Saturday, 19th February …..

It’s pouring with rain here at Myrtle Park and we’re sitting snug in our caravan watching Series 3 of Dexter. A lot of the other campers have had a bad night and many have folded their tents and disappeared, back to drier areas. There was a big influx of caravans and campers yesterday and space was at a premium. There’s a group of fifty caravans and 18 tents gathered for a rally of old-time dancers. They meet here each year and their get-together culminates in a dance. We’ve been told quite firmly that it’s a private affair and we’re politely not invited. Oh, well, we’re not great dancers anyway. On my afternoon walk yesterday, I noticed they had an entertainer – a country and western singer with the obligatory big hat yodeling Rose of San Antone. Not our kind of people at all!
The storm has knocked out the electricity which operates the flush toilets and the pump for fresh water. We’ve set up our generator under the awning so that we have enough power to run our appliances, and have a series of containers arranged to collect the rainwater. In the last couple of hours we’ve collected about 35 litres and are running out of bottles to store it.
It’s Marilyn’s sister’s birthday today so we drove up to the lookout earlier to call her and empty our porta-potty at the same time. There’s no dump site at Myrtle Park and the closest place to empty the toilet is a long drop at the Lookout. Apparently, everybody from the park does the same.
I’ve attached a couple of photographs of interesting campers parked beside us. The first is an Aussie Swag design owned by a young woman who is travelling alone, we think to come to terms with a number of recent deaths in her family. She is a submarine navigator and has taken leave from the regular navy to have this trip. She maintains her connection with the Naval Reserve and goes off to training and other sessions which give her some income. She travels with her dog, a Great Dane/Irish Wolfhound cross.
The other one is a home-made job and is made of PVC cladding. I wonder how waterproof it was in last night’s downpour. It’s an education seeing how other people do it. Clearly some have limited resources and their caravans reflect this, but they’re out there seeing the country. Others have much bigger vans than ours with everything that opens and shuts. One couple we spoke to are setting off on a 6-year trip around Australia. They have a bigger ‘van than ours and a brand-new annexe which still has the creases in it from the original packaging. They have two little dogs, Angel and Molly (the most common name for Maltese Terriers, by far!) and a window box of pansies at the door of the ‘van.
There are lots of Winnebago-type campers with little Suzukis towed behind. It’s not what I would choose but everyone to their own.

Saturday, 12th February …..

It’s a laugh a minute staying at Myrtle Park. People-watching is the main sport and there’s enough variety in this little society to satisfy everyone. I’m always amazed at the number of women, young and old, who are traveling alone. I know I shouldn’t be surprised; it’s prehistoric of me to expect that all single women will be satisfied with a little cottage somewhere, keeping themselves busy with embroidery and day-time TV shows. Traveling in a little camper van is a valid option and it’s not a bit surprising that many women make that choice.
Like everyone you meet where caravans congregate, they love a chat and the game seems to be to glean as much information about the other person you can without giving too much away about yourself. I’m not good at that, not knowing what questions to ask and too ready to tell about my life. The camp kitchen is a great place to get into a conversation. I was there the other day, charging up my computer, and chatting to a couple of lone female travelers. One was likely to be retired but the other was much younger and had clearly made a lifestyle decision to buy a small campervan and see Australia on the cheap. She came from the Byron shire and had become fed up with the too-wealthy people from Melbourne who had moved into Byron Bay and wanted to change the culture to suit them. She also had a bit to say about the creepy single men in dodgy campers who hung around Mullumbimby and Nimbin – clearly up to no good.
There’s a caravan across from us which provides us with music all day. The problem is, it’s played on a Hammond organ. Marilyn says that there’s someone in the van practicing all day. We only ever see a man who sits outside smoking all the time, but Marilyn is convinced his wife is confined to the van, playing favourite hymns and selections from Mary Poppins. Or it might just be a CD player.
On Friday afternoon, several families arrived to set up their camps for the weekend. Those who carry tents are the most extraordinary. One lot arrived in a top-of-the-line Pajero with a trailer on the back. Out came the biggest tent I’ve ever seen outside of a circus, and blow-up beds and eskies, and table and chairs, and containers of water, and stoves and a generator, and bicycles for all the family, and so on. The poor man must have been exhausted when he finally got everything organized.
Yesterday, we set off to drive to Scottsdale along a road called the Sideling. It’s very windy and steep in parts and is notorious for the number of accidents there every year. Organisers of car rallies love to bring their cars over this road because it really sorts out the good drivers from the ratbags. It’s a very nice drive, through forests of manferns, hundreds of years old. We visited the Forestry Information Centre in Scottsdale which had won awards for its architecture. It looks like something that has fallen from outer space but well worth a visit.
The most interesting thing we did all day was to visit the Tin Centre in a little town called Derby. Around the late 1800s, early 1900s it was the richest tin producing area in the world, producing 10% of the world’s supply until in 1929, flood hit the town inundating the mine and killing 14 people. The exhibition is extraordinary and includes one of the best AV presentations I’ve seen anywhere. Typically, we ran out of time before we saw everything so will have to go back. There’s a good camping area on the banks of the river and we’ll probably try that out.
After a very good lunch at the Weldborough Hotel, we headed for home and marinated steak for dinner.

