Grey nomad Roland H recalls a couple of incidents that, to him, sum up what the open road is all about.
A couple of years ago we were travelling west through the Northern Territory and were camped, on Saturday night, at Saddle Creek. In the morning before we left I went to the bin, the lid of which, was held closed with a large rock. I had just replaced the rock when I noticed the mother of a young family approaching the bin with her bag of rubbish. I said ‘good morning’ and offered to remove the rock.
She was thankful, then looked at me and asked: “Do you have any kids?”
I thought it might just have been the type of question you would ask if your kids were giving you a hard time. I told her we had six. Her reply was: “Happy Fathers Day.”
It is something I have never forgotten. She was aware that there was no mobile phone coverage there and she, in order not to give any offence, asked if I had kids. It really made my day to meet such a thoughtful traveller.
Another incident occurred a couple of months ago. We were camped at Baralaba and, as I walked past a camper mounted on a Ute, I noticed a push bike attached to a frame on the back was standing on the ground at right angles to the direction of travel of the vehicle. I made a light-hearted comment about it being hard to ride in that direction and follow the car.
He was rummaging around in his tool box and replied: “If you’re so smart, it’s broken.” I quickly apologised and offered to lend a hand. He was having difficulty finding a suitable drill bit and his cordless drill with its jury rigged battery was almost flat. I got my generator, 240v drill and suitable bit and together the repair was quickly completed.
After that, we were the best of friends and had a good chat.
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