Hi Nomads. I am new to this whole adventure, recently retired. Some silly basic questions to the gurus of the road.
Do you normally plan your whole trip locations, what your going to do etc or just wing it and drive until the gas runs out?
How do you know what an area is like, do you use the latest techo stuff Apps, websites and stuff or just word of mouth...any recommendations for these for a nomad without his wings (or perhaps wheels)
this is my first post so hope it works
jrg said
11:25 AM Mar 3, 2015
There,s a 2hour happy hour in this question Tom.Me I use Camps 5 book soon to get 8 A.I like the maps B. old school like hard copy and you can make notes.I make a plan for where I want to go along with a route Note this is not always adhered to and must be left flexible .I only travel about 400/450 ks per day so make my camps about that distance apart.You must make your mind up about what you want to see as not all tastes are the same so at H/H you,ll get many opinions if it,s something you want to see go make your mind up even if someone is bagging it go anyway.
spida said
12:35 PM Mar 3, 2015
Have a vague idea of where I need to be and when - like in a year! Travel maybe 200 - 500 km a WEEK, free camp heaps and rarely use major highways. Never troubled, never bored. Loving Tas atm!
Use camps 6, wikicamps and plan trips with caravancaravan.com.au - then add other places I might like to go instead.
shekon said
01:01 PM Mar 3, 2015
Welcome Thomas12, your question is a little like, " how long is a piece of string". For me I have a very rough idea of where I am heading, however that can change as I approach the corner. I don't like to travel more than 2-3 hours in one session, stay away from the main centres and love the back roads.
Wikicamps and camps book are my guide. I do both caravan parks and free camp. Prefer to free camp, people are nicer and friendlier. On saying that, up until today, this year has been family yards and caravan parks due to family commitments.
Everybody works out what is best for them. You will also, the hardest part of the journey is heading off for the time, after that all plain sailing or driving as the case may be.
Main thing is to have fun doing it your way.
thomas12 said
01:19 PM Mar 3, 2015
thanks to all concerned for your advice..one more question (i forgot it)
Do you do any work on the road and if so how do you find that. I saw the harvest trail on jobsearch but its a bit clunky do you use those types of things of just local sources when you get to a place.
regards
Dougwe said
01:32 PM Mar 3, 2015
Welcome to the gang Tom, enjoy here and out in the playground.
Now, I agree with the others so far. Me, well I have a bit of a plan for the near future. At the mo I am at Greens Lake, Central VIC. From here I intend to head to Croydon! Melbourne to get the den serviced and a few minor things fixed under warranty, from there will head to Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne for a week approx, then start to head over to the NSW south coast to do a house sit till end April. From there will take about two weeks to get to Townsville for winter with my daughter and grandchildren until end September. I set the den up in the driveway so we can all have a privacy.
Now the fun but. I will head back to Melbourne to see my new grandchild who will be with us all by September so that's this year spoken for I spose. Next year, who knows cos I don't.
Phew! Where did I get time to go to work??
To sum up....I have a bit of a plan usually and work with Camps7 and Wikicamps together for places to prop for a day or more. I free camp most of the time and use CVP's sometimes. I do a few things to help my daughter the time I'm there so that is free also. Well sort of as I tend to by food on a regular basis for all of us.
Whatever you do enjoy and keep safe.
Dougwe said
01:35 PM Mar 3, 2015
WORK!! Yikes!! That's a dirty word isn't it??
I do house sitting as needed as I like to help people out and it's usually good fun as well.
Fried Rice said
01:36 PM Mar 3, 2015
jrg wrote:
There,s a 2hour happy hour in this question Tom.Me I use Camps 5 book soon to get 8 A.I like the maps B. old school like hard copy and you can make notes.I make a plan for where I want to go along with a route Note this is not always adhered to and must be left flexible .I only travel about 400/450 ks per day so make my camps about that distance apart.You must make your mind up about what you want to see as not all tastes are the same so at H/H you,ll get many opinions if it,s something you want to see go make your mind up even if someone is bagging it go anyway.
