hi all
this may seem  like a silly question but what is this big urge the driving factor that every body seems to have to do the big trip a round the block. better half came home the other day saying she wants to take off for 12 months to see australia. you hear a lot of comments bad cp. bad drivers,bad roads, noisy generators, and the list goes on. we have done a lot of travel over the years with our van some times up to 2 months at a time, so i am not against travelling. so my question again what is this big urge every one seems to have that they want to take off for years at a time. i like my home and the life i have,travelling for a couple of years would change things when you get back. i just don't know if i want my life to change. am i the odd one out here ? or am i been selfish.both of us late 50's and semi retired.
al

That's probably the best thing about living in Australia.......the option to choose what it is we want to do as opposed to what we have to do.

To us the trip around the block is a passion that comes from being a true blue Aussie.  We have such a diverse landscape and flora and fauna and the urge to see it all is very real.

It's sort of hard to explain how I feel,  I just know that it is something I HAVE TO DO before I drop off the twig.

All boiled down I LOVE AUSTRALIA and am PROUD TO BE AN AUSTRALIAN.

I have many overseas friends and at least if I have seen some of our island I can then answer any of their questions on an "informed" basis.

Just a heart felt passion for me al.

Ma

Yes......you are the odd one out !! Just kidding............ :)

It isn't everybodys cup of tea Al. However it is a great way to see the country.....at your leisure. Sounds to me like you are too far entrenched in your comfort zone and your wife can see that.

Bad c/parks, bad drivers etc etc can occur on a short weekend trip so you can't use that as an excuse to get out of it.

If my wife came home and said to me she wanted to go travelling for twelve months, the first stop would be the tyre fitter down the road because I would have burnt all the rubber off the existing ones getting out of the driveway. Grandkids have stuffed all the long term travel up here. I get too stale being in the same place. (Hey maybe we could swap for awhile?? hehehehe )

If you enjoy the shorter trips, why not for longer. It becomes a disease to travel. More importantly ........not to be on a time table.............is just pure heaven. Who needs the cities with the noise and traffic lights and so on and so on when you can have the peace and quiet of the countries deserts and parks as you back yard!!

Lots of bush camps and free camps out there.

Good luck with it Al........I'm sure you'll do what is best for you but as Mike said......"enjoy your sunsets as we only have a limited amount"

Jess

P.S.   Send picture of the wife and caravan before I agree to the swap  :)



-- Edited by Disco Duck on Thursday 15th of October 2009 12:13:05 PM

you're either bitten by the travel bug or your not, me I would go this afternoon and never come back if I could just get this bloody paperwork under control I'd be gone, who invented this crap anyway!! what happened to the paperless office, supplies, payments, inventories, accounts received accounts supplied and submitted, duplicate, triplicate, aaaaaarrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!! give me the nullabor or the Kimberley's right now!!! travel bug biting hard and I have not long returned from three weeks up north I received my fly fishing outfit today, haven't had time to open it yet but it feels good in it's voluptuous, innocuous, innocent brown packaging, the fish would never suspect that immenent death is lurking within this packaging, probably not by me but in the hands of a skilled fisherman it could be??? my fly tying apparatus and instructions arrived as well so let the daydreaming begin! ten o'clock, two o'clock, ten o'clock, two o'clock, sighhhhhhhh!!! now the fish are calling!!

Have done both the shorter trips, plus an extended one - 3 years on the move. They are vastly different experiences. On the longer trip, there was no pressure to move on all the time, basically we made the trip up as we went along and it was all very open-ended. Now, even with a 3 or 4 month trip, there is always that awareness of the "end" not too far away! If it was up to me we would be back on the road indefinitely. Yes, there are young grandkids, but they could come visit and we would always need to be a bit "south" in the Wet season, and could catch up with them, then. There's postcards, the Net, the phone..... In our establishment it is he who needs to spend 7 or 8 months of the year at home, now, to do his woodwork, play his bowls, etc. Having experienced the 3 years of roaming, I really miss it.

wendyv wrote:

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..... In our establishment it is he who needs to spend 7 or 8 months of the year at home, now, to do his woodwork, play his bowls, etc.
Having experienced the 3 years of roaming, I really miss it.

