Burgess blog #3 – Sunday 7 February

Towns/campsites/caravan parks stayed at since blog 2:

New Norfolk (northwest of Hobart in the Derwent Valley)
Lake St Clair
Gowrie Park (near Sheffield)
Ulverstone

Highlights

H should have earlier recounted a traumatic incident that happened at Fortescue Bay in Tasman NP. On his way to the only toilet one day, within 20 metres of said pit (it is a NP), another camper flew past on his mountain bike, complete with bike helmet. The shock combined with the unexpected wait to produce one traumatised Avan owner. H was tempted to ask the camp caretaker to issue a ban on people gaining an unfair advantage by riding their bikes to the toilet.

A couple of times we have varied the planned itinerary and discovered some gems of places. Dover is one such place, south of Huonville on the