10 reasons we are enjoying caravan life travelling Australia

Following retirement in 2016 we decided to take the plunge and travel full time in our caravan around Australia.

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1 Following retirement in 2016 we decided to take the plunge and travel full time in our caravan around Australia.

2 Travel

3 A time for us

4 Visit family and friends

5 A sense of freedom and adventure

6 Rest and rejuvenate

7 Re-evaluating what is important

8 Exercise

9 Minimal housework

10 Financially affordable

11 New hobbies

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For us, this was a surprisingly easy decision to make:

Firstly, we love to travel. We want to do travel as much as possible while we are fit and healthy
Secondly, we had already decided to sell up and move from our home town in Goulburn NSW
Thirdly, number one on Greg’s bucket list was visiting the Kimberly Region in Western Australia

Following consideration of the above points, we decided to live full time in our caravan, as we travel Australia.

We thought it didn’t make sense buying a house in another town, then travelling around Australia for an indefinite period. An empty house, with no one to keep an eye on it, would be asking for trouble. And, the truth is, we were both exhausted after selling up. We needed a rest. In the end, jumping into our caravan and beginning a nomads life was easy.

We have been on the road now for nearly 5 months. In no particular order, here is our list of the reasons we enjoy caravan life.

Travel

Currently, I think it is fair to say, we have a good dose of the travel bug.

Our focus in 2017 is travelling around Australia. Our goal is to travel to the Kimberley Region in Western Australia. Still, even at this stage, we are uncertain exactly which way we will go, other than we head out from Queensland. Whatever we see will be a wonderful bonus.

Since Novmeber 2016 we have already travelled thousands of kilometres. We have explored the Snowy Mountains (NSW), East Gippsland area (VIC), and the Sunshine Coast and Hinterland. We have enjoyed wonderful times in Melbourne, Milton Ulladulla, Wollongong, Newcastle and Brisbane. Now we are exploring outback Queensland.

We love free camping. Firstly, it’s doesn’t cost anything! Plus, often the free camps are in very picturesque and interesting places, off the beaten track. Throughout Australia there are heaps of free camping options. We plan to free camp as often as possible.

A time for us

Greg and I have decided retirement is a time for us. This is our time to travel, to explore the world, to be inspired by what we see and learn, to rejuvenate so we can simply do all we want.

Living in a caravan full time means it really is just us. While we may visit family and friends, and meet new people, it usually is just us. And that’s how we like it. This is a special opportunity for us in our senior years to enrich our relationship.

Visit family and friends

We have adult children living all along the eastern seaboard of Australia. They live in Gladstone and Brisbane (Queensland), Wollongong (NSW), Bairnsdale and Melbourne (Victoria). Since we began travelling full time we have seen far more of our children than usual.

When on the road we try and catch up with friends. These are also people we don’t see often. Some may have been people we travelled with in the past, or worked with at some stage.

A sense of freedom and adventure

We had heard others talk about retirement bringing a sense of freedom. Well this is exactly what we are experiencing living and travelling in a caravan full time. We no longer are tied to schedules, plans, or even other people’s expectations. We simply are just doing our thing.

Decisions can be day by day. Often we make our decision about where we pull up and camp as we travel along. Or, we hear about something interesting, and we change our plans.

People often ask us what our plans are, which way we are travelling, where do we plan to stay, how long before we go onto… etc, etc. We simply say we are not sure. While we have a basic mud map. we believe our journey will unfold along the road.

This is so different for us both. We feel so adventurous. Plus, we are doing many activities we never would do if living in just one place. And some activities are actually adventurous.

Rest and rejuvenate

Life on the road can be busy. There is so many things to see and do. Travelling is sometimes really tiring. But, you know what? We can do nothing if we want. If we are tired, we pull up and simply rest. If we become really tired, we may decide to stay in one place for a week or two, and do nothing much.

While there are stressful moments, we both are far more relaxed than when we were working. Relaxation is something we no longer not need to plan or schedule.

Re-evaluating what is important

For us,so far, coping with the retirement transition has been relatively easy. Travel has been a major distraction, to say the least.

