Man Quits Job, Sells House to Travel Around Australia With His Cat

A fancy corporate job and a house of your own could be enough to make a man happy. But not for Richard East.

He quit his corporate job of 10 years and sold his house to travel around Australia with his pet cat, Willow.

Richard East from Tasmania, Australia has been travelling with Willow for 12 months in his Volkswagen Transporter. He decided he was rather unhappy with his life and wanted a change, he said in an interview with ABC Australia. So in 2014, he left his job in Hobart, Tasmania, sold his house and most of his possessions, crammed his whole life into his van and drove off.

Accompanying him was his ex-girlfriend's black rescue cat Willow.

"[She] was living in my house but was no longer wanted so I vowed to look after her for the rest of her days," said East. He said that they adopted Willow from a rescue center at age two.

East documents their journey on their Instagram account VanCatMeow, which has more than 3,200 followers. They have already toured in popular Australian tourists spots like The Big Banana, the Great Barrier Reef and the Whitsunday Islands.

Even though East was the one who left home and took Willow along, he felt that it was the cat that actually saved him.

In a Facebook post he wrote a year after the pair embarked on their journey, he said: "The little black adventure cat... really took a chance when she rescued me."

"We have been very fortunate to have made it through the past year with no more troubles than two flat tyres, 3 stitches on my head, and a sore paw," he said.

The pair has met fellow travelers along their journey, and despite visiting places that are quite remote, East said he always has the safety of the van.

"It's a cozy campervan with everything I need," he said. "All the snacks I need and a cat falling asleep on my chest. That's all I need."

The duo has already made it up the east coast to north Queensland and plans to travel across the Northern Territory.