Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
As they are expanding into healthcare testing, REMEDI HEALTH required a brand new website to suit their new service. Together with web designer Jack Purdie at ADVRT Marketing, I wrote the copy for the site, ready for it to go live.
To read more, please go to https://remedihealth.co/ !
This landing page was created as a touchpoint for restaurant and food businesses who might want to become Doordash partners.
It draws the potential customer in, helps to educate and reassures them that it will be a worthwhile move for their business. Aspirational language and abundant CTAs are used throughout.
*** Note: This is a speculative ad. I have no affiliation with Doordash, nor was I paid to create this landing page***
Let’s work together.
Scubago is a brand new scuba diving website that aims to provide information on dive centers, liveaboards and the very best diving destinations. Created by liveaboard.com, there was a lot of products to describe!
Word counts were limited so I had to ensure that places and products were represented fully in a succinct manner.
I have written hundreds of thousands of words for Scubago, but much of the site is still under construction. Here is one example of an article.
InvoiceBerry needed a skilled blog writer to create cornerstone content for their blog. I wrote fully SEO optimised blogs which have gained a lot of traffic. Click through the image below to read the full article.
I began working with Scubaotter in December 2019 as a content writer for their website. In early 2020, I was approached by the owner, Austin, who wanted to expand into social media and specifically, Instagram.
Since then, I have formed a content plan for Scubaotter, researched the best performing posts in the scuba diving niche and helped optimise hashtags for growth. The captions are in keeping with the brand voice and engagement throughout the niche has lead to huge growth in a short space of time.
I am incredibly proud of my work on this account and we expect it to continue to grow steadily!
Check out our Insta feed below! And be sure to give us a follow…
I began working with Gili Divers during my Digital Marketing Internship with Paradise Interns. They were an established dive shop on the tiny Indonesian island of Gili Trawangan and were known for having a big personality.
I helped to finesse their brand guidelines in order to nail their voice, values and overall style. We incorporated important design elements for future marketers to follow, as well as specific uses of brand voice.
All of these helped me enormously in the next 6 months when I ran their social media accounts, wrote blogs, oh, and became a Divemaster! I enabled them to increase their online bookings, TripAdvisor ranking and increased their Instagram following by over 56%.
Not all of the brand guidelines are included below, feel free to message if you have any specific questions!
When I was working with Gili Divers, I was approached by the manager with Jill to help design a new flyer for the shop as the old one was outdated and didn’t represent the fun, playful branding!
The concept was a leaflet showcasing our diving services that served a double function as a map of the island. This would ensure it was seen as useful by customers and made sure that we were at the forefront of their minds.
I worked with the talented designers at Kakadu Creative to create this new leaflet which will be found front-of-house at the dive shop. The copy had to be concise and informative, whilst still showing personality.
If you’re still with me, you’ll remember that at the end of Part 2, I had finally figured out the car situation.
So… On a rainy Tuesday morning, I started the long trek to Travellers Autobarn to get my car. Let me just say right now: walking to a train station, getting two subways and a bus and then walking a mile in the pouring rain with a 25kg pack isn’t as fun as it sounds. Or maybe it’s exactly as fun as it sounds. I digress.
After drying off in the portacabin and watching my debit card physically cringe away from the card machine, I finally had my little car. First stop: Aldi.
Yes, yes I know, very exciting. But I filled that car with as much pasta, tinned goods and dried milk powder (a very Australian thing?) as I could carry and I was proud of my apocalypse-worthy food shop.
From there, I intended to head straight up into the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately, fate wasn’t giving me much luck here. The forecast for the whole week was scheduled to be freezing cold and pouring with rain.
There was no way to double back and do it later because I was headed south. I put my big girl pants on and remembering the army’s stock phrase of “skin is waterproof”, I thought:
Screw it – how bad can it be?
Well, as it turns out pretty bad. I don’t think it stopped raining for 3 days. Take a look at how beautiful the panoramas in the Blue Mountains can be.
