MATURE TRAVELLER
  • Destinations - Australia
    • Alice Springs
    • Green Island Qld
    • Palm Cove
    • Yeppoon QLD
    • Reptile Park
    • Sapphire Coast
    • Mollymook
    • Hyde Park Barracks
    • Palm Cove Social Club
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    • Aussie Country Towns
    • Escape to Australia
    • Lord Howe Island
    • Rottnest Island
    • Vibe Hotel Darling Harbour
    • The Public Silo Trail WA >
      • Coober Pedy SA
    • Brisbane Calile
    • In awe of the Kimberley
    • Hunter Gatherings
    • Pacific Hotel Cairns
    • Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours
    • Kangaroo Island
    • Sunshine State
    • Kimberley Coast
    • The Kimberley and Mitchell Falls
    • Forget Bali - Go Bush
    • Barcaldine
    • Tap and Go Sydney
    • Port Douglas
    • The Outback and fascinating Lava Tubes at Undara.
    • Darwin
    • Brisbane Grand Ladies
    • Brisbane to Townsville >
      • Citadines Sydney Airport
    • Mudgee
    • Kimberley Coast
    • Mudgee's Blue Wren Winery
    • Uber Cool Brisbane
    • Southern Highlands NSW
    • Perth Day Cruise
    • Lord Howe - Return to Paradise
    • Broome
    • The Hydro Majestic Hotel
    • O'REILLY'S
    • Sealink Swan River
  • Travel
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      • Yamoto The Battleship
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      • Nepal
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      • Stockholm
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  • CRUISING
    • Norwegian Cruise Lines
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      • Sunborn Yacht Hotel
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    • Paul Gauguin Cruises Tahitian Dreaming
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      • Lake Geneva Part 2
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    • Silja Line
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    • Norwegian Jewel
    • Azamara >
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      • River Cruises >
        • CroisiEurope
    • Diamond Princess >
      • Multigenerational Cruising
      • MSC Grandiosa
      • China Shore Tour
    • Blue Lagoon Cruises
    • 14-day Baltic cruise on the Celestial Eclipse. >
      • Captain Cook Cruises Fiji
    • Lake Geneva Part 1
    • CroisiEurope Rhine River >
      • Rhine Part 2
    • Riviera Cruises
    • What's New >
      • PNG with P&O >
        • Holland America Line
        • Crystal's 2019 Collection of Globetrotting Voyages
      • Paul Gauguin Cruises 2021
      • New Vibe Hotel for Sydney
      • Back Roads Touring
      • Henty CoPilot
      • Holland America Line’s Nieuw Statendam >
        • Mekong Riverboat
        • MSC Seaside
        • MSC Opera
      • Princess Cruises Australia
    • SeaDream Memories
    • Volendam
    • Silversea NZ part 2
  • CARAVANS & RV
    • Caravans Rule!
    • YaMate Insect Repellent
  • GROUP TOURS & EVENTS
    • Gambaro Hotel
    • Nossa Festival
    • Noosa Food and Wine Feastival
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    • Puglia with Lyndey Milan
    • Sydney Microbrewery
    • Back-Roads Touring Goes USA
    • Noosa Wine and Food Festival
    • BBQ Beer and BS
    • Cuisines of France and Mexico
    • Wine with David Ellis
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • Canon EOS R
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    • Room hangables
  • Books
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    • In Her Footsteps
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    • Lonely Planet Kids
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    • Take Back Australia Mark Latham
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    • In the Valley of the Blue Gums
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    • Gallipoli
  • Photo Gallery
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When you can't Cruise, Caravans & RV's Rule!!


By Dallas Sherringham
We have all made solemn vows not to something, only to break it one day and have the time of our lives when finally did try it.
Such was my dismissal of caravanning as a holiday  - I tried it once as a teenager, crowded into a tiny family caravan at Terrigal while it poured rain – and I vowed never to do it again.
The onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic changed all that for myself and  a million other Aussies who normally go cruising every year.
Suddenly our yearly adrenaline rush was cut off and we sat around gloomily contemplating life without Deck Chairs, Island Night, Gourmet Meals and Days Ashore.
My wife Sharon came up with the light bulb idea of hiring a motorhome and heading off around Australia. We arranged a Jayco model from Lets Go Motorhomes, the new startup company which is attracting a lot of business due to very competitive long term rates.
