Grey nomads who were persuaded by an unseasonably warm Autumn to linger longer in the south have been give a sharp reminder by Mother Nature that it could be time to head north!
A bitter cold snap has sent temperatures in parts of southern Queensland plunging below zero, and the meteorologists say it’s going to stay extremely chilly for a while yet. Much of the Sunshine State can continue to expect below average temperatures.
The ABC reports that Oakey north of Toowoomba shivered through a low of -3.7 degrees yesterday, and the temperature at Applethorpe on the Granite Belt dropped to -3.5. It was about -2 degrees at Dalby, Kingaroy and Ipswich.
When the mercury starts to take a serious dip, it normally means only one thing. There’s movement at the caravan parks and camping areas.
Charleville caravan park owner Wendy O’Hern told the ABC that grey nomads had been late to arrive this year.
“The trigger generally is once the weather gets a bit cold and unpleasant down south, you start to see movement up here,” she said. “The word from the caravan and camping shows is they were all saying they are on the move and they are moving in June, and that has absolutely been accurate in terms of our figures.”
But for all of the grey nomads who are not yet heading north for one reason or another, don’t despair. It could yet be that the caravan and motorhome convoys are heading in the wrong direction. Yesterday’s Brisbane’s minimum of 5 degrees was apparently a little colder than Hobart’s!
We headed south this year for winter, to see South Australia looking green and beautiful and to escape the crowds heading north. It has been relatively mild although we have had some very wet and windy weather. We are doing a short house-sit in mid July and will start heading north east towards the end of July as we are due on the NSW north coast by early October. We will probably be in Broken Hill early August and assume it will be cold there.