Idyllic, right? Now take a look at my view…
Idyllic, right? Now take a look at my view…
Once I was there, I thought I may as well make the most of it and spent a very pleasant few hours wrapped up in my puffer jacket (in hindsight, a bad choice – very warm, not very waterproof…) and bright blue, oh-so-cool tourist cagoule, wandering around the picturesque trails.
Well, they would have been picturesque if I hadn’t been walking inside a literal cloud. I’m also no longer sure my skin is waterproof, I certainly felt waterlogged after a few hours.
That evening I was searching, later than planned, for a campsite. I found two within driving distance, but both were:
- Very expensive – think holiday chalets
- Closed for the evening
So, now I had a problem. I found a carpark on WikiCamps which was technically closed to overnight visitors but I had to risk it in lieu of any other choices. I parked up and got set up for the night. Every headlight made my heartrate shoot through the roof as I half expected the police to come and arrest me.
Lying in “bed”, eating a peanut butter sandwich and watching Queer Eye under a sleeping bag to hide the glow of the screen has been one of my more unexpected moments on the road.
I really needn’t have worried. It was a deserted little carpark and by the time I finally fell asleep, there were 4 other campervans doing the same thing.
Nevertheless, I woke up super early in fear of being kicked out. I ate my breakfast overlooking the water, trying to look as innocent as possible!
I was planning on remote working, writing for liveaboard.com, whilst I did my drive. This was the first test of my grand, and financially essential, plan. I had discovered that my UK travel sim was not only speed limited but couldn’t it hotspot – thanks a bunch O2.
Today’s office: a chicken joint in a shopping center because it was the only place with an accessible plug point. And yeah, I was that asshole who made fries and a lemonade last for 4 hours…
Oh this van life is glamorous, don’t deny it. Sleeping illegally, showering in a sink and working in a fast food joint in the space of 24 hours? Stop it…
Next stop: Jervis Bay
Last year I drove across Australia from Sydney to Perth – alone.
Everyone has an opinion on travelling alone, and for every expression of excitement or admiration, there were the negative Nancy’s – Aren’t you worried you’ll be lonely? Are you sure you can put up with yourself for that long? Aren’t you scared?
These genuine questions from people prepared me for some of the worst, and inevitable moments of travelling alone – the loneliness and yes, occasional fear.
But…
There were a few surprise discoveries along the way, both good and bad, that I hadn’t expected from my solo road trip.
1. The Playlist
Right, this is literally what the navigator is for – maps, snacks and sorting the music! It’s just about ok (and legal? I think?) to press the next button but what happens when you’re just done with the whole playlist? Gone are the days when you can pop out a CD, changing Spotify playlists requires thought, and a little bit of concentration.
Truthfully, it’s easier just to pull over but it is a huge pain. Queuing up dozens (sometimes hundreds to be honest…) of songs is the way forward. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail and all that.
2. The Money
The more you drive you realise – most people road trip with a buddy because it’s damn expensive to do it alone! Obviously, the petrol is your responsibility – and it adds up quickly when you’re doing big mileage in a station wagon from the 90s.
However, the little things that you don’t think are expensive – like $5.00 for a carpark. Now, split 4 ways, its small fry. But when you’re visiting a few national parks a week and you have to pay $5 (at least) each time, it adds up. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t skip a few because funds were running low!
3. The Sleeping Space
Aw yeah buddy! That tiny little space that the rental company could sleep 3? Not when you’re by yourself – that is prime starfishing real estate.
To be completely transparent, I did not have enough room to starfish at all, but it was nice to know that if I’d completely rearranged the car or risked leaving more things outside overnight, then I could’ve.
4. The Cold
I guess this one is location and season dependent… But good god, no one tells you that Melbourne reaches freezing point in September! With no other body heat to help warm the car, there were a few nights where I woke up in the middle of the night with a nose like ice and had to run the engine to defrost the inside of the windows.
A hot water bottle (and both of the sleeping bags that came with the car…and my coat) was my best friend. I also got really jealous of travellers I saw with dogs, purely because I wanted something big and warm to spoon!
5. The Washing Up
You literally always have to do the washing up. Everytime you cook. Twice, maybe three times a day. And if you leave it overnight? It’s still there in the morning. The audacity.
