Walking is a great way of keeping fit
Travelling around Australia long-term is a fantastic opportunity to live a healthy lifestyle and to possibly rediscover fitness and vitality. Grey nomads are fond of telling the stories of people they knew who dropped dead without warning. This is often quoted as the inspiration behind their decision to escape the rat race and to seek out true quality of life.
Fitness and health are key components of a quality lifestyle. Half a dozen beers during happy hour, a barbecued meatathon, and an eight-hour stint crashed out in a camp chair is not what it’s all about.
Happily, most nomads are dynamic individuals who love what they are doing way too much to risk having it cut short by ill health or worse. You only have to take a look about at dawn at popular camping spots to see that for yourself. Caravan parks in hotspots such as Darwin during the dry season quickly become a hive of activity as enthusiastic, tracksuit-wearing nomads hit the pavement at power walk pace. Some caravan parks even offer fitness classes such as yoga, Tai Chi and even line dancing for visitors. It’s a sight for sore eyes.
No one will be surprised to hear that walking is one of the best activities to get into and it is what nomad travelling is all about. Besides the beautiful beaches it has to stroll along, Australia is also home to the most magnificent bushwalking anywhere in the world. There are walks for people of all fitness levels and they offer a great way to get out into some incredible countryside. Failing that, just take a walk around the park at dusk, it’s cool then and it’s a great way to meet people.
Swimming is another favourite but, of course, every care must be taken if you are taking to the ocean in an unfamiliar area. Drowning is not part of the fitness plan.
Fitness is really a state of mind when you are living such an outdoor lifestyle as caravanning or motorhoming. Just don’t take the easy options. You really don’t have to run a marathon, just get up and get at ’em, that’s what you’re here for. And, boy, does that first beer taste better after a healthily active day.