400 klms A DAY ?? That's a grey rocket, not a grey nomad! I reckon Spida's got it about right .. about 400ks a week .. although in our case we only go that fast when we're on the way home
Fried Rice
Dunmowin said
02:15 PM Mar 3, 2015
thomas12 wrote:
thanks to all concerned for your advice..one more question (i forgot it)
Do you do any work on the road and if so how do you find that. I saw the harvest trail on jobsearch but its a bit clunky do you use those types of things of just local sources when you get to a place.
regards
Thomas, if you are reasonably fit, and can work in hot, dusty conditions, the grain harvest is the way to go. Watch for their opening on their web sites. CBH in Western Australia, Viterra in South Aust, GrainCorp in Qld, NSW & VIC. Great 12 weeks work, we lived onsite, and good pay. We also do house and farm sits and volunteer work
pawsoz said
02:25 PM Mar 3, 2015
Welcome from me too, I am a slowly does it sort of traveller....about a tank full a week sometimes a lot less! I house sit a fair bit, well pet sit mainly!
The only time I really plan stuff and stop overs is when I am on a mission, ie plan to get to a specific event....for instance I know I need to be in Penola around the 22nd March....I need to be in the Albany region late October.....
Forget all the time tables and watches clocks etc, they all belong to those people that still live in town and don't own their own time!
Annie
Goldfinger said
05:59 PM Mar 3, 2015
All you folk remind me Donald Campbell on Lake Eyre.... We left Pt Lincoln 10/1/2010 and we've made it to Bendigo so far.....we'll get 'there'....we havn't worked out where 'there' is yet.....we're backtracking to Laverton W.A. in June...then back to Bendigo again....I did some volunteering for Neighbourhood house in Heathcote while wife did Cert 4 TAFE course in Aged Care and Disability...so she can look after me properly/professionally later on.....lol....I did find by volunteering with like minded/aged folk that lots of paid work presented itself at the vineyards round Heathcote...they just need to get to know and trust you.....and they can't do that if you are simply a ship in the night passing through....I'm an unemployed itinerant of no fixed abode....and bloooody proud of it... Point being there are no hard and fast rules to this Grey Nomad caper....if it feels right for you both, or just yourself, then do it...we do smaller splinter stays/tours round Victoria for 5 days or so.....we've past answering to anyone unless we want to......we know where NSW is and we might get there eventually....good luck Thomas.....
-- Edited by Goldfinger on Tuesday 3rd of March 2015 06:02:16 PM
the rocket said
08:26 PM Mar 3, 2015
hello and welcome to the playground. rocket n strop
Bruce and Bev said
09:08 PM Mar 3, 2015
welcome to Grey Nomads - an interesting collection of people from all walks of life and age groups (although most of us wish we could slow down the clock a little lol). Most people here are extremely friendly and will go right out of their way to help you. The Tech knowledge can get deep and "technical" for us dummies at times, so don't worry if the thread gets long and involved on some subjects, as there are people on this Forum with a great depth of knowledge on things like electronics or electrical
You will have read all the of the above and seen how each of us has different ideas about nomading (drop the grey thing for the moment as many aren't - lucky buggers).
My wife and I spend about 3/4 of the year travelling. We sold all our possessions, including our house, gave some money to our kids and stay with them at the appropriate times - usually Xmas.
We've just stayed with our son for the past 3 mnths and about to set off again (we cant wait - nomading gives you itchy feet after a while) next week for about 7-10 months. So far we know we're going from Perth to the National Park near Esperance (a 7 hour drive which is more than we do, so will free camp overnight). It is low cost camping at about $14 night with solar showers, kitchen, toilets and the best beach in the world. We will stay there 1-2 weeks depending on the weather or if we get bored. Then across the Nullaboor - 3-7 nights depending on if we find it interesting or not. Then we will head up to Coober Peedy. After that we will decide if we will go to Broken Hill and across to the Eastern States finishing maybe in QLD (daughter there), or we may go south around follow the coast around SA.
We don't plan too far ahead - we know the various places we want to go, but when we get there and on which trip will vary with our whims and the weather (fire and cyclones etc) at the time.
