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How I stay safe on the road – veteran solo traveller

Published: February 21, 2019

Feeling safe and secure is high on the priority list of all grey nomads camping in remote country, but perhaps particularly so for solo female travellers.

Veteran traveller Gwynnie Cahill has been on the road three years clocking up tens of thousands of kilometres … and she has a few simple guidelines she follows.

“My number one rule is that there is safety in numbers,” says the adventurous 64-yearold. “It means that I only camp at night where there are others.”

Gwynnie travels in a 1996 Toyota Hilux 4X4 with slide-on camper and carries both a satphone and a two-way radio.

“I have learnt a few other tricks travelling solo around the loop road,” she said. “Like leaving a man’s size 12 boots outside my door at night and hanging men’s shirts and shorts out on the annex ropes.”

Despite taking precautions, and despite the overwhelmingly friendly atmosphere at Australia’s caravan parks and camping grounds, the law of averages dictates that – as the months and years roll by – it is perhaps inevitable there will be the odd ‘scare’.

Gwynnie recalls being at a free camp close to a main township when three carloads of local hoons turned up in the ‘wee hours’.

“There were loud voices and music and their antics disrupted the quiet of the camp,” she says. “Then the group’s congenial mood changed and a physical fight broke out before an out-of-control car almost collided into innocent caravans’ parked nearby.”

Happily, that was as bad as it got and, by the time the police arrived, the alcohol-fuelled revellers were long gone. On another occasion, Gwynnie recalls arriving at the Mathison Bush camp just southwest of Katherine in the Northern Territory to see a note advising: ‘Please ensure all goods are not left outside the van as there is someone coming in late at night stealing things.’

“Lo and behold, at 1am a vehicle approached the campsite with only its parkers on and began perusing the camp,” she says. “Being pre-warned of trouble, I gave the unsuspecting thieves the fright of their lives … I turned on my van lights, my vehicle’s high beam, and my spotties full blast!”

She said the last sight of the offending vehicle was of its tail lights disappearing out of the camp.

“Although it woke the entire camp up, we all had an exciting early ‘round the campfire debate’ on safe camping and swapped war stories of close travel encounters,” Gwynnie recalls. “A great story telling session ensued, and it was an experience no one will ever forget!”

It’s yet another fond memory for a solo traveller who loves life on the road and who cherishes the friendships she has made and the laughs she has shared even more than the incredible country she has seen.

And the journey has only just begun.

• What do you do to make sure you feel safe and secure at a campsite?