It cost us a bit over $5000 to rent a motorhome for seven weeks, which was compatible with our cruise fares each year.
Motorhome and caravan rentals and purchases in Australia have boomed in recent months as the nation contemplates a future without international travel and cruising.
We packed it up with far too many clothes and lots of extras we really didn’t need and headed north, scraping into Queensland two days before they shut the border. Our destination was Broome, but daily checks of the news told us WA was out and the Territory was unlikely.
So, we changed direction at Winton and headed for Palm Cove for three nights. It was so much fun, we stayed nearly weeks at the NRMA Caravan Park, right on the beach.
It was a real learning experience. Caravanning, like cruising, is a social experience where people mix freely with no pretensions. We made a lot of friends along the way and if you are thinking of taking up caravanning and staying in van parks, you need to be able to mix socially.
Now, a warning: some caravan owners love nothing better than discussing their latest adventures over an hour or two and others like to discuss the “mechanical” side of caravans and will tell you with your Jayco has the wrong tyre pressure or the “bolts of the fandangle need attached to the bomboogle”.
It’s all gobblygook to me, but I just agreed with whatever they said and got on with it.
Free camping is all the rage at the moment which means nights out in the wilderness with no power or toilets, but we decided to stay in van parks and the powered sites ranged from $30 to $60 per night. We booked ahead on the phone, just like booking a motel room and never had a problem.
The two best van parks were Palm Cove for its location and Big Four at Cannonvale which has Australia’s biggest water park in a campground.
The motorhome seemed restricted in size when we first started out, but after a few days we were used to the setup and the annex made it so much easier. Let’s Go Motorhomes supplied two foldup chairs and a table and they made our holiday so much more enjoyable.
Setting up each day  involved connecting the electricity to the mains, the water inlet on to a tap and the wastewater outlet into a pipe. We had it down to about two minutes at the end after a ridiculously silly start on the first day at Gunnedah.
Now I am a caravanning convert and I should have been enjoying it all these years.
And to top it all off, I came back to the Central Coast and bought myself a second hand caravan and booked a month in Palm Cove next year.
Details: www.letsgomotorhomes.com.au
​
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  • Destinations - Australia
    • Alice Springs
    • Green Island Qld
    • Palm Cove
    • Yeppoon QLD
    • Reptile Park
    • Sapphire Coast
    • Mollymook
    • Hyde Park Barracks
    • Palm Cove Social Club
    • Kangaroo Island
    • Aussie Country Towns
    • Escape to Australia
    • Lord Howe Island
    • Rottnest Island
    • Vibe Hotel Darling Harbour
    • The Public Silo Trail WA >
      • Coober Pedy SA
    • Brisbane Calile
    • In awe of the Kimberley
    • Hunter Gatherings
    • Pacific Hotel Cairns
    • Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours
    • Kangaroo Island
    • Sunshine State
    • Kimberley Coast
    • The Kimberley and Mitchell Falls
    • Forget Bali - Go Bush
    • Barcaldine
    • Tap and Go Sydney
    • Port Douglas
    • The Outback and fascinating Lava Tubes at Undara.