Wednesday, 9th February …..

We’re still here at Myrtle Park and have booked for another week. We’re certainly enjoying the solitude and coping well with the lack of power. In fact, compared to others in the park, we’re in the lap of luxury. One couple, no younger than we are, have a 4WD with a rooftop tent and a 3m ladder to climb up. The back of the 4WD opens up and they can cook a meal but there’s nowhere for them to sit under cover. It must be miserable when it’s cold and wet.
We took a trip down to Deloraine yesterday to collect some warmer clothing and check the mailbox on the way back. We also discovered that Kmart had folding bicycles on sale for only $40 so decided that we couldn’t live without at least one of those. Of course, it came in a box and needed some assembling but I had the right tools so put it together this morning. It’s a great machine with 6-speed Shimano gears and a seat that adjusts high enough for me to ride it comfortably. It only has 50cm wheels so it’s not good on rough ground but we’re not into cross country riding anyway. It was originally on sale for $99 so we’ve got a bargain.
Marilyn worked out that we could hire a little fire basket at the camp kiosk so we’re now well set up with all the amenities. We bought a basket of wood and I brought some more back from Deloraine yesterday and that should see us through for a few days.
Tomorrow is my birthday and we’re heading up to Launceston to have lunch with Jamie. I don’t normally celebrate my birthday (who needs reminding that the years are passing?) but it’s a good chance to have a nice meal in a restaurant. Jamie has bought himself a new car, a very nice blue Lancer, but he’ll be many thousands of dollars out of pocket after the theft of his previous vehicle.
Thursday, 10th
We really enjoyed lunch at Peckish, a very nice café in Kings Meadows and that seemed to put us in the mood for more shopping. We had been looking at getting a generator to give us the security of having power when we were free-camping. The solar panel is limited in bad weather and on a cloudy day, we have to be careful with running lights, the heater and the TV.
Both of us have agreed that free-camping is the way to go. Caravan Parks have all the amenities but the sites are small and, at busy times, you are parked hard up against people on both sides. On our last stay at Hadspen, the people next door to us fought with each other all the time. We’ve had neighbours who play their radio too loud, or swear all the time, or encroach on our site. Truth to tell, we’re a little anti-social.
Having power completes the picture for us: when we are parked in a pristine free site, we can still have hot showers, run the heater or air conditioner, use the washing machine, and charge the computer, phones, etc. All the advice we received pointed us to a Honda 2000 watt generator and so we bought one today. I suppose it could be regarded as my birthday present. It cost a bit more than I had anticipated but we can justify the expense by calculating that it will be repaid by the park fees saved in less than three months of free camping.

Saturday, 5th February …..

