About Us
About Us
Throughout our lives, both together and apart, we have been lucky enough to experience some truly incredible things. Highlands2hammocks was born as a way to share these adventures with the world. We hope to inspire and educate you guys about just what is possible on a budget. From the day it was born and until the day we sign off our final adventure, we will always strive to see, do, taste, smell and experience as much as we possibly can, as cheaply as we possibly can.
So that is what highlands2hammocks is, now let’s dive deeper into who the couple behind it are.
Since meeting in 2013, we have had our hearts set on living a lifestyle that brings us true happiness. Gemma had her heart set on travelling the world after completing her nursing degree. Campbell was studying chemical engineering at the time and although he had volunteered in Malawi after school, he was still going to take a little extra convincing to live a life of full time travel.
A little persuasion saw us living together in an apartment in the Gold Coast only a year and a half later. We were both taught the value of money from a young age and after a lot of saving, we managed to make this trip of a lifetime work.
Before arriving in Australia, Campbell lived on a boat off the coast of San Diago working as an engineer, meanwhile Gemma toured Australia completing nursing placements as part of her degree back home. 3 months later, reunited on the Gold Coast, we were ready to see what life down under could offer us.
This was our first backpacking trip which would include campervanning around Australia, snorkelling with manta rays in Fiji, eating street food in Bangkok, reinventing the word ‘flexible’ with a Krabi Thai massage and watching the Formula 1 from the top of Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
This ignited the travel bug in both of us and we promised ourselves that one day we would live this lifestyle.
Finishing uni saw Gemma move to Guernsey to work as a nurse, gain some experience and save up some money. During this time Campbell worked in London, studied 3 months of his degree in Nancy, France and saw Gemma every few weeks in between.
It was a crazy year and a half which finally saw us ending the long distance vibes and living in London together. This is when highlands2hammocks was born. We worked hard, worked out and dedicated our time to creating to inspire others as well as reminding ourselves to do what makes us happy.
A year later, the time came to do just that. We left London with valuable work experience behind us, a heavier bank balance than before and a heart full of wanderlust. We were ready to throw ourselves into the unknown and tell our story as we went, through our social media channels and our blog.
Our nomadic lifestyle took us wild camping through Scotland and road-tripping through Ireland before we packed our backpacks and tent again, ready to spend some time travelling around Europe. Our loyal community that we had built online allowed us to meet new friends around Europe which then led to us cycling around 1000km down the east coast of Italy whilst raising money for charity.
After spending more nights of the year in our 2man tent than in a bed, we headed home to Scotland to prepare for our next trip of a lifetime – Australia. Back to the land we promised ourselves we would return to 5 years before.
We arrived on our Australian working holiday visa in time for the Australian summer starting and based ourselves in Melbourne, looking for jobs to top up our travel funds again. Gemma received her AHPRA nursing registration, allowing her to work as a nurse whilst we were in Australia. Campbell hopped around jobs until he found work as a swimming teacher, a job he had previously enjoyed whilst at uni.
Four months later we arrived in Bali, an island we had had our eye on for a long time. (We booked this trip a year previous when we were living in London to make sure we got ourselves back out to that side of the world).
Bali is an island full of creative inspiration and content creators and we saw ourselves exploring one of the most beautiful islands we have ever seen. During our time there we met new friends and old friends and we realised that we could take highlands2hammocks to a whole new level and potentially have it as an income stream. This would allow us to do what we love most, create, inspire and be together, working on our own clock and schedule.
Visiting Bali, Lombok and the surrounding islands left us hungry to revisit this beautiful part of the world one day. Our journey back to Australia involved eating the most delicious food in Kuala Lumpur and exploring more of Singapore before landing back in Melbourne.
We returned to Melbourne incredibly skint but with memories that would last a lifetime and a fire in our bellies to make highlands2hammocks the best source of travel information on the internet.
Our dream since our last Australian campervan trip in 2014 was to buy a campervan in Australia, convert it and call her home. We worked solidly on our return to save up and after a lot of searching and viewing, we found our perfect little van and named her Roxy.
A road trip along the Great Ocean Road took us to South Australia where we picked oranges for less than minimum wage for 2 weeks and worked on an olive farm for 3 months to complete our 88 days farm work for our 2nd year visa.
We worked harder than ever on our brand and saved enough money on the farm to allow us to convert little Roxy into the home of our dreams. We also completed our TEFL qualification allowing us to apply for jobs as online English teachers and earn money on the road.
With a home renovation done, we were ready to hit the road and see what South Australia had to offer. We travelled to some of the most remote places, camped under the stars and fell in love with the stunning coastline.
DISCLAIMER: We did not fall in love with the crazy amount of flies that followed us around.
Roxy is now safe and sound with a good friend in Victoria whilst we surprise our families and friends back home for Christmas and spend some quality time exploring Scotland again and building highlands2hammocks.
We returned to Melbourne incredibly skint but with memories that would last a lifetime and a fire in our bellies to make highlands2hammocks the best source of travel information on the internet.
Our dream since our last Australian campervan trip in 2014 was to buy a campervan in Australia, convert it and call her home. We worked solidly on our return to save up and after a lot of searching and viewing, we found our perfect little van and named her Roxy.
Unfortunately, the C-word hit and we have been unable to return to Australia. In the meantime, we have bought our own motorhome in Scotland, Ellie and will be exploring in her for the foreseeable future around Scotland and beyond!
Lots of love, Gemma and Campbell x