I haven't been abducted by aliens or murdered by some crazy, I am still around.
The truth of the matter is travel within Australia is expensive.............too expensive.
My sister who does a fair bit of overseas travel, hired a Motorhome about 18 months ago and travelled from Darwin and down the West Coast to Perth. She was shocked by the cost compared to overseas travel costs.
I put a lot of this cost down to greed and the recent retirees. Every year I have seen the caravans get bigger and bigger, now approaching the size of an inner city apartment!!
These people now freecamp and the spend the occasional night in a caravan park.
In the caravan park they refill all their tanks, sometimes in excess of 200 litres, leave their airconditioning running 24 hours a day and recharge everything they can lay their hands on. The parks then try to make all their money out of you over one night instead of a few days as there is now an expectation that this will happen.
National Parks too have raised their fees dramatically, what used to be free, or a few token dollars in now in the $20-30 per night range for nothing more than a drop dunny.
My travels since Feb 2014 |
It is another seven and a half years until I am old enough for the aged pension, so back to work it needs to be.
York Peninsula SA |
Would I do it again....................................ABSOLUTELY.
I have loved every minute of it, met some fantastic life long friends and had a ball and wish I had the money to keep going.
Uluru in the rain |
Lucky Bay Cape LeGrande WA |
Fraser Island Qld |
I now only purchase things I NEED not the things I WANT.
I now see people who spending a lot of time and effort into making purchases and buying things they don't need, but they want......thus trapping them in the whole earn, spend, do it again cycle.
Living "off grid" basically has given me a whole new perspective and am now more than happy to live in a shed somewhere than a flash big house with all the bells and whistles.
All these "luxuries" make you less appreciate the smaller things in life and the things that really matter like good friends and family.
Even now as I move into another phase of my life I am still looking for the simple life..............without the clutter and competition to have the biggest and best of everything.
Wonnangatta Station Vic |
either as a complete unit or separately.
While this is not the end, but rather a new beginning, I would like to thank the 38,000 viewers who have viewed this blog and the ones who have taken the time to comment or ask advice.
Feel free to contact me via the "leave comment" section if you are interested in the Ute and Camper or want to offer me a job. 👍😉
Bye for now.......................
80 Mile Beach WA |
G'day Baz, sorry to hear that you are off the road for a while, but while you are settling down, Nikki and I are looking at heading off, probably in middle May. Not sure where you intend to settle down but we will be looking for someone to caretake our home in Trafalgar (for a very reasonable 'rent' including power, internet etc) with no pets to look after, just keep the house tidy and lawns etc. If you are interested drop us a line.
ReplyDeletethanks chris and nikki
DeleteGood to hear from you......i am in gippsland at the moment but i hope to be well and truly relocated by then (too bloody cold) talking to prospective employers in Kalgoorlie WA and Warwick in QLD atm so keep in contact i might be able to offer you somewhere to camp up for a few days lol. I will keep your offer in mind thought but truly hope i am settled and working somewhere by then
Baz
Thanks for replying, good luck with your next venture. Yes, who knows if we will cross paths!
DeleteRegards
Chris
Hey Baz
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! Can you tell me what it is like in the rain and wind in the pop up? dose it get really noisy with the sides flapping around? thanks for your time.
Levi
Thank Levi,
DeleteI don,t find the pop top an issue at all in wind weather.....and boy i've been through everything nature can throw at me. I try to park with the front of the vehicle into the wind and then rarely even lower the legs.The only aspect which may concern you is that you are sleeping less than a metre from the roof, so heavy rain can get a bit noisy but normally it doesn't last too long.