Overview
Whether or not we wanted it to, the pandemic threw a stick in the hamster wheel of life. For some, it caused a permanent change to their 9-to-5s. For others, holidays and plans halted. For many, it meant stepping back and reassessing: with regular life on pause, were there any changes to make before it all starts spinning again? Career and sea changes aside, this could mean choosing to swap the screen for stargazing — or working overtime on the weekend for two days of waterfall chasing — a little more often. In the words of twins Cam and Chris Grant, maybe now's the time to live a life a little more unyoked.
The Grant brothers founded Aussie startup Unyoked back in 2017 and now have 15 — soon-to-be 17 — off-grid cabins across NSW, Victoria and Queensland, including one designed by Matthew McConaughey. All properties have been placed in secret patches of wilderness, in the middle of nowhere, allowing you to well and truly escape the big smoke.
Each cabin is designed to make you feel like you're part of the surrounding landscape. Think timber, oversized windows, solar power, composting toilets and a blissful lack of wi-fi. At the same time, though, simple comforts are taken care of, so you get a cosy bed, kitchen appliances, firewood, Single O coffee, cocktails made in collaboration with Archie Rose and Capital brews.
With its remote cabins, Unyoked encourages Aussies to travel more, log off more and challenge the typical 9-to-5. To help you do just that, the company is giving you the chance to break free from the grind and get off-grid with two-night getaways in a remote cabin — every three months for the rest of your life. Yep, it's the offer of a lifetime.
To win, Unyoked needs your help naming one of its new cabins. The company names all its locations after 'unyoked' people Chris and Cam have met on their travels. There's the Lucia, named after a woman they met in London who had quit her media gig to travel; and the Miguel, who was "floating around the jungle outside Chiang Mai" in Thailand when the twins met him.
So, if you know a free-spirit who inspires you to live a little more nomadic, you just need to put their name forward. Then, if your suggested name is chosen, you'll be able to escape to any of Unyoked's cabins for two nights, four times a year, every year — and be a little bit more like your nominated unyoked mate.
While it's not a prize anyone in metro Melbourne or Mitchell Shire can redeem right away — with the current stay-at-home orders in place, adventuring out of the city is off the cards for the moment — it is a prize that would help sitting tight through the rest of the areas' six-week lockdown 2.0 a little less painful.
Maddy Tonks
To enter, see details below.