---

So pleased that my other half's interest is fishing.........or should I say passion.

Give him a bucket of water and a hook and he'll fish.

Plenty of water out there just waiting.   Wonder how long it will take to check them all out.  In my opinion the more water the better then we don't have to have an "end".

Ma

 

-- Edited by Ma on Thursday 15th of October 2009 02:31:07 PM

Been on the road all my life, about 50+ something years as a rep covering Vic and the riverina, and then on the coaches doing a lot of miles all over, done the short trips and the long trips, and still doing the short and long, its all becoming a blur, that what happens afer all these years, you have to be in a town before you remember you have there before now I am over the moon, had to take Judy to queanbeyan from Young and was literally quaking at the knees So went and bought my 3rd GPS, No 1, was the size of a brick cut lenghways, No 2, was a unit the size of the palm of your hand This thing is the size of a large packet of smokes , it talks at me , it tells me I going to fast , it gets me lost and then found again, Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the marvels of technolgy, still wont have a computor on my motor or electric windows, or banger bags in front of me Think I am getting younger by the minute

Hi Disco Duck, Yes i would be in same boat if my wife said we will go for 12 or months or more my reason would be because its there and i would like to see as much as i could. Before i went roving up stairs. Roamin John.

Before the bug bit me, I could think of nothing worse then camping. 

Then a five week trip in a two man tent and a swag and this little old lady nags the other half all the time, to hit the road. 

He says no all the time,

I will win. 

I guess I'm odd one out too.......We camp one weekend a month..not long I know..but it gets us away for few days...I've been to places I never heard of 2 years ago....got a few places to think about...the big one??....but will I ever get there....who knows?? Dave

Hi all
cannot wait to hit the trail, got the tug, the vans being built, 24 weeks long service leave to waste, just cruising. You will all know me when you see me, I'll be the one driving the Prado with the big smile.. and hopefully a van still hooked on behind..
Also why should I stay at home when I can let the rest of Australia tell me to p*ss off & dont come back.  Why should only the people who know me now have that privilege...

I met an "odd" couple of Nomads a few days ago.They have a huge 5th wheeler with 3 wind-outs.  It's a luxury apartment from the perspective of a low-key humble van tower. They gave me a misguided tour.They had a timber business in Brisbane which is now run by the younger members of the family.Their definition of the time in Cairns is, "we've checked out all the restaurants we came to try."While the rest of us seem to be busting our buns to get outback to go around the block, away from cities and towns,This couple will settle in an apartment in Brisbane CBD when they've had enough of the 5th wheeler, "somewhere near the restaurants."Their travel objective is to eat at as many classy restaurants as they can.They like the - wait for it - noise, smell, proximity to restaurants and the "freedom".It does take all types, but this couple really intriqued by their view of life and travel.

You know, Chris, there may be something of advantage for us wannabe bushies in this trend towards "big is beautiful" in the nomadic world.

Size and weight limit their movement to well made roads and well populated environments, leaving the "path less trodden" to those of us who like to avail ourselves of the world beyond the "tar and cement" of modern day urbania.

My beef is with the mentally and emotionally un-prepared who like to think that the latest and most expensive of equipment will somehow compensate for their fundamental ignorance.
(I'm sure that I've crapppedd on about this before )

Their sheer lack of understanding of the untamed world and the irreparable damage that they do through simple lack of care, respect and knowledge, is of great concern.

It's almost as if all the research and scientific effort that has been undertaken over centuries doesn't apply to them and their activities: Just chopping down a mulga bush for fuel or driving over pristine scrubland or/and unstable windblown sand dunes isn't going to make much difference in the grand scale of things, is it ?

The helll it isn't.
It's only just now coming to (some) public awareness that the damage done to bush by human activities over the last 220+ years by unknowing and generally uncaring colonists, has compounding effects which will never ever be ameliorated.

We are slowly, but surely, making our world uninhabitable and, unfortunately, the rate of degeneration is increasing exponentially, as is the degree of ignorance of the fact.

Time for making advanced bookings on the next Mars lander for our great grandkids, perhaps.