seat. What a nice way to start our van life.
After what seemed like an eternity, we finally got our shit together and borrowed a phone from our neighbours – which were more confused than us but extremely kind and helpful.
We called a range of 20 numbers and finally were able to convince a locksmith agency to drive 2 hours in the highway, + 1 hour in the bush and rescue us for the ridiculously expensive price of $300.
After spending a bit more than three hours in the boiling heat, watching kangaroos and drinking water, the locksmith arrived and, in less than 60 graceful seconds, the van was opened and ready to go.
I’ve literally never spent $300 so quick, and this was basically the only reason why I was so upset. I guess I learned the lesson!
3) Running out of petrol in the middle of the night
Once again, I’d like to fully disclose that this happened at the very beginning of our van life journey (specifically, a couple of days prior to lock ourselves outside the van, the irony).
Anyhow, you can’t say you have lived on the road until are in a forest, it’s 11.30 PM, and you realize you are running out of gas.
Honestly, I don’t know how we had survived without the App Fuel Map Australia, which tells you all petrol stations available complete with prices and reviews. As you’ve probably guessed, we weren’t even aware that such a thing could exist.
What happened, was that we were driving in search of a gas station, our last hope, just for finding it completely shut down. We were already getting ready to sleep nearby and wait for it to open the following morning, but we saw a car parked not far from us and decided to ask for help.
The guy in the car told us to follow him ’cause he “knew a place”. It was dark already, and it getting creepy too, but we took a leap of faith and followed him.
We drove for maybe 20 minutes in a dark and super narrow street, until we arrived in front of a house. There, he left his car and went inside, leaving us a bit confused and afraid of what would happen next.
Turned out the guy, named Raphael, was extremely generous and had led us to his place, where he had a thank of petrol for us! He was being so kind for no reason, and he even refused us to pay for it.
Among all the possible ways this could have ended, I was still in awe for Rapahel’s kindness. Amazing things happen when you trust the humans out there!
2) Being caught living in the van by my manager
I believe this was an inevitable part of my worst travel moments, and it would have happened anyway at a certain point. Or at least, in my mind had happened already multiple times, so I was mentally ready.
It was my fifth and last month in Sydney when my manager caught me making a milkshake in the van, right before starting my shift.
He just waved at me and kept walking, leaving me with the desire of hiding under a rock and spend my whole shift there.
When I took all my courage and finally went to work, he started making jokes about me living in the van, which I was trying to deny one by one, without much success.
Living in a van had been a dream for years, and I am extremely proud of me for finally been able to accomplish it. However, I thought it would have been smarter to keep this for my self in my workplace.
In the end, I gave up and confessed, and he promised me he would have kept my secret. Not that bad, to be honest.
1) Dealing with a drunk Australian man
Among all of the worts travel moments, this one is the less funny and actually quite sad, I still get mad sometimes.
Anyway, my boyfriend had just finished work and we were driving back “home”. As we were waiting for the light traffic to turn green, someone, out of nowhere, decided to open our slide door and started to watch and touch everything inside.
I had no idea something like this could actually happen, and as I turned my head I saw him looking at me with this “I know I am so funny” expression which made me want to hurt the drunk man.
The last thing I remember is my boyfriend jumping out of the car, pushing away the dumbass and listen to him insulting European backpackers and mocking us for no reason, while all his friends thought it was the funniest thing on Earth.
This probably lasted less than three minutes, as the light turned green and we drove away as quickly as possible.
I left this episode as the last one not because is the worst travel moment, but because I don’t enjoy thinking about that night, and I procrastinated until it had to be done.
Truth is, this is one of those worst travel moments that you can’t predict, where you have to face so much human ignorance that it almost hurts. The man probably had the time of his life and thought that opening a stranger’s car, where people actually live and consider as a home, was funny.
When we arrived at the park where we were about to sleep, both of us were silent and couldn’t stop thinking about it. It’s crazy how small things like this won’t let you focus on the rest of the day, and you would rather move it to your junk folder.
Anyway, the good thing is that a few days after that night, we were already able to talk about it without feeling angry and sad, and now we can even have a laugh about it!
What were your worst travel moments of 2019? Let me know in the comments!
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4 Responses
I know these are some of your worst moments… but in the future they shall become some of your most memorable moments and smile.
Thank you so so much!! They are already part of my most cherished travel moments, I think its through the hard times that you can make some really great moments 🙂
Thank you for sharing! I know that at the time I would have not been a happy camper if these things happened to me! Thank you for reminding me that some of my best memories on my own trips were the ones that didn’t go well at first or go as planned!
Ohh thank you so much Kayla! Happy to know I inspired someone else and glad to hear you had your fair share of unplanned events! As you said, those are the best memories!!