Due to rising rents and her preference for being in nature, single parent Lucy Aura has spent the last five months living full-time in a tent with her children.
Far from seeing the unique home as a substandard stopgap, though, the mum-of-two, 41, says she loves being ‘close to the ground’ instead of being ‘constricted’ in a modern house.
Lucy, originally from London, lets her kids – aged five and seven – run around barefoot and enjoys gathering around a campfire each night for ‘entertainment’.
She pays £51 per week for her pitch and power on a homeowners’ land in Kuranda, Australia. This saves her over £800 every month compared to previously splashing out £259-a-week for a rental property.
‘I didn’t have money to have my own place,’ Lucy explained.
‘Nature was calling me. I surrendered to my path and moved into a tent.’
The yoga teacher said that is has been ‘pretty challenging sharing a small space with the kids’, but that they’re having a great time.
‘I love to be more connected to the earth,’ added Lucy. ‘I want to be close to the ground.’
The Brit left for Melbourne, Australia, in 2011 when she was sick of the ‘working and partying lifestyle’ in London, saying she ‘had an urge to go and explore.’
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After travelling around the country before settling in Queensland, she met her children’s father. However, the couple split in 2020, meaning Lucy had to sell the family house and found herself struggling to afford somewhere new.
She initially moved into a farm in Kuranda, Queensland, with the kids but says they were asked to move by the owners due to her youngest son’s behaviour.
‘My son is overwhelming and emotional – I allow him to be,’ said Lucy. ‘People don’t like that.’
From there, the single mum bought a tent and moved to the Billabong campsite in February this year.
Despite the upheaval, she says she has been on a ‘deep spiritual journey’ for the last two years and is currently ‘trusting in the journey’.
Since living in a tent, Lucy has also realised how much she enjoys being amongst nature and the simplicities of life.
She said: ‘You can reconnect with yourself and the land. It’s about feeling safe wherever I am.
‘Most kids don’t have a mum who is really present with them. The kids loved sharing a bed with me.’
Lucy loves being barefoot and lets her kids do the same. But the trio came down with staph – a bacterial infection – in March due to walking around in the mud at the campsite.
As a result, Lucy is now more cautious and wears shoes when it is wet underfoot.
For a two-week period following their illness, the family also moved into a housesit before going back to the campsite.
‘It was a modern house,’ said Lucy.
‘I got anxiety as soon as I went in there. I can’t be in the concrete building. I felt constricted.’
Alongside going to a nature-based school, Lucy makes sure her boys learn from the earth – and has cut down on screen time, opting for more old-school pastimes instead.
She said: ‘Collecting wood and making a fire and watching it is what we do most evenings.’
They all eat organic food and cook on a camp stove, with their two-bedroom tent featuring a fridge and sink setup.
While there isn’t a typical bathroom available on their plot, they clean themselves with sponge baths – using a bucket and a cloth with soap – and have a disposable camp toilet.
It may seem a little rough and ready to some, but Lucy is happy going back to basics.
She added: ‘I roll out of bed in the morning onto my yoga mat. I like to be as close the ground as possible. It’s how our ancestors lived.
‘I am energetically connected to the land. It’s so freeing.’
Lucy – who shares snippets of her life on Instagram – has plans to live self-sufficiently in the future, and hopes to grow her own fruit and vegetables and live in a commune off-grid.
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