We don't travel more than about 5 hours a day - often we work on 2-3 hours, otherwise you become a long distance driver seeing nothing of the surrounding countryside and missing so many little towns and other interesting places on the way. Despite this, Im a terrible planner and like to know all my options. I carry an expensive GPS (Hema 7 at $699), wikicamps app at $7 (very, very useful), Camps * book at $89 and all the paper Hema maps (old fashioned map looker lol)
You need to decide what you want nomading to give you and decide accordingly. Rush from place to place and be highly planned, or take you time, go where the winds blow you and stay off the main highways when possible to see the real Australia !!!
Whatever you decide, enjoy yourself and make new friends along the way..........
Cupie said
09:24 PM Mar 3, 2015
Welcome from us too.
As you can see from the replies so far, we all do it differently.
We are only occasional Grey Nomads ... ie not on the road full time.
- Don't do bush/free camps
- Don't work paid or volunteer when caravanning.
When we are TOURING I like to establish a general objective for the trip eg 'Round the Block' or 'Do the East Coast from Bris to Melb & back via inland'.
- Then we decide on how long we want to be away .. eg,. 3 Mths - 6 mths.
- Work out a general budget based on Distance / fuel consumption & CP costs.
- Refine plan according to time & budget.
- Plan down to a daily basis based on general plan, allowing around 1 week at 'main' places & minimum of two nights at stop overs. Use paper & internet travel info to identify things that we want to see or do. Refine with stuff from Information centers as we go.
- Travel 250km each leg.
All this goes on a spreadsheet that forms the basis for a travel/budget/ fuel consumption diary.
Then we head off & only refer to the SS from time to time to see how we are going against the plan. We stay longer or shorter at planned stopovers or elsewhere as the mood takes us.
(I do update the SS with details of fuel & CP fees religiously).
When just 'HOLIDAYING' to a particular spot (which we do mostly these days), we stick to the 250 - 300km per leg and stop over for a minimum of 3 nights at each planned stopover.
As we travel we frequently stop at likely future stopovers & mark up our touring atlas. In some places we even drive round the CPs & identify preferred sites on their van park map.
JayDee said
10:14 AM Mar 4, 2015
Thomas, Welcome to the forum of knowledge with a bit of bull S&*t thrown in sometimes to prove a point.
At around 10.am we are generally the last to leave a C.Park or a bush camp. We very really travel much more than 3 hours in the day, and that at times is a long trip.I guess that our preference is to always have a home base to come back to.
We love camping by a lake dam river or creek. At times it may only be a day or two, or other times 2 to 3 weeks. No set rules.
You will note that there are many and varied style of campers and different camping personalities. That is what makes being a grey nomad a huge bonus
The wiki camp and the camp book are our bibles plus the grey nomad grape vine around the camp fires.
Life is a great journey so Enjoy your travels.
Jay&Dee
Phil C said
11:54 AM Mar 4, 2015
Welcome Thomas12
You are stepping out on the greatest adventure of your life. Well done, welcome to a fantastic lifestyle.
We travel till we stop and then camp, eat, sleep etc. Our technology is high with ipad, iphone, laptop, GPS on the i devices and the best app for this lifestyle, wikicamps.
We set up a loose itinerary mostly the major towns we will be going through. We also try to keep family up to date via Facebook and sms.
The key I have found is that if a town looks like it has a nice pub/bakery/caravan park, we stay. We use our plan as a guide rather than a schedule.
We stayed at a place called Pilldapa Rock once and met some of the nicest people, had a ball and just enjoyed nature.
Our van is fully self contained with shower, loo, even a washing machine so we live rather well.
Enjoy, its fun
Kendo said
08:07 PM Mar 4, 2015
Hi Thomas12,
Welcome to the forum and Congratulations on asking a great question and creating some very interesting reading from this thread.
As you already can see many different ways of going about this nomad lifestyle. Some do it part time, some full time, some on a shoe string, others in relative luxury. There is no right or wrong way to do it, just get out there and enjoy this great country we live in.
I'll put my hand up for the part time group, and no great distance traveled (yet). I'm still working (sorry about the swearing) and unless Mr Lotto kicks into the kitty I'm not fussed about working for a some years yet (sorry did it again). My wife has just retired from work and is having a ball looking after grand kids and generally doing what each day brings.
