I’d like to introduce you to Amy and Sarah, the two parts that make MOOSKi Adventures; twin sisters who quit their day jobs to pursue their passion.
I met Amy and Sarah when they were two weeks into their open-ended trip around Australia, and I was lucky enough to meet them for a few adventures of our own once I joined in on the van life!
We (very) quickly became friends, bonding over our love for the simple things in life and taking those big leaps of faith. When my own trip came to a sudden halt (RIP COCO YOU MOTOR-EXPLODING MF) Amy and Sarah invited me for two weeks in their own van to keep on exploring the Northern Territory.
When I meet women like Amy and Sarah, the first thing I want to do is introduce them to everyone I know. They have an absolutely infectious thirst for adventure and life in general; with most of our days spent climbing some sort of mountain and our nights spent by the campfire discussing all of our future goals.
It’s funny, the older I get, the better I get at finding people like Amy and Sarah. You just know they’re keepers. I would encourage every single one of you to head to their profile and see the amazing work they do, you can really feel how much they love it.
Who are MOOSKi Adventures and what do you do?
We are twins Amy and Sarah, living out our dreams of lapping Australia in our self-built camper ’Betty’. We work as photographers and videographers on the road to help fund the travels and build the MOOSKi Brand.
What does a week in the life of MOOSKi Adventures look like?
A week with us consists of shooting new photo and video for personal projects, lots and lots of editing, lots and lots of eating, meeting new people, exploring epic new places and pitching to potential clients.
What made you want to quit your regular jobs to travel and create MOOSKi?
We felt like we couldn’t go much further in our hospitality jobs and we both have an extreme passion for travel. We loved taking photos on past trips and we craved full-time travel, so finding a way to combine both photography and travel became our biggest motivation.
Vanlife came up in conversation and it was a no-brainer. We always wanted to try out van life and travel our own country, so two months later we bought Betty – our home on wheels!
How do you make money from MOOSKi adventures?
We make money by providing photography and videography content for Tourism companies, events, campaigns and brands, as well as some blogging and social media marketing.
We also have our own range of MOOSKi Merchandise with 10% of proceeds from our ‘Mandala’ Collection being donated to animal welfare organisations.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to do something similar?
For starting a business/running a business on the road, the best advice we could give is to follow your heart, make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons and that it truly makes you happy, regardless of the money or following.
For starting vanlife – buy/build/convert a vehicle that is best suited to your needs (location of travel plans, on/off road/your budget, your knowledge and skills.) A good combo of these and you can absolutely be living the dream.
Is there anything about your old life that you miss?
Even though we have each other, we do miss seeing our family and friends often, but we can always message, facetime, or even have a guest visit in Betty!
What’s been the hardest part of travelling/living in a van and trying to make money from your creative pursuits?
There is nothing about van life itself that is too hard for us, as we are quite minimalistic. It’s a given that sometimes you will go a while without a hot shower/shower, and not see your family or friends, but when we are out exploring the country and meeting new friends, it is a small sacrifice for living this lifestyle, and there is nothing we would change.
As for running MOOSKi Adventures on the road there have been some harder parts to it, we struggled with internet connection and service, always trying to hunt down free wifi before finally upgrading our phone plans, and some states have little to no service which made it a little hard but not impossible.
Being freelance workers you never know when your next paycheck will come in so there is the pressure to pitch and find work, but before we left on the trip we did save a fund to help us out, but still with the intent to work on MOOSKi and build the brand over the course of our trip.
Can you tell us about a big dream you have?
It is our dream to continue travelling full-time internationally with our photography and videography work. We would love to work with international travel brands, and even start our own travel workshops in locations around the world, where people come to learn our tips on photography and videography.
Do you set goals and who keeps you accountable?
We are big believers in the fact that goals are the stepping stones between your reality and your dreams! We are lucky have each other to keep on top of our goals and we keep each other inspired and motivated to work harder to achieve them.
Was there any part of you that feared making that decision? Taking the leap? What helped in that situation?
We didn’t have a single fear about the travel side of things, we are our happiest when on the road and it doesn’t worry us at all…but as for running the business on the road this was new ground, we didn’t know how we would go when leaving the contacts we had in NSW but what helped the situation was having each other, and no matter what happened we had each other to fall back on and that gave us the confidence to take the leap.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
To spend more time doing things you love and less time doing things you don’t and to be grateful for all you have.
What’s the worst advice you’ve ever received?
Being told we HAD to go to University and HAVE a well paying job to be successful and happy. We never went to University but worked hard and saved our money to travel for months at a time and decided to turn our passion for travel and photography into a business instead. We are the happiest we’ve ever been!
Biggest fuck up?
Working ourselves too hard to the point of physical exhaustion and mental breakdowns. We have learnt to take it easier on ourselves and live a more balanced life, also noticing the signs earlier and prioritising our health and happiness before anything else.
CANVAST QUICK FIRE QUESTIONS
What would you be doing if you weren’t travelling and doing Mooski adventures?
We feel we would always be travelling no matter what, whether it be in hospitality or another path. We always loved the idea of owning our own bar/cafe.
Paper and pen or tech?
Both. We use pen and paper for sketching our designs, goal setting, mind maps, and trip planning but use tech for general lists.
Messy or organised?
Organised – We feel lost without having everything in order.
What does a regular day consist of for you?
A big breakkie to start the day off, followed by some laptop work, catching up on editing or emails, then relaxing or exploring the area we are currently in.
Fav music track at the moment?
Loving Tash Sultana, listening to her new album.
Perfect weekend?
Surrounded with friends and family in a beautiful nature spot, listening to music and having a feast!
Secret vice?
We both have a horrific track record for being late!
Out and proud vice?
Gratitude thoughts on the daily
Plan ahead or wing it?
We do a bit of both..
With our travels we used to plan down to the day and now we have completely switched and it is now 20% planning and 80% winging it.
For business we do a lot of planning, mind mapping our brand ideas and where we want MOOSKi to be in the next 2 – 5 years etc, we can’t wing it too much as we need an income to keep us going!
Fav book/podcast?
Sarah loved ‘The Power of Now’ and Amy prefers auto-biographies, a favourite being Anthony Keidis’ Scar Tissue or anything MJ. On the road we have been listening motivational podcasts but also enjoy the True Crime podcasts as it keeps us super alert on the long drives..
Next adventure destination?
After we complete our lap of Australia we hope to take Betty over to New Zealand for 6 months.
You can find Amy and Sarah on Instagram @mooski_adventures