Sidenote:
If you leave washing up outside overnight in Australia, you might wake up in the night to find a kangaroo and a possum quietly sharing the congealed baked beans in your pan. I left them to it.
6. The Decisions
I know it’s a stereotype that women can never choose what to have for dinner, and it’s never really been a problem I had. But making every single decision for weeks on end is really, really exhausting.
What to eat and what to buy is the easy bit, you’re pretty limited by a lack of fridges and freezers anyway. But where to go! You have to pick the itinerary everyday, find somewhere (preferably free) to sleep that’s not miles out of the way, decide when to take a detour to a swimming pool or proper campsite for a shower, Spotify playlists… It’s surprisingly exhausting and after a while I started fantasizing about someone telling me what to do!
7. The Singing
Alright the truth: I get performance anxiety whilst singing in the car with other people. There, I said it. It’s not that I have a bad voice, I can hold a tune, I’m just never sure what level of enthusiasm is appropriate to give Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” in front of other people…
Alone on the other hand… Girl, you belt out that early noughties emotional ballad, there’s no-one to judge you now!
8. The Gross-ness
I won’t get too detailed with this one because, well, who wants to know? But suffice to say that, when you’re road tripping Australia on a budget, free campsites are the way forward. And most of the free campsites have no shower facilities and only long drop toilets. I imagine in the summer it’s easier as you can use the beach showers, but it’s not that appealing when it’s 8oC…
Let’s be honest, there were more than a handful of times when showers didn’t happen for a couple (loose term) of days and baby wipes came in very handy… But was anyone around to smell me? I rest my case.
9. The Elderly
Well, it was bound to happen eventually. After a while, even the sound of your own voice sounds
It’s a very popular thing in Australia that older couples buy a caravan and spend their twilight years driving around the country, basically doing whatever they like. I always felt a little scruffy next to their sleek camper vans in my beat-up, dust-stained old Ford.
But, without exception, whenever I pulled up next to one of these rolling retirement homes, I would always be greeted by the couple, and usually their dogs. They were always friendly and usually very curious about why a young girl would want to drive alone across this vast country. The explanation often elicited rheumy-eyed anecdotes of their exploits during the 60s…
Curiosity was normally followed up by offers of food, drinks or use of their microwave and I spent more than one evening chatting with these couples over a mug of tea. I think they felt a grandparent’s responsibility for me and I was always surprised at how generous and accepting they were.
10. The Views
Driving across Australia, some of the views are simply breathtaking. Looking down the Bunda Cliffs – huge, towering cliffs that seem to go on forever – is a truly humbling sight. As is gazing out over the cobalt coloured Southern Ocean and knowing but there’s nothing but water between you and Antarctica.
I won’t deny, though, that there were times when I saw something that made me laugh, or smile that I didn’t miss having someone to share it with.
I arrived in Sydney in the spring. It was the 11th of September and, after Indonesia, it was damn cold though admittedly in a fresh, burgeoning sort of way. Blossom was everywhere and the days held the promise for warmth, whilst the evenings held a cold bite.
I spent a pleasant few days wandering around Sydney and doing all the sightseeing including the Opera House, Bondi Beach and some coastal walks including a very, very cold swim at one of the coastal pools. Luckily, one of my best friends, Zack, was living in Sydney at the time and we spent a pleasant few afternoons on the beaches and in the bars whilst he educated me on the local wildlife – mainly the sheer number of flies and the ibis, affectionately known as bin chickens.
A particular highlight for me was a whale watching tour which I got on a ridiculously good Groupon deal. For only $48, I spent a good 3 hours out on the Southern Ocean looking for migrating humpback whales, who were heading south for the warm summer months. Despite leaving the city in 28-degree humidity (and with about 20 seasickness pills in my system), outside the harbour, the wind was whipping from the south and it quickly plummeted to a damn chilly 10 degrees or so. Along with a few other boats, we got lucky with a mother and calf who were more than willing to put on an acrobatic show for us all. It made getting soaked to the skin absolutely worth it to watch these colossal animals frolic in the slate grey waves.
