What age did you hit the road

Tony Bev · Guru

What age did you hit the road

Wizardofoz · Guru

Myself was when I retired at 70, then reluctantly had to 'retire again' 6 years later because of my wifes health...however, it was one of the best times of my lfe, but alas, after she goes into full time care shortly, I will not be back on the road solo, I will be 78 in 6 weeks.

-- Edited by Wizardofoz on Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 07:17:06 AM

-- Edited by Wizardofoz on Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 07:18:36 AM

Derek Barnes · Senior Member

I started camping with my family when I was about 5 in a caravanette (now would be called a camper). My dad fixed it up so it had a double bed in the middle, two fold out beds on the sides and space for food, fold out gas cooker, etc., under the double bed. When I was about 15 we (2 parents and 3 kids) spent a year living in a 21 foot caravan in the USA, driving from California to New York, then down to Florida, then back to California. When we got back to Australia we did many holidays in a 20 foot caravan.

I bought my own 13 foot caravan two years ago and my partner and I plan to go on many long holidays as soon as the Covid situation settles.

Trailer Sailer · Senior Member

Hi All Did my first camping as a Cadet at high school as my parents had no interest in camping! Purchased my first motorhome at 23 and it was a custom built 6x6 Range Rover based technical tour de force but I didn't do that many trips in it before a girlfriend breakup and need to work got in the road and it was sold. I had hoped to do the lap with that girlfriend way back then! I have done a fair amount with lots of different setup plus many 100s of nights tenting since then. I hope to retire this year with a spectacular new partner Clare and get out there virtually full time once again! See you out there somewhere.
Below is a photo of my first motorhome.

-- Edited by Trailer Sailer on Tuesday 23rd of February 2021 04:32:10 PM

Trailer Sailer · Senior Member

Trailer Sailer wrote:
Hi All Did my first camping as a Cadet at high school as my parents had no interest in camping! Purchased my first motorhome at 23 and it was a custom built 6x6 Range Rover based technical tour de force but I didnt do that many trips in it before a girlfriend breakup and need to work got in the road and it was sold. I had hoped to do the lap with that girlfriend way back then! I have done a fair amount with lots of different setups plus many 100s of nights tenting since then. I hope to retire this year with a spectacular new partner Clare and get out there virtually full time once again! See you out there somewhere.
Below is a photo of my first motorhome.

RichardK · Senior Member

The earliest I can remember tenting is around 1951 where we lived in a tent in an area known then as West Breen, probably since been renamed, in Vic., just checked Google it appears to be now in the Pascoe Vale area.

Some years later Xmas 1956 we drove from Vic. to Brisbane and tented on Wynumm foreshore for a few months, not much money around at that time and not long after WW2 so things were slow to recover.

The next trip was in 1957 when we drove from Qld. to WA in our Rover 75, don't know how we all fitted in, 4 children, Mum, Dad and the dog, Nullabor was the old road and dusty track from Pt Augusta to Norseman.

Returning to current times Dru and I have been camping 4 wheel driving with camper trailers until 2014 when we started with larger offroad caravans or Trailers as ours are called, I retired in 2015 after reaching 70 and now we like to spend around 6 months of the year traveling, the other 6 months is AFL as we are members of a club.
Hopefully this can resume when certainty returns to the borders in the meantime we will be doing short trips around WA as soon as it gets cooler.

Cheers
RichardK

Trailer Sailer · Senior Member

Mike Harding wrote:
Teo wrote:
Mike Harding.

Why?
Because people who do not *live* on the road are simply on holiday. If things go wrong they may immediately return to a physical and social support structure, those of us *living* on the road have forsaken those and have nowhere to turn in the event of problems, this engenders a very different mindset and approach to life.

Hi Mike

Sorry like others here I didn't quite get the gist of the opening question. I will say that I feel it would be very challenging to take to the road full time and not have a fall-back position of a base somewhere. Even not having a fixed address somewhere for government authorities to contact you and for simple things like reregistration, insurance, Medicare, pension questions etc makes it very hard. Having lived for relatively short periods much like this I do understand it is very different from having a stable base to return to.

My daughters mother (ex) and I spent extended periods on the road in Europe 20 years ago and only via kind of illegally using her brothers address in the UK did we manage to cope with many of these same issues. I have many older friends who live half time on the road and half time back at some home base which maintains contact with friends and family and leaves you in the system for many of these other issues. I expect to follow a process more like this over the next many years. (with luck)

I hope it all stays good out there for you and friends, family or fellow grey nomads can assist if it comes unstuck sometime.