Our nomading generally revolves around my once a month RDO (Rostered Day Off) and public holidays. We got back into caravaning about 2 years ago and have traveled to places within a days drive of home south of Adelaide. We've travelled as far north as Wilpena Pound (more than a day ), Robe to the south, and Moonta to the west. South would be a bit damp but we'd probably pay the ferry ride to Tassie before we'd go to Kangaroo Island.
Up to now it's all been Caravan Parks, but I'm itching to try free camping. Our van is not fully setup to free camp for any length of time but a night or two shouldn't be too hard.
Anyway enjoy you travels and keep safe.
Jeff
HiAce98 said
01:17 AM Mar 8, 2015
On the foolish occasions when I've set myself deadlines (by promising family I'll be somewhere at a certain time), I've regretted it and felt I missed out on staying longer at some great places that I didn't know existed until I got there. So planning??? For me that means promising to be around for my grandchildren's birthdays (both in the same month) and apart from that "I'll see you when I'm lookin' at you". My 45 years of working by the clock and keeping appointments to the minute are well and truly over
Phil C said
10:02 AM Mar 9, 2015
Hi again,
I have read some of the excellent posts on this thread.
IMHO research and having some idea of where you are going and what you want to achieve when you go may be the keys. We plan to drive about 200 to 300 Kms between stops, this keeps the fuel bill and fatigue to a minimum, also gets you arriving at free camps before the crowd.
Im a research freak and check distances, free camps, caravan parks etc very carefully before we set out, write it down with costs etc.
The flexibility comes when you decide to spend 3 nights at a place rather than 1 or you drive through a place rather than stay (like we did at Murphys Haystacks).
Anyway the point is, have a plan and attitude that is flexible, if you feel good about a place, and have the water, food and/or wear with all to stay, do so. I guess that's our attitude and it works a treat. Doesn't matter if its a caravan park or free camp, just do it the way you want. That's what this is all about.
Be safe
-- Edited by Phil C on Monday 9th of March 2015 10:04:33 AM
Hi Nomads. I am new to this whole adventure, recently retired. Some silly basic questions to the gurus of the road.
Do you normally plan your whole trip locations, what your going to do etc or just wing it and drive until the gas runs out?
How do you know what an area is like, do you use the latest techo stuff Apps, websites and stuff or just word of mouth...any recommendations for these for a nomad without his wings (or perhaps wheels)
this is my first post so hope it works
Use camps 6, wikicamps and plan trips with caravancaravan.com.au - then add other places I might like to go instead.
Wikicamps and camps book are my guide. I do both caravan parks and free camp. Prefer to free camp, people are nicer and friendlier. On saying that, up until today, this year has been family yards and caravan parks due to family commitments.
Everybody works out what is best for them. You will also, the hardest part of the journey is heading off for the time, after that all plain sailing or driving as the case may be.
Main thing is to have fun doing it your way.
thanks to all concerned for your advice..one more question (i forgot it)
Do you do any work on the road and if so how do you find that. I saw the harvest trail on jobsearch but its a bit clunky do you use those types of things of just local sources when you get to a place.
regards
Now, I agree with the others so far. Me, well I have a bit of a plan for the near future. At the mo I am at Greens Lake, Central VIC. From here I intend to head to Croydon! Melbourne to get the den serviced and a few minor things fixed under warranty, from there will head to Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne for a week approx, then start to head over to the NSW south coast to do a house sit till end April. From there will take about two weeks to get to Townsville for winter with my daughter and grandchildren until end September. I set the den up in the driveway so we can all have a privacy.
Now the fun but. I will head back to Melbourne to see my new grandchild who will be with us all by September so that's this year spoken for I spose. Next year, who knows cos I don't.
Phew! Where did I get time to go to work??
To sum up....I have a bit of a plan usually and work with Camps7 and Wikicamps together for places to prop for a day or more. I free camp most of the time and use CVP's sometimes. I do a few things to help my daughter the time I'm there so that is free also. Well sort of as I tend to by food on a regular basis for all of us.
Whatever you do enjoy and keep safe.
I do house sitting as needed as I like to help people out and it's usually good fun as well.