At last we’re back on the road. We left Siaren’s on Monday and spent a few days at Hadspen Caravan Park, sorting out a couple of issues, but now we are at a wonderful spot: Myrtle Park just 32Km from Launceston but a generation or two from modern-day society.
It’s a real old-fashioned holiday camping ground, with lots of space and no formality. There are toilets but we can’t even see them from where we are. There are modern, self-contained caravans like ours but across from us I can see a classic tear-drop shaped van from the fifties. Clearly, families from Launceston come here for the school holidays with their caravans and tents. There are campfires, and barbecues and kids on bikes and everyone is having a jolly time.
Those clever enough to book early get a site on the river but we just called in on spec so have had to accept a site about 20m from a little gravelly beach. The site is enormous with lush grass, shady trees and a picnic table. We feel very privileged to have such a great spot. We’re ‘free-camping’ which means we don’t have electricity or running water but we can run our TV from the solar panel, cook with gas and draw on our built-in water tanks, so we have no problems. I didn’t mention that it costs only $3 per night to stay here and that includes access to the camp kitchen, with a microwave and barbecues, and to the hot showers. What a paradise!
People seem to come here in groups of 4 or 5 vans or tents. Maybe that’s why the sites are so large; they’re to accommodate multiple occupancy.
The only drawback is that there is no mobile phone access so I can’t check emails or download additions to my eBook collection. And it also means I’ll have to wait until we go to Launceston to upload this blog episode. However, these are minor considerations when they are balanced against all the other advantages of being here. There is a public ‘phone at the little kiosk if we need to make an urgent call. The kiosk also sells fish and chips if we run out of food.
Marilyn and I had a rare trip to the movies yesterday. We had a couple of hours to fill in Launceston and decided we should see Dark Swan, the movie which gave Natalie Portman an Oscar. I couldn’t say that we enjoyed the experience. The movie was very dark, with some challenging (and I think gratuitous) sex scenes. It was hard to tell what was real and what was fantasy, but that only proves that I’m old-fashioned and haven’t kept up with modern trends in movie-making.
Those of you who keep up-to-date with what Jamie is doing through Facebook will know that his car was stolen during the week. It was found on Thursday morning, burnt out and totally destroyed. Sadly, he had left his collection of glass and jade in the boot. There were some very expensive pieces among them and he has accepted that they may never be found. Another problem is that his insurance company, as a ‘matter of policy’ investigates thefts where the car is burnt, and, apparently, rarely pays out. I suppose it’s a good way of someone getting rid of an unwanted car and collecting the insurance money but it’s a bit hard on the honest victim of crime when he is treated like the criminal. Also, ‘as a matter of policy’ payouts for theft and burning are at the bottom end of the of the value range. So, if Redbook says a particular car is worth between $2500 and $4000, depending on condition and mileage, they will only pay $2500, no matter how carefully it was maintained.
Insurance companies are getting away with murder. Look at the nonsense following the Queensland floods where companies are rewriting their definitions of ‘flood’ to avoid paying out. For goodness sake, a flood is a flood is a flood. And there’s not much point in changing companies; they all seem to be tarred with the same brush.
Sunday, 6th: Sitting outside the caravan in the sun is a great way to meet passers-by. There seems to be an invisible line which they won’t cross so they stop about 15m from where we’re sitting to pass the time of day and find out as much as they can about us without appearing nosey. A couple this morning opened with the classic line, “Another beautiful day!” Then it was straight into, “Where are you from?” and “Where are you going next?” It turned out that they are planning to head for the mainland in May, as we are, but haven’t made a booking on the Spirit yet. When I told them that we had one for the 10th May and thought there may not be many spaces left, they decided they should look into it soon.
I found the most interesting question was, “What are you doing about your house?” I love the assumptions behind that question. Anyway, I explained that we didn’t own a house, having lived in school premises for over 20 years, and we moved back to commenting on Myrtle Park and how nice it is.
It’s mid-afternoon and the park is clearing out rapidly. Some ‘vans had moved on quite early but others are leaving now, clearly heading back to Launceston for work or school tomorrow. We could have our choice of sites now but we’ll just stay where we are.
Seeing how other people operate is nice and looking at their setups is educational. Generators are popular and so are bicycles; many families have little boats of one kind or another. Others have portable fridge/freezers. Some put up a small tent to store their gear during the night or have little choofers – little wood-fired heaters made out of old gas bottles. You can buy firewood at the kiosk and many people are taking advantage of that. The trouble is that everything we carry adds extra weight and we’ve got to be sure they’re worth the expense and effort.
No doubt we’ll add to our ‘stuff’ as we get more experience of travelling. In the meantime, we seem to be set up pretty well and don’t lack for comfort.