There is some current banter on the forum about living life on the road and the downside of this decision once the novelty has worn off.
After working for the majority of your life and usually being occupied from 9 to 5 or even longer and at the weekends come home to gardens and lawns and socialising with friends you are fully occupied. Then comes the idea once you have retired is to buy the ute and caravan, sell up family home and live your retirement days traveling this great country moving from place to place, caravan park to caravan park or free camp to free camp.
Very exciting, particularly all the preparations choosing the vehicle and caravan, selling the family home and saying good bye to friends and family. The other half may or may not be on the same page as to say.
Then comes the crunch over a short period of time "what have we done", I am bored to death and get very tired of the inside of caravan parks or the small space in the caravan.
Where to from here??
Unfortunately your personal circumstances will be dictated by your finances and hopefully in most circumstances you can step back to bricks and mortar and list the caravan for sale and treat the adventure as a life experience.
The real answer is planning, planning and more planning.
Your security blanket is your bricks and mortar and lot of people particularly our better halfs cannot be without that component in later life.
CAN IT WORK:
Yes, as proven by the many people on this forum who are living the life traveling this great country and experiencing a very satisfied life style.
We have met many full time nomads who have been on the road for 5/10 and more years.
From our own perspective we have sold the family home Easter 2014, stored the furniture and living our life in 23' Jayco Outback. However we new from day one and part of our planning was that we could not caravan full time and we would become very tired very early in the adventure.
The answer "house and farm sitting".
We spend 50/60% of our time living in a homeowners home while seeing the country experiencing the area and not paying for caravan parks or fueling up a V8 diesel moving from one camp to another.
Currently helping out a couple down on their luck in the drought effected area of Loomberah. NSW. They needed a break from the drought, daily feeding of horses and major health issues.
We have been at it for nearly 6 years, have bookings to the end of 2020 and will retire from our Nomadic life style in 18/24 months after spending some 8 years as Grey Nomads experiencing a life style that you could only dream about, meeting beautiful people and looking after wonderful animals.
Mind you it is not for everyone.
JohnR
-- Edited by JohnR on Friday 8th of November 2019 10:56:59 PM
We fulltimed for many years. Albeit in the USA. Biggest advice I can have for anyone is to have a backup plan. Remember if you have a partner then a small RV will find any cracks in your relationship. Makes sure you both want to do it.
If full timing works out you will discover how much you don't need to have an enjoyable life.
Travel with open eyes and more importantly with an open mind.
Hey Mike Harding.
I think it's more about who l am rather than the house sitting itself.
I didn't like being in/at someones place.
I felt restricted by their timeframe especially when my circumstances or theirs changed. The first sit l did was handy because l was able to use their welder and a few tools to do some work on my ute. I had no problems doing chores during the sits. One place l sat for rented their house out and used me to maintain the property!
I did not use the house sit service. I found the sits through adds and word of mouth hence the slightly unusual situations.
For me, l decided to live on the road so thats what l'm going to do.
I was going to be at Greens Lake by september but l changed my mind due to works being done there. I'm now on my way to Orbost for a pizza!
Thanks for the reply. I can fully understand where you are coming from in regard to house sitting. I too would not like to be at the beck and call of another which, I suppose, is the case so maybe it isn't for me either? I'll give it some thought.
Edit:
Orbost is a delightful little place with an excellent IGA store - I did not know it was famous for pizza? :)
-- Edited by Mike Harding on Saturday 9th of November 2019 02:41:32 PM
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Good thing about no ties Mike is l can go to Orbost for a pizza. I've been working my way east along the coast from Portland looking at lots of potential towns to buy a home base. I was hoping to get to Orbost before the busy holiday season but l'm not going to make it. I'm pulling up stumps to spend holidays with my family.
You should give house sitting a try at least once so you can see what its like.
STRETCH ARMSTRONG wrote:I'm glad you enjoy house sitting. I tried it for a year but discovered it's not for me.
May I ask why it didn't work for you? I have thought about doing it but resent paying $84 to that damn website when home owners pay nothing.
Hi Mike, we subscribe to two paid websites, Grey nomads site and grey nomad jobs. Our house sits come from across the board of these four options. We only house sit when, where and if it suits our plans. the annual subscription for the website, is far outweighed by what we save when we do pick up a house sit.
When we knew we were heading to Kangaroo Island, we advertised on their face book page, and via grey nomads site. Both reaped sits on the island, to save us the $16/$17 per night in council camping grounds and national parks. Both are during school holidays, so we wont have the bother by full camping areas.
We have already completed a small sit here, and already have made a friend in a million, who is willing to share her tiny front yard with our monster of a van for as long or when ever we like...
Give it more consideration if that is what you need
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Pay it forward - what goes around comes around
DUNMOWIN is no longer on the road and still DUNMOWIN!
I think that I would enjoy, being full time on the road
Unfortunately, it will probably never happen for me, as my better half would not enjoy it, which would probably reflect back onto me
I believe, (but could be wrong), that adaptability is the secret to enjoying life on the road
Rather than, rushing into a dream, which may or may not eventuate
I think that I would enjoy, being full time on the road
Unfortunately, it will probably never happen for me, as my better half would not enjoy it, which would probably reflect back onto me
I believe, (but could be wrong), that adaptability is the secret to enjoying life on the road Rather than, rushing into a dream, which may or may not eventuate
Same here, would like to spend more time and there is a but.
we do enjoy going over to Europe to spend time with our son for 6 to 8 weeks at a time. that's a big hole in the year.
at home we do leave at short notice with the caravan in tow without a time limit until a medical need rares it head, we attend to that at home and then go again.