400 klms A DAY ?? That's a grey rocket, not a grey nomad! I reckon Spida's got it about right .. about 400ks a week .. although in our case we only go that fast when we're on the way home
Fried Rice
Thomas, if you are reasonably fit, and can work in hot, dusty conditions, the grain harvest is the way to go. Watch for their opening on their web sites. CBH in Western Australia, Viterra in South Aust, GrainCorp in Qld, NSW & VIC. Great 12 weeks work, we lived onsite, and good pay. We also do house and farm sits and volunteer work
The only time I really plan stuff and stop overs is when I am on a mission, ie plan to get to a specific event....for instance I know I need to be in Penola around the 22nd March....I need to be in the Albany region late October.....
Forget all the time tables and watches clocks etc, they all belong to those people that still live in town and don't own their own time!
Annie
All you folk remind me Donald Campbell on Lake Eyre....
We left Pt Lincoln 10/1/2010 and we've made it to Bendigo so far.....we'll get 'there'....we havn't worked out where 'there' is yet.....we're backtracking to Laverton W.A. in June...then back to Bendigo again....I did some volunteering for Neighbourhood house in Heathcote while wife did Cert 4 TAFE course in Aged Care and Disability...so she can look after me properly/professionally later on.....lol....I did find by volunteering with like minded/aged folk that lots of paid work presented itself at the vineyards round Heathcote...they just need to get to know and trust you.....and they can't do that if you are simply a ship in the night passing through....I'm an unemployed itinerant of no fixed abode....and bloooody proud of it...
Point being there are no hard and fast rules to this Grey Nomad caper....if it feels right for you both, or just yourself, then do it...we do smaller splinter stays/tours round Victoria for 5 days or so.....we've past answering to anyone unless we want to......we know where NSW is and we might get there eventually....good luck Thomas.....
-- Edited by Goldfinger on Tuesday 3rd of March 2015 06:02:16 PM
hello and welcome to the playground. rocket n strop
You will have read all the of the above and seen how each of us has different ideas about nomading (drop the grey thing for the moment as many aren't - lucky buggers).
My wife and I spend about 3/4 of the year travelling. We sold all our possessions, including our house, gave some money to our kids and stay with them at the appropriate times - usually Xmas.
We've just stayed with our son for the past 3 mnths and about to set off again (we cant wait - nomading gives you itchy feet after a while) next week for about 7-10 months. So far we know we're going from Perth to the National Park near Esperance (a 7 hour drive which is more than we do, so will free camp overnight). It is low cost camping at about $14 night with solar showers, kitchen, toilets and the best beach in the world. We will stay there 1-2 weeks depending on the weather or if we get bored. Then across the Nullaboor - 3-7 nights depending on if we find it interesting or not. Then we will head up to Coober Peedy. After that we will decide if we will go to Broken Hill and across to the Eastern States finishing maybe in QLD (daughter there), or we may go south around follow the coast around SA.
We don't plan too far ahead - we know the various places we want to go, but when we get there and on which trip will vary with our whims and the weather (fire and cyclones etc) at the time.
We don't travel more than about 5 hours a day - often we work on 2-3 hours, otherwise you become a long distance driver seeing nothing of the surrounding countryside and missing so many little towns and other interesting places on the way. Despite this, Im a terrible planner and like to know all my options. I carry an expensive GPS (Hema 7 at $699), wikicamps app at $7 (very, very useful), Camps * book at $89 and all the paper Hema maps (old fashioned map looker lol)
You need to decide what you want nomading to give you and decide accordingly. Rush from place to place and be highly planned, or take you time, go where the winds blow you and stay off the main highways when possible to see the real Australia !!!
Whatever you decide, enjoy yourself and make new friends along the way..........
Welcome from us too.
As you can see from the replies so far, we all do it differently.
We are only occasional Grey Nomads ... ie not on the road full time.
- Don't do bush/free camps
- Don't work paid or volunteer when caravanning.
When we are TOURING I like to establish a general objective for the trip eg 'Round the Block' or 'Do the East Coast from Bris to Melb & back via inland'.
- Then we decide on how long we want to be away .. eg,. 3 Mths - 6 mths.
- Work out a general budget based on Distance / fuel consumption & CP costs.
- Refine plan according to time & budget.
