What a 25,000km Road Trip Around Australia and an Apple Watch Taught Me About Wellbeing

In an attempt to relieve the stressors of full time work and city life, Explorer Max hit the road for a lap of Aus with his young family, without quitting his job. Using an Apple watch, Max found out if life on the road offered the wellbeing benefits he was seeking, without having to give up his income.

On the 1st of March this year, my wife, our six-year-old son, and I embarked on a 25,000km lap around Australia in our van. Like many of these ‘life-changing’ journeys, our goal was to break free from the stress of the 9-to-5 grind and immerse ourselves, and our son, in the rich natural and cultural diversity this beautiful country has to offer.

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To maintain our finances and keep my career on track, I needed to work three days a week. Fortunately, as a corporate sustainability consultant with access to Starlink technology, I could work from just about anywhere. On top of that, my wife had the added opportunity of homeschooling our son for a few months. Beyond those commitments, we were equipped with a newly kitted-out van, eight months of freedom, and nothing but the open road ahead, stretching across one of the most expansive and diverse continents on Earth.

Read more: Australia’s 6 Best Road Trips

About six months before we set off, I bought a smartwatch to conduct a little experiment – how would such a dramatic lifestyle shift impact my biometrics? At the time, I was under a lot of stress at work and I was curious to see if the road trip – especially the deeper connection to nature – could ease my work-related anxiety and help rebuild my personal wellbeing. Being the data nerd that I am, I also wanted hard data from my various tracking devices to support any insights I gained, with the hope of sharing them with others who might be contemplating a similar journey.

We’ve recently returned home, and with some time before I go back to work full-time, I’ve had a small window to dive into the data from our journey and reflect on the lessons we can bring to life in the big city. Here are the highlights of what I discovered…

Key Road Trip Data Points:

• Days on the road: 222
• Days working: 101
• Kilometres travelled: 24,898
• Numbers of different campsites: 102 (that’s 204 setup/pack downs of camp)
• National parks visited: 16
• Hours of schooling: 320+
• Books read/listened: 23 (adult) 103 (child)
• Breakdowns: 4
• Scuba dives: 6
• Mountain bike parks visited: 9
• Number of fish caught: 12
• Dollars spent on petrol: $4,800

Screentime: 12% Reduction

While the iPhone doesn’t allow for long-term screentime trend tracking (I wonder why…?), I took some screenshots of my pre-trip screentime and compared them with notifications I received on the road. Overall, I saw a 12% reduction in screentime, even with Google Maps running for several hours a day.

The limited internet reception and the nightly allure of an open fire clearly cut down on mindless pre-bed social media scrolling. Both my wife and I found that the longer we were on the road, the less we needed to plug into the social media drip.

Insight: If you want to cut down on social media scrolling, limited phone reception and a nightly campfire are your best friends.

Sleep: 21% Increase

One of the most surprising wellbeing shifts was my sleep, which jumped from an average of 7 hours and 30 minutes in the six months before our trip to a whopping 9 hours and 10 minutes on the road. The main reason is simple – our circadian rhythms synced more closely with the sun. When the sun went down, so did we.

This was especially true as we crossed time zones heading west, which meant I had to start work earlier to stay aligned with Sydney office hours. Often, we’d be in bed by 8pm. This increase came despite – or perhaps because of – the somewhat cramped sleeping quarters, which meant we often went to bed when our son did.

Insight: If you sync your daily schedule with the sun, which you naturally will when on the road, you’ll likely sleep more than you ever have – especially if you’re sharing the one and only living/sleeping/eating space with a small child!

Exercise and Calorie Burn: Mixed Results

The data paints a mixed picture here. While the time I was exercising increased by 8% a week, my average calories burned from ‘active energy’ (during workouts) dropped by about 12%. In other words, when I did a workout – whether it be a mountain bike, jog, or paddleboard – I wasn’t burning as many calories per session as I was at the gym prior to leaving.

However, my passive calorie burn (outside of workouts) increased by roughly the same amount, keeping my total daily calorie burn about even. So, while my workouts weren’t as intense on the road, the constant moving, packing, and unpacking helped balance things out.

Unfortunately, this didn’t lead to the weight loss transformation I was hoping for, thanks in large part to a missing data point – beers consumed. While I don’t have precise numbers, the regular sunset and fireside sessions definitely increased my alcohol intake. Sometimes, it’s just too hard to resist life’s little pleasures.

Insight: Unless you’re highly disciplined, you’re unlikely to match the workout intensity you’re used to in the gym while on the road. That said, the workouts you do complete are way more fun. Also, while well-intentioned, those fireside treats and sundowner drinks can make it harder to stick to a strict weight loss plan than it would be at home.

Work Productivity: 12% Increase in Outputs

Measuring productivity can be tricky, but the Viva Insights feature on Microsoft 365 proved surprisingly helpful in offering a high-level overview. While working on the road, I sent and read 15% more emails per day and increased my average online work time from 8.1 to 8.9 hours. This is likely due to having to fit five days of work into three, combined with my personal motivation to over-deliver on the days I was working.

However, the data also showed some downsides: more multitasking during meetings, a dip in meeting punctuality, and fewer meaningful connections with my team.

It’s also worth noting that connectivity was never an issue. In fact, it was often better than at home. Starlink took just five minutes to set up and worked seamlessly wherever we were – even when hours away from the nearest civilisation. And the best part? When the work day was over, we simply switched it off and disconnected – a luxury we never seem to allow ourselves at home.

Insight: If your job can be done remotely, it’s absolutely possible to be more productive from the road, free from the distractions of the office or home. Plus, the motivation to ‘make it work’ for you and your employer might just lead to over-delivering.

As our journey comes to an end, these insights have shed light on how our aspirations for this trip have unfolded. My overall wellbeing has markedly improved; I’m sleeping better, exercising more regularly, and the time spent immersed in nature and with my family have significantly alleviated my work-related anxiety.

While stressors at work remain, the physical separation and newfound mental clarity have made these challenges more manageable. On a lighter note, the data has also shone a light on why I didn’t quite transform into the rugged ‘bush Adonis’ I’d envisioned.

However, while these metrics provide a useful overview, they fail to capture some of the more profound aspects of the experience. In an ideal world, additional data points would paint a richer picture of the trip, such as:

• Time spent in nature
• Extra hours with my son and wife
• Species of animals observed
• Sundowner beverages enjoyed
• Time spent by the fire
• Hours spent playing guitar

Ultimately, some experiences transcend quantification. As we move forward, it’s these intangible moments that’ll stay with us the longest.

Here’s to the next adventure….

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