    • Darwin
    • Brisbane Grand Ladies
    • Brisbane to Townsville >
      • Citadines Sydney Airport
    • Mudgee
    • Kimberley Coast
    • Mudgee's Blue Wren Winery
    • Uber Cool Brisbane
    • Southern Highlands NSW
    • Perth Day Cruise
    • Lord Howe - Return to Paradise
    • Broome
    • The Hydro Majestic Hotel
    • O'REILLY'S
    • Sealink Swan River
  • Travel
    • Destinations - Overseas >
      • Yamoto The Battleship
      • Tierra Tourismo
      • Ascott The Residence
      • Ireland
      • Disneyland Resort
      • African Elephants
      • Guernsey
      • Salzburg
      • Austria's Silent Night
      • Ethiopia
      • Yorkshire
      • Bryce Canyon
      • Macao
      • Dubai Taj
      • Destination India
      • Return to Sri Lanka
      • Nepal
      • The Balkans Tour
      • Disney Star Wars
      • Destinations - Asia
      • Indian Motorbike
      • The Falkland Islands
      • Rajasthan
      • Marrakech
      • Ganges Odyssey
      • Hokkaido
      • Würzburg
      • Samoa
      • Tripura India
      • Hong Kong Park Lane
      • A Day in Hong Kong
      • Zagreb Croatia
      • Paris Mercure
      • Majorca
      • Dubai
      • Croatia
      • Flanders
      • Wales
      • Switzerland
      • Morocco Part 3
      • Morocco Part 2
      • Ireland's Movies
      • Morocco Part 1
      • Milwaukee
      • Hong Kong Peak Tram
      • India's Golden Triangle
      • Destination USA & Canada
      • Peru's Colca Valley
      • Destination Africa
      • Samoa Paradise
      • Italy
      • Jasper Canada >
        • Cuba Cars >
          • Thai Market
          • Sri Lanka
          • Caribbean Airport
      • Antarctica
      • Kuala Lumpur
      • Cuba >
        • The Netherlands
      • P&O Samoa
      • Destination Europe
      • British Columbia
      • Winnipeg Canada
      • Thailand
      • The Canadian
      • Ghana Bikes
      • Finland
      • Malaysia Medical
      • Finland 'Escape'
      • Stockholm
      • Deadwood, USA
      • Helsinki cool
      • South & Central America
      • French Village
      • Alaska 101
      • Samoa Win
      • Vietnam
      • Cumbria England
      • Doha Qatar
      • Ottawa
      • Tokyo Disney 1 >
        • Tokyo Disney Part 2
        • Tokyo Disney Part 3
      • Hong Kong
    • LUXURY RESORTS >
      • The Havannah Vanuatu
      • Paul Gauguin Cruises 2020 brochure
      • Back-Roads Touring Film Locations >
        • Adina Brisbane
      • Pan Pacific Hotels
      • Novotel Century Hong Kong
    • TRAINS >
      • Yorkshire Train
      • Eurail >
        • Eurail New Free App
      • Canada Rail
      • The Ghan
      • Portugal Rail
      • China's Trains
    • Airline Reviews >
      • Hawaiian Airlines
      • Fly Rex
      • Cathay Pacific A350-1000
      • Air Asia
      • Cathay Pacific Menu
      • Cathay Pacific Business
      • CMV Vasco da Gama
      • Scoot to Berlin
      • Costa Rica Lindblad
      • Airbus A350 1000
      • The Rhine Part 1
      • Airbus
      • Tigerair Australia
      • Finnair
      • Asiana Airlines
      • Flying Finnair to Europe
      • Business Class with Cathay
      • Finnair
      • Singapore Airlines
      • Air France Business Class
      • British Airways
  • CRUISING
    • Norwegian Cruise Lines
    • Princess Explorer >
      • SeaDream Visits Elba
      • MSC Bellissima
    • ms Volendam >
      • Cunard Queens
      • Rivers will boom
    • CroisiEurope >
      • SeaDream A Seven-Day Dream >
        • Cruising
        • Sailing the Orient
      • msNoordam >
        • CroisiEurope
        • SeaDream Wins Again
        • Riviera Cruises
        • Rhine Part 3
      • Sunborn Yacht Hotel
      • Riverboats
      • AMERICAN STEAMBOATS >
        • HAL Latest
        • Voyager of the Seas
    • Paul Gauguin Cruises Tahitian Dreaming
    • Silversea NZ Part 1 >
      • Lake Geneva Part 2
      • Avalon Waterways
    • Majestic Princess
    • Sun Princess
    • Silja Line
    • Pacific Jewel
    • Norwegian Jewel
    • Azamara >
      • Bordeaux and Riverboats
      • River Cruises >
        • CroisiEurope
    • Diamond Princess >
      • Multigenerational Cruising
      • MSC Grandiosa
      • China Shore Tour
    • Blue Lagoon Cruises
    • 14-day Baltic cruise on the Celestial Eclipse. >
      • Captain Cook Cruises Fiji
    • Lake Geneva Part 1
    • CroisiEurope Rhine River >
      • Rhine Part 2
    • Riviera Cruises
    • What's New >
      • PNG with P&O >
        • Holland America Line
        • Crystal's 2019 Collection of Globetrotting Voyages
      • Paul Gauguin Cruises 2021
      • New Vibe Hotel for Sydney
      • Back Roads Touring
      • Henty CoPilot
      • Holland America Line’s Nieuw Statendam >
        • Mekong Riverboat
        • MSC Seaside
        • MSC Opera
      • Princess Cruises Australia
    • SeaDream Memories
    • Volendam
    • Silversea NZ part 2
  • CARAVANS & RV
    • Caravans Rule!