- Plan down to a daily basis based on general plan, allowing around 1 week at 'main' places & minimum of two nights at stop overs. Use paper & internet travel info to identify things that we want to see or do. Refine with stuff from Information centers as we go.
- Travel 250km each leg.
All this goes on a spreadsheet that forms the basis for a travel/budget/ fuel consumption diary.
Then we head off & only refer to the SS from time to time to see how we are going against the plan. We stay longer or shorter at planned stopovers or elsewhere as the mood takes us.
(I do update the SS with details of fuel & CP fees religiously).
When just 'HOLIDAYING' to a particular spot (which we do mostly these days), we stick to the 250 - 300km per leg and stop over for a minimum of 3 nights at each planned stopover.
As we travel we frequently stop at likely future stopovers & mark up our touring atlas. In some places we even drive round the CPs & identify preferred sites on their van park map.
At around 10.am we are generally the last to leave a C.Park or a bush camp. We very really travel much more than 3 hours in the day, and that at times is a long trip.I guess that our preference is to always have a home base to come back to.
We love camping by a lake dam river or creek. At times it may only be a day or two, or other times 2 to 3 weeks. No set rules.
You will note that there are many and varied style of campers and different camping personalities. That is what makes being a grey nomad a huge bonus
The wiki camp and the camp book are our bibles plus the grey nomad grape vine around the camp fires.
Life is a great journey so Enjoy your travels.
Jay&Dee
You are stepping out on the greatest adventure of your life. Well done, welcome to a fantastic lifestyle.
We travel till we stop and then camp, eat, sleep etc. Our technology is high with ipad, iphone, laptop, GPS on the i devices and the best app for this lifestyle, wikicamps.
We set up a loose itinerary mostly the major towns we will be going through. We also try to keep family up to date via Facebook and sms.
The key I have found is that if a town looks like it has a nice pub/bakery/caravan park, we stay. We use our plan as a guide rather than a schedule.
We stayed at a place called Pilldapa Rock once and met some of the nicest people, had a ball and just enjoyed nature.
Our van is fully self contained with shower, loo, even a washing machine so we live rather well.
Enjoy, its fun
Hi Thomas12,
Welcome to the forum and Congratulations on asking a great question and creating some very interesting reading from this thread.
As you already can see many different ways of going about this nomad lifestyle. Some do it part time, some full time, some on a shoe string, others in relative luxury. There is no right or wrong way to do it, just get out there and enjoy this great country we live in.
I'll put my hand up for the part time group, and no great distance traveled (yet). I'm still working (sorry about the swearing) and unless Mr Lotto kicks into the kitty I'm not fussed about working for a some years yet (sorry did it again
). My wife has just retired from work and is having a ball looking after grand kids and generally doing what each day brings.
Our nomading generally revolves around my once a month RDO (Rostered Day Off) and public holidays. We got back into caravaning about 2 years ago and have traveled to places within a days drive of home south of Adelaide. We've travelled as far north as Wilpena Pound (more than a day
), Robe to the south, and Moonta to the west. South would be a bit damp but we'd probably pay the ferry ride to Tassie before we'd go to Kangaroo Island.
Up to now it's all been Caravan Parks, but I'm itching to try free camping. Our van is not fully setup to free camp for any length of time but a night or two shouldn't be too hard.
Anyway enjoy you travels and keep safe.
Jeff
Hi again,
I have read some of the excellent posts on this thread.
IMHO research and having some idea of where you are going and what you want to achieve when you go may be the keys. We plan to drive about 200 to 300 Kms between stops, this keeps the fuel bill and fatigue to a minimum, also gets you arriving at free camps before the crowd.
Im a research freak and check distances, free camps, caravan parks etc very carefully before we set out, write it down with costs etc.
The flexibility comes when you decide to spend 3 nights at a place rather than 1 or you drive through a place rather than stay (like we did at Murphys Haystacks).
Anyway the point is, have a plan and attitude that is flexible, if you feel good about a place, and have the water, food and/or wear with all to stay, do so. I guess that's our attitude and it works a treat. Doesn't matter if its a caravan park or free camp, just do it the way you want. That's what this is all about.
Be safe
-- Edited by Phil C on Monday 9th of March 2015 10:04:33 AM