I still had no plan more concrete than “find a car”, a responsibility which I ignored for a good few days. I decided to rent rather than buy a car for several reasons. One, it was going to be a hell of a lot easier to get rid of it at the end of my six weeks – I just had to give it back, rather than find someone to buy it. Second, my funds were not endless and whilst the price of a 6-week rental made me bite my tongue, it was cheaper than a decent car. Third, I wanted the easy get-out clause of it not being my fault or responsibility if it all went wrong!
The staff in my hostel helped me find the best deal which happened to be from Travellers Autobarn. Despite clearly being used to poor backpackers, even they were taken aback when I told them I’d be doing the drive by myself. For the car, I opted for a supposedly reliable Ford station wagon. Partly because I’d never driven a camper and didn’t want to learn in a strange country but also because the station wagon was the cheapest by over $1000!
Ok, so! I had a car! I had a date to pick it up! And I knew where I was headed first (sort of)! I took a quick peek at the forecast for the Blue Mountains on the day I was to pick up my car. Ah. Not only was it going to be pouring with rain for a solid week, but the temperature was going to drop to below freezing. This was suboptimal. Whilst I had planned for colder conditions than Indonesia, I hadn’t anticipated it being that cold…
I had a quick think. I could survive those temperatures. Some well spent time in the Amy Reserves as a student had taught me that you can survive in low temperatures with some hot food and a good sleeping bag, but my clothing was going to be a little inadequate. By some mysterious twist of serendipity, there were three camping shops within 50m of my hostel and I managed to procure a full set of very attractive thermal underwear, which would function as my pyjamas for the foreseeable future.
The day I picked up my car dawned as disgusting as the weather app had predicted and I trudged through the subway, a bus and a very wet walk to the pickup location. After paying up (eep) and a food shop that consisted of milk powder (?) and a lot of canned goods, I was on my way…
When I first mentioned it to people, they looked at me like I was mad. Actually, people looked at me like that when I was actually doing it too, alongside a look of bemused admiration.
From January to August of 2019, I lived on the tiny island of Gili Trawangan. If you look it up, it looks like a tiny slice of Indonesian paradise – glittering turquoise ocean, white sandy beaches and no motorised transport. I can’t deny it was every bit as beautiful as it looked. But by the end of my 6 month stint trapped on an island that measures 7km around the coastline, I was feeling like a bird in a cage. I was literally having dreams about driving down an empty highway, heading into the horizon.
A serendipitous conversation with a guy at the dive shop gave me an idea. He had been intermittently driving around the coast of Australia for around 18 months and was only half way across, but he assured me it was definitely possible to do it far quicker than that.
Perhaps it seems insane, but I was headed for Sydney in the September of 2019 and had yet to decide on what to do whilst in the land down under. I had some friends in Perth and this idea combined the only two concretes about Australia I had in my head – why not drive between them?
The idea immediately appealed to me for a number of reasons. I like driving and the sense of freedom it brings and, at this moment, I was desperately longing for that feeling. The second is that, as a natural introvert, the hard partying and social lifestyle of Gili was starting to take its toll on my emotional wellbeing and some seclusion sounded ideal. To me, it also felt like the ultimate exploration – actually driving across a continent, alone – whilst retaining the security of an English speaking country where I knew a few people.
Though this plan consumed my brain almost immediately, I spent a good few weeks thinking it over and reading everything I could about the mammoth 4000km drive from Sydney to Perth. When I confided my idea to people, they sat in two very distinct camps: “Oh my god that sounds amazing!” and “Why on earth would you do that?!”. Fortunately, it was the severely negative reaction of the second group which made me positive that it was what I wanted to do.
As a dedicated lifelong planner, I decided to play this one a little different. When I landed in Sydney on the 11th of September, jetlagged and cold, I had a hostel booked for 4 nights and a slight leaving Sydney in 6 weeks time. Nothing else, no car, nothing. Perhaps ill-advised but hey, what’s the worst that can happen…?
End of Part 1.
Rachel Goes East 