Before we retired we began planning what we would do in retirement. This caused us to re-evaluate everything and to make decisions about what is important to us.

Moving to a warmer climate has been a long term goal. Making the decision to actually do it was our first big step.

We have always agreed we would do a lot more travel. Just prior to our retirement we made the decision to travel in our caravan around Australia. This decision then had a major flow on effect, making us re-evaluate everything basically in our lives. We sold our home and more than half our belongings (or gave them away).

We have chosen to become minimalist in what we possess. Our goal at this stage of our lives is to focus on travel and experiences to enjoy.

We are also striving to re-evaluate our lifestyle choices and maintain or improve and health and wellbeing. We are striving to do everything in moderation. Happy hour can be a bit of a challenge to our intentions though.

Exercise

Travel is a great motivator to exercise. If you want to see and do things you need to walk. Often we do not have to think about walking 10,000 steps a day. When we are out and about, exploring wherever we are, we are exercising without noticing.

For many years I regularly went to the gym. I also did Yoga. Now I am keen to maintain my strength and flexibility. I’ve found iPhone apps are great when travelling. I have a core strength app and a Yoga app. However, I am finding it harder to do these exercises now. I’m out of a routine, and somehow, my hope is to get back into a routine with these exercises again.

Stretching is also something I like to do. It is simple and feels so good. I can do it any time, but I routinely do it after my shower. It is also great to do after a long day travelling.

While Greg is resting far more than before, he remains very active. He is one of those people who can always find something to do.

Minimal housework

Living in a caravan means minimal housework. A quick sweep, a quick clean, and it is all done. The biggest jobs are changing the sheets and cleaning the bathroom. We don’t even have an iron with us.

Financially affordable

We bought our caravan four years ago. Back then we did not plan to travel full time in our caravan. Rather ,our intention then was to take trips in our caravan. So we already had the caravan. We bought a DMax Isuzu ute to tow our caravan. These are major expenses.

Before setting off on our adventure we had no idea about how affordable it would be for us to travel in a caravan day to day.

At the moment we have invested the proceeds from the sale of our home. Therefore, we are not financing our travel from the sale of our home. Because we currently have no home, we have no bills associated with a home – no rates, electricity, gas, home or contents insurance, home maintenance etc.

The downside of having no home currently is the fact that home prices are rising at an unprecedented rate in Australia. However, currently we can’t make up our mind where to live. We have given ourselves a year to decide on a location. We then will buy another home. If we want to continue travelling, we plan to rent the home.

As we travel we are simply living off our retirement savings, the same as if we were living at home. As we travel around Australia our main expense is diesel, wear and tear on our vehicle and caravan, and campsite fees. Our caravan is set up for free camping. We often free camp and this greatly helps keep our expenses down.

We decided we’d better do a budget, rather than just cross our fingers. We do not want to dip into our retirement funds for our travel expenses. We allocate a weekly amount to spend, whether at home or travelling, and we stick to it. In our budget we have also included a holiday account. Each fortnight money goes into this account. We figure if we were living at home we would be wanting a holiday. We use this account for the special activities and events we want to enjoy as we travel.

No use going all this way and not doing the things we have always wanted to.

Living in a caravan requires us to be minimalists. We have to be aware of the weight we carry in our caravan. Plus storage space is very limited. This means we longer buy items like we used to. Now we only buy what we need or really, really want. Another unexpected saving.

We cook our meals, just the same as if at home. And we eat out about the same number of times per week. So, no change in cost here.

Overall, after several months of living in a caravan as we travel, we can say it has been very affordable for us to be living on the road.

New hobbies

Before retirement, I didn’t really have a hobby. Now photography and blogging are my new hobbies. If you had asked me before I retired about these hobbies I wouldn’t have shown any interest. I think I just needed to stop. And, really, we can’t know ahead. We all have to wait until we are in that moment, until we are retired. So, at this moment, it’s photography and blogging for me.

Greg’s lost his hobby of gardening, for now, and he is happy to be having a break. Fishing and cooking are hobbies he can continue on the road.

We both continue to enjoy walking and reading.