Two ladies in their 70s and 80s taking off together on a major Australian campervan adventure is a pretty impressive undertaking … and doubly so if they’re coming from the others side of the world to do it!
Pauline van der Vyver, 83, and her friend Ansa, 76, will fly into Sydney from South Africa in the middle of next month, and then take off up the coast in a ‘smallish’ hired campervan.
They plan to reach Cairns in the middle of May.
Neither woman has been to Australia before, and while they are excited about what lies ahead, they are also – understandably – a little anxious.
“I’d love to get help from experienced campers to help me with the planning of the trip,” said Pauline. “It would be great to get some tips on the best campsites and on the places we should not miss en route.”
Pauline (right) and Ansa on New Zealand’s South Island.
While the two women will be newcomers to Australia, they certainly won’t be newcomers to adventure.
Pauline, who is from Cape Town, previously did an enormous amount of camping and travelling all around southern Africa with her husband. And, when he became unable to walk big distances, she was determined that that wasn’t going to stop her.
“In 2009, I did the Camino de Santiago walk in Spain on my own,” she said. “And when I met Ansa on an 18-day hiking trip in 2011, I told her about the Camino, and she asked me if I would take her with me if I ever wanted to do it again.”
So, the year after Pauline’s husband passed away in 2015, she and Ansa walked the Camino together.
Buoyed by the success of that trip, the pair headed to New Zealand in 2017 where they hired a campervan and toured the North Island for two months; and then, in 2019, they did the South island for two months.
However, Pauline and Ansa had inside knowledge for those trips.
“I have a son who lives in Auckland with his family, and so New Zealand was easy for us because my daughter-in-law knows all about all the best camping sites and places of interest,” she said. “Unfortunately, I have nobody in Australia with that knowledge!”
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Check out hire of camper vans and RV’s in Australia – your age may be an issue. You may need to purchase your transport.
if you are coming to new zealand you will need plenty of money everything is a rip off here
Definitely good advice re checking age limit for hiring a camper van. Many car high companies have age curfews. Also driving the west coast of Australia may not be possible due to extreme flooding with many of our roads n bridges were washed away. There is also a ban where many camper vans are not permitted to be taken