    • YaMate Insect Repellent
  • GROUP TOURS & EVENTS
    • Gambaro Hotel
    • Nossa Festival
    • Noosa Food and Wine Feastival
    • TravelComfort
    • Canberra Wine Food
    • Puglia with Lyndey Milan
    • Sydney Microbrewery
    • Back-Roads Touring Goes USA
    • Noosa Wine and Food Festival
    • BBQ Beer and BS
    • Cuisines of France and Mexico
    • Wine with David Ellis
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • Canon EOS R
    • Canon EOS200D
    • Canon EOS M 50
    • Inflighto
    • Canon - PowerShot SX730 HS
    • Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark III >
      • Shoulder Bag
    • Travel Light
    • Firefly
    • My Flight Hammock
    • LG Stylus DAB+
    • Paklite
    • Navman >
      • Flight Kit
      • Eyeglasses
      • Listen Wireless Headphones
      • Rigon Headwear >
        • Travel Sickness
    • Lonely Planet Wellness
    • Motorola
    • New From Nikon
    • Flight testing the Focal Headphones
    • Samsung Camera
    • Nokia Lumia 925- WOW
    • The New Paklite Collection
    • New from Samsonite >
      • Seaquatix
    • 5 Suitcase Essentials for Arthritis Sufferers
    • Mature Traveller's ARE SEXY
    • Room hangables
  • Books
    • Penguin Books
    • Captain Cook's Epic Voyage
    • In Her Footsteps
    • Riptides
    • The Drover's Wife
    • Who Owns History
    • Lonely Planet Dark Skies
    • Latest Lonely Planet Kids
    • Lonely Planet The Universe
    • Win BIG with Lonely Planet
    • Conversations in the Kitchen
    • The Rescue Dog
    • Lonely Planet Kids’ Atlas of Monsters and Ghosts
    • Welcome to your period
    • Flight to Fame
    • Long Flight Home
    • The Daredevil’s Guide to Outer Space
    • Hush Hush
    • The Last Elephants
    • Home at Last
    • Lonely Planet Kids Stickers
    • Rome Precincts
    • The Ink Stain
    • Storm Boy
    • Muttshots
    • King of the Air
    • Steam Australia
    • More Lonely Planet Kids
    • Australian Birds
    • Lonely Planet Atlas
    • The Rescuers >
      • NSW Central Coast
    • Lonely Planet Kids
    • Six Decades of Holden V Ford
    • Teida's Story
    • Take Back Australia Mark Latham
    • Hardie Grant Books
    • New Holland Publishers
    • The Pacific In the Wake of Captain Cook
    • Bill Lawry
    • Endeavour
    • In the Valley of the Blue Gums
    • Political Correctness
    • Heros of Hamel
    • Lonely Planet’s Cruise Ports
    • The Last 100 Days
    • Against The Odds
    • How to win a Noble Prize
    • Child of Africa
    • Where the Murray River Runs
    • Moment of Thruth
    • Lonely Planet Kids
    • Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2018
    • A Short History of Golf
    • Freedom’s Salesman
    • Mark Latham
    • Lonely Planet Kids
    • A Hard Place
    • A Haunting Place
    • Big Boys’ Toys
    • Fly Fishing
    • Stealth Raiders
    • Hero or Deserter?
    • GOLF RESORTS OF THE WORLD
    • THE CHARGE
    • Gelignite Jack Murray
    • Lonely Planet Kids
    • THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF PIKELET
    • Fur-Ever Loved
    • Alicorn
    • Roped In from Hardie Grant
    • The Australian Bird Guide
    • The Mysterious Mr Jacob
    • The Rugby League Book of Records
    • Rubbing Shoulders Around the World
    • Make Science Fun
    • Pawtraits
    • Gallipoli
  • Photo Gallery
    • Paul Gauguin Cruises Tahiti
    • Blue Lagoon Cruises
    • Kakadu
    • Hotel Kurrajong
    • The Cook Islands
    • The Steamboats of Lake Geneva
    • Sir Donald Campbell Bluebird >
      • Archives >
        • Travel
        • Entertainment
        • Lifestyle
      • Samsung in the Whitsundays
    • SAMOA images with a Nokia 925
  • Contact
    • Media Kit
    • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Offspring