Heading out of Brisbane on that first day, we had no idea of the adventures that lay in front of us. Our dream was and always had been to tour Australia, and to help offset the costs, pick up some work along the way.

That Wednesday morning was one of the hardest, most stressful mornings I have ever lived through. It was worse than starting a new job.

Were we out of our minds – working for almost 40 years to ‘blow’ it all on a fantasy?

We sold our house at the bottom of the market cycle; would we be able to afford another if everything went pear shape?

What if we got sick, or worse, had an accident and destroyed the caravan?

These and other doubts were racing through my head, and along with driving in heavy traffic pulling a two-tonne caravan for the first time, I was very apprehensive. But it is amazing how these thoughts and anxieties prompts you to try even harder to ensure you are doing the right thing.

Sundown over Big Red

Our original plan had been to take an extended holiday in 2015, when we had enough equity in our house to not have to work. We planned to tour for a while, then return home to recharge the batteries and then tour again. But circumstances change and a health scare began the sequence of events that led to our house being sold and us heading out on the road four years earlier than we’d anticipated.

We had read everything we could find on long-term touring and working on the road but all it did was confuse us. A  lot of questions remained unanswered. And all of them were compounding our insecurity.

Nindigully Pub campground

You can’t get a driver’s licence or own a car without a fi xed residential address. Voting is compulsory.

Each state has different prices for private health insurance. And if the worst should happen, would we be covered for ambulance transport everywhere? Where do we get our mail sent to?

It took some time, but we eventually sorted it all out and by late July 2011 we were ready to begin our adventure. We didn’t roam far from our then home region until my 60th birthday was done and dusted before we headed out into the great unknown.

We felt like teenagers beginning life anew whose motto had become “no home, no money, no job and no worries”. It actually puts a spring into the step to think that every day was an unknown quantity. For too long, life had become mundane and totally predictable. Week in and week out we performed the same tasks, at the same time, with monotonous regularity.

New road hazards

We decided that initially we would head towards Melbourne and see family. This would let us adjust to life on the road and also allow us to figure out what we had right or wrong with our travelling set-up.

So there we were, heading up Cunningham’s Gap over the Great Dividing Range. Almost everything we owned loaded into an aluminium box on two-inch diameter steel ball.

Another town off the bucket list

But in spite of all the stress and initial misgivings that first day went without incident. By early afternoon we were set up in a caravan park overlooking Coolmunda Dam, an hour inland from  Warwick. A couple of beers later and I finally realised this was it. We had made the decision, and were beginning to ‘live the dream’. We were no longer nomad dreamers; we are now members of an exclusive club. A club without a structure, a club with no office bearers, a club without a single paid-up member, but a club with thousands of like-minded people doing their own thing. The grey nomad club.

Road hazard

Category: Unknown
Written: Tue 01 July 2014
Printed: July, 2014
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