With so many grey nomads now racking up multiple years on the open road, they are increasingly facing the almost inevitable conundrum … should I risk returning to a place where I have so many happy memories of a previous visit?
The risk, of course, is that the spot might not live up to the way they remember it? Will recollections of that earlier visit be forever tarnished?
For one thing, the cast of characters they meet will be different. And the bottom line is, things just change. Free camps close, caravan parks get developed, pubs get different owners, and towns shrink … or grow.
Of course, the longer the gap between visits, the higher the risk.
That was then, and this is now! A lot has changed for caravanners over the years.
When grey nomad, Larraine Young, went to the Outback New South Wales town of Lightning Ridge with husband Bill a decade or so ago, she hadn’t set foot in the opal mining town since she was nine!
“My Dad was a house painter and painted most of the stations in and around that area,” she said. “As kids, my brother and I would play outside the old pub while mum and dad were drinking.”
She recalled the miners would travel into town on horseback or walk in for a drink at the end of the week.
Back then, Larraine’s family had a model T Ford with plastic windows, and she and her brothers would sit in the drop-down boot as they travelled around the stations her dad painted.
“Every weekend we would go into Lightning Ridge, just for the pub, and sometimes it would take two hours to get there,” she said. “We would play with some of the Aboriginal kids that were there.”
Larraine was delighted to see the horse rails where the old miners tied up their horses were still there on her most recent visit.
“It was interesting to see the town hadn’t really changed much from when I was a kid … a few more buildings, a caravan park,” she said. “We as kids would go to the old water bore and muck around under it and had a bath there as well … I think it runs into a swimming pool now.”
One change she did hate though was the arrival of bulldozers.
“It took away that feeling of old history, and they are destroying the country,” said Larraine. “There were not bulldozers back when I was a kid; back then, it was pick, shovel and hard work but it was a great place, and it was really friendly … unless you went onto someone’s mine site!”
WIN A DOUBLE PASS TO HISTORIC WINTON
Grey Nomad members are being given the chance to win one of two double passes for the 48th Historic Winton to be held May 24-25 at Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria. The fabulous event promises two full days of historic car racing and vehicle displays of the elegant, the rustic, the weird and wacky. Both double passes (each valued at $170) offer entry for two people for both days. Camping is available at the event.
Click here to learn about Historic Winton, our competition, and how to enter.
Members: If you wish to enter, please click here.
I frequented Polblue Swamp at Barrington 30 years ago. It was wild and pristine. Returned a couple of weeks ago and National Parks has fenced and destroyed the area. I was extremely disappointed.