What has made us want to be nomads

lilly31 · Guru

What has made us want to be nomads

jimbo · Guru

For me Lilly. It was too get as much information as I could...And this is the one and only site I use Because it has everything I would ever need too know..Ps Why did you change your Avatar

Firefly · Guru

I thought I had no desire to travel, just happy to be at home for my holidays, until I met my partner and he wanted to show me a bit of Oz.

So we packed a two man tent and a couple of swags and set off on the best five weeks I have ever enjoyed.

After that, I had the bug. smile

We have upgraded twice since then and I get a real ache in the gut when I think its time to move on again.

I could do it for most of the year, just landing back home to see the kids etc.

Ma · Guru

We had the choice of seeing the rest of the world - ONCE or

seeing this wonderful country for the REST OF OUR LIVES.

There really is no choice is there.

elliemike · Guru

Ellie and I have always enjoyed travelling. Camping, Hiking, Rock Climbing, even before we met we had both travelled lots.

I at sea visited lots of countries. I find all countries are lovely in different ways, and just like Australia most of the people are great too. Every country seems too have that same small % of aholes. Get past the culture differences and people are people.

Got my first taste of desserts in Nevada and thrilled at their ever changing beauty. So Australias arrid areas I find full of interesting things.

North Africa, South Africa, Russia, Canada, Brazil, USA, Europe, Middle East, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, NZ, Australia.

We want to revisit them all

Oh for the "Lotto Life" and "good Health"

Mike and Ellie

Esmeralda · Guru

I'M with you Ma.

Happywanderer · The Master

What made me want to be a nomad: Travelling to Qld every winter to see the grandkids, staying in motels and cabins along the way and seeing caravans and campervans parked along the roadside, which I now know are called freestops, and wondering what they were all up to.
Then I met Lorraine, Jazzin Around, at the local Moama market selling her wonderful butterflies. We got talking, she explained how long she had been travelling in her campervan and gave me an insight into a new life I had known nothing about. I was hooked.
Finding this site has given me so much info that I feel like an expert now and looking forward to a trouble free 2nd trip in July.

Vic · Guru

I probably used it as a means of escaping the pressures and humdrum of everyday life, then just started doing more and more of it. Being ex Army also gave me a taste for the outdoor life.....and it hasn't stopped !

lilly31 · Guru

-- Edited by lilly31 on Tuesday 7th of June 2011 06:36:50 PM

jimricho · Guru

Even as a child when I went on holidays with my parents I would get the map and follow our progress and loved seeing places I hadn't been to before. I can't recall ever being bored when travelling but then I was a perfect child (NOT).

lilly31 · Guru

jimbo wrote:
For me Lilly. It was too get as much information as I could...And this is the one and only site I use Because it has everything I would ever need too know..Ps Why did you change your Avatar

i changed my Avatar few times jimbo i just find picture i like and use it this one from my last trip it taken at claireview in qld

I am bit like you Marj i use to see the freecamper on side of road and thought not what are they doing ...but i thought what a life style ... had 3 months long services so pack tent and blow up bed in car and took off had a few thing to learn i found out but love it and i have been hook ever sence ..cant wait to be doing it full time ...

-- Edited by lilly31 on Tuesday 7th of June 2011 06:43:38 PM

jonathan · Guru

.. due to change that was necessary after losing my partner of 34 years .. but only after the well-being of all was satified .. and .. well .. I just love this country and wanted to be part of it .. and I am !

Jon

ChiChi1 · Guru

Retired. Looking at spending the next 20yrs in Canberra cold. Have travelled the outback quite a bit in previous years and loved the country. One way I could travel with my mate (Molly) Do it cheaply thus conserving limited resources. After always tenting it, a motorhome is really doing it in luxury. Freedom to go away when it suited me. Meeting up with other GN's and family scattered around Aust. Independence. Can do it by myself, although, I will miss my husband when I would like to share some of the exiting things along the way.

Travel Bug · Guru

When the kids were little, my husband and I, both very proud Aussies, always agreed that we wanted to show them as much as possible of our great country.
With that thought in mind, we had a campervan and a large tent....it was quite an unusual setup....which we left packed and ready to go at the drop of a hat.
Over the 8 years that we had it we spent numerous great weekends and holidays
"on the road".
Over those years we developed a real taste for it and it was our intention...when the children grew up....to fit out a bus and be full time nomads.

