Living the van life in Australia - ‘it’s the things that don’t go to plan that become rosy-coloured memories’

Wet weather, home-brew coffee and cramped confines test the #vanlife dream, but the Great Ocean Road proves a bucket-list trip for an Irish backpacker...

Fionnuala and her trusty van (inset) and the Twelve Apostles (Getty)

Fionnuala Walsh

Like most Irish twenty-somethings, I was raised on what I now recognise to be sneaky Australian propaganda.

Shows like Home and Away and Neighbours took the prime after-homework and pre-dinner slots for a solid decade of our formative years, selling the sunny skies and bikini-clad beaches of Oz. Now our parents wonder why their children, exposed to these breezy seaside promises from a young age, are choosing Australia as their top emigration spot.