The seemingly ceaseless heavy rains brought by the La Nina weather system to much of the country has tested the patience, resilience and adaptability of many grey nomads as their travel plans have been thrown into chaos.
Aside from practical issues such as closed roads, flood risks, and treacherous driving conditions, the sheer relentlessness of the deluge has threatened to dampen the spirits of even the most hardy of travellers.
For veterans of the road like Norm and Sue Austin it has helped to be able to draw on past ‘miserable’ weather experiences, and to get comfort from the fact they got through those … and are able to laugh about it now. Having said that, the couple’s resilience levels weren’t all that high when they first retired and decided travelling in a tent in Tasmania would be a good start to their on-the-road adventures.
Making hay while the sun shines ... the Austins have learned to make the most of the good weather.
Sue soon discovered that camping in a tent in a Tassie snowstorm was not for her!
“In reality, the ‘roughing it’ only occurred a couple of times,” said Sue. “Snow, blizzards, torrential rain or just late arrivals to our destination led us to seek comfort indoors rather than camping beside a sodden campfire.”
Lesson learned, the Austins soon upgraded to a Kimberly Kamper, complete with tinny on top.
“Over the next few years, we travelled to every state of Australia,” said Sue. “The Kamper followed us over the sand dunes of the Simpson Desert and down the Canning Stock Route; up to Kakadu, including several up close and almost too personal encounters with crocs in our tinny!”
While poor weather was seemingly the least of their worries in croc country, that changed when Norm and Sue headed south and set up camp at Cumberland River Gorge off Victoria’s Great Ocean Road.
“Knowing that stormy weather was predicted, Norm made sure the canvas was firmly tied down but during the night the wind gusts intensified, accompanied by a roar like a steam train from hell tearing towards us,” said Sue.
“The gales buffeted the Kamper, and poor Norm spent most of the night out in the pouring rain hammering pegs back in and tightening guy ropes.”
The next morning, the couple woke to an eerily quiet, sunlit camp … and quickly noticed that all of the tents from the night before had disappeared!
“This mystery was soon solved when I discovered that the amenities block was crowded with bedraggled campers,” said Sue. “Every available space was covered with sodden articles of camping gear.”
The rain in Cowra stayed mainly in the camper trailer … and convinced the couple to upgrade!
But the weather doesn’t have to be dramatic to cause dramas. Indeed, there wasn’t a breath of wind or a drop of rain when the Austins camped at Cowra in New South Wales.
“But I still woke to rain falling on my face from the canvas roof above,” said Sue. “I soon discovered this was caused by a very impressive frost outside, and condensation inside …. my love of the great outdoors was seriously challenged!”
Realising their rig limited them to warm weather camping, the Austins say their ‘damp awakening’ persuaded them it was time to upgrade their Kimberly Kamper to a Kimberly Karavan.
And now they are happily travelling the country in it, La Nina or no La Nina!
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Try and dodge the weather – cabin fever is not good for mental health
We have moved from a caravan back to a Campomatic campertrailer, and just did a very wet camp locally, the tent was soaked outside, but not inside, for 2 nites, and we loved it. 26 oz of pure Duck canvass, and will be the only canvass style type that we will have in the future. We went back to a camper for the pureness of actually camping. The c.van, living, we may as well have been in a house or cabin. We are really enjoying it now. We are in our sixties, have had 3 vans, and one soft floor camper before, in in between 2 of them, should never have sold that camper at all..
On a recent Nth Central Victoria trip we had a huge three day deluge & with another one expected a few days later we decided to come home early.
A good decision because the area that we left was completely flooded a few days later.