Unfortunately, life got in the way of our plans!! My husband died very young...and I had to finish all of the child rearing, feeding, clothing, educating etc;
Now that it's all done...it's my turn....and although it won't be on the grand scale that we had planned, I'm going to do it for both of us!!

My van is currently having some new cupboards and things added and in a few weeks time I will be hitting the road....and I am so excited that I can hardly wait!!!

smile smile

_wombat_ · Master (of Mischief)

Mrs wombat

Hylda&Jon · Guru

I had heard & seen pics of different places all around Australia all my life yet personally had only travelled the east coast, Hylda is from Africa & in 10 years living in Aus she had only seen some of NSW so when my mum passed away we decided it was time to correct this oversight, also I love taking photos & I can only take so many of Grafton.

Cheers

Jon

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

When my father came back from WWII he could not settle down. So he just travelled all around the country getting work - dragging the family with him.

I used to love the moving around - never spent more than 6 months in any school as a kid. When I got married and had kids I thought the 'secure and stable life' was the best.
However, I still went camping with the kids and have done that always since.

For me - I firmly believe that if I keep moving, stay active mentally and physically, see changing scenes constantly, I will never get older and will always have things to see, learn and experience.

Seems to be working so far biggrin

Cheers and constant, fulfilling travel

John

goinsoon · Guru

We just decided it was time to run away from the children

granny driving a green VW bug beetle animated gif

Cruising Granny · Guru

I loved geography at school. Now I'm doing geography.
I've travelled by land, air and sea, mostly working my way around and looking at the country I lived in.
When I fly over this country I see the roads and wonder where they go to. When I travelled by bus I saw the free camps and roads and my curiosity was awakened. When I worked on prawn trawlers off the north coast we worked off the Kimberley coast and I had the pull to go back. It took 20 years but I got there.
My first big holiday was with my former husband, when we went to Townsville to see a mate in the Army. He planned the trip and I was happy to go along. We left home and headed for Broken Hill and I couldn't wait to see what was over the next hill or around the next bend. This is my definition of travel.
I can't get enough.
I lived in a caravan in the 70's and loved the lifestyle. Many life changes and a couple of children slowed me down, and I settled to raise my girls.
The bug hit me again in the mid 90's when I moved to the Kimberleys for 3 months, and left 11 years later. I lived in a caravan in a park in Broome for 9 years, updated the van and tug in 06, and the rest as you know, is history.
When I read about other nomads' adventures and trips, I just want to go there too. Thanks for the inspiration.

underthestars · Newbie

oh my god I agree. Have to see this magnificent country before it belongs to someone else. Oh forgot it does belong to someone else !!!!!! SILLY ME

jimricho · Guru

underthestars wrote:
oh my god I agree. Have to see this magnificent country before it belongs to someone else. Oh forgot it does belong to someone else !!!!!! SILLY ME

Possibly so, but lets try to avoid the politics here. There are many other forums available for that.

-- Edited by jimricho on Wednesday 8th of June 2011 06:27:40 AM

-- Edited by Webmaster on Wednesday 8th of June 2011 09:59:40 AM

underthestars · Newbie

Sorry don't want to offend anyone !!!

Helena · Guru

After Bill being at sea for quite some time and telling me of all the wonderful places there were in the world and of course telling me of Australia decided to come out here then after buying and selling I don't know how many houses( because we both always wanted to be on the move) decided it was time for us to look at something different so then went into tenting then capervanning and now caravanning love every minute of it and wouldn't change it for the world love this country as if born to it I think my mother was in the wrong place when I was born as I am always waving the good old Aussie flag. Helena.

jules47 · The Happy Helper

My turn for "on the road" next year - all being well. My husband and I had done about 10 years of trips with our camper trailer - up, around, down, across, wherever and whenever we could. Upgraded to a little van and decided to "just go for it" - but as someone else said - life intervened - John is gone, and I am now comfortable enough to do it on my own.
I love this country, have no desire to go anywhere else - just see as much as I can here - for as long as I can - some places I will go and see again - maybe spend more time in some favourite spots.
I feel I have made some good friends on this site, who are like minded, and I home to catch up with a lot of them - in the meantime here I am in one of the most beautiful parts of SE Qld - anyone travelling in this area - give me a pm - would love to catch up.

Cruising Granny · Guru

This land is everybodys'. Let's just respect it as such and we'll all enjoy what we want.

wendyv · Guru

It is hard to pin down the start of the nomad thing. We lived in the inner city until I was 8. Apparently, even as a 3 y.o., I would climb the fence and go exploring the neighbourhood. I knew all the back lanes and main streets within about a 3km radius of our home, by the time I was 6. Explored all by myself. Scary when I think of it now., and not something that a child these days could do, sadly. Then we moved to a farm where there was bush to explore. Because of farm demands, we never went on holidays anywhere. But, like Cruising Granny, I loved geography at school, and Australian history. Then, in my teens, got involved in a bushwalking club, loved the bush, and began going further afield for walks, like Tasmania. My first husband's family used to do camping holidays, so we just naturally did, too. My kids were camping when they were babies. Then he departed and taking the kids tent camping was all I could afford, and not too far afield at that. They both grew up outdoors and travel oriented, even doing career stuff in that field, for a while. I was also lucky that my work introduced me to the NT and more travel - and a real concept of the vastness of the country. Current husband eventually came on the scene and he had long wanted to "go round" Australia. We both were able to take long service leave, not long after we married, so embarked on a 4 month trip, tent camping. In our ignorance, we thought we would "do" WA in that time and so cross it off the list of future travel. It did not take long for us to realize how wrong we were and start saying "next time......" Found it really hard to settle back down after that trip. Before that had been really career oriented and always assumed I would work until at least 65. We ended up retiring "early" - I was 52 - and going on the road - in a caravan, because years of running marathons saw him have a hip replacement just before we set off. That first trip lasted 3 years and was only curtailed because the son living in our house bought his own and moved out, leaving our pets behind. The nomad bug has lasted much more in me than husband, but over the past decade we have done extended trips most years, even up to 9 months. Sadly, the last two years have been frustrating ones for this nomad. 2010 was the year of complications from husband's second hip replacement, and we only managed a month away. This year it looks like we won't be doing much, because the sore shoulder I have had, since I took a swipe at pup making off with a slipper, turns out to be torn tendons. Visit to shoulder surgeon coming up. Etc.
Life is so often a series of compromises because of dependents and loved ones, but left to my own devices, I would be selling the home, van, and all, buying a Coaster based motorhome, and taking to the road full time.

jimricho · Guru

Can I make a suggestion wendyv, and please don't take this the wrong way, but when submitting a longer post such as yours above, break it up into paragraphs with a blank line between them. smile

It makes it much easier to read.

cheers and best wishes,

Jim

Pejay · Guru

Ma wrote:
We had the choice of seeing the rest of the world - ONCE or
seeing this wonderful country for the REST OF OUR LIVES.
There really is no choice is there.

Ma, you have summed it up exactly - some friends of ours went around the block about 20 yrs ago, have been travelling overseas every year since and when we ask them to join us, we get told 'been there, done that'!!!! You have got to be kiddin' - we are only just starting out, but from what we have seen already, we shall never tire of seeing this Great Southern Land guess we may run out of time before we run out of sights - and we have a lot of years to go yet.

biggles · Senior Member

underthestars wrote:
Sorry don't want to offend anyone !!!

I'm a big boy mate, didnt offend me.....

Cruising Granny · Guru

I've been to NZ to visit inlaws in the 70's. They're "outlaws" now since we split up. That's the extent of my OS travel. While I'm curious, it comes down to affordability, and trepidation. I feel safer travelling in Oz, all on my own. I'm not sure what to expect OS.
I love travelling anywhere, anytime. No matter how many times I go to a place, it changes from season to season, and that's part of the beauty of our country.
My recent trip through NSW and Qld really demonstrated how the terrain and countryside adapts to the climate and the seasons.
Even the desert isn't the Sahara. The Simpson and the Great Sandy Deserts have foliage and features other than bare dunes. The Nullarbor and Hay Plains change with the seasons, and at the right times of the year, the whales visit the Nullarbour coast known as The Great Australian Bight. What brilliant geography!
Reefs change from season to season as well. The fish you can catch, the colours of the organisms, polyps and corals which make up the reef, and around Broome, the colour of the water.
Even the condition of the roads in summer and winter give us an appreciation of what the locals live with.
Someone I met recently expressed their disappointment with the "scenery" in Qld after TC Yasi. I consoled them with the reassurance at how interesting it must have been to see this beautiful part of the country at its worst after a disaster. Once again demonstrating what the locals have to endure in the day to day lives, with or without the tourists.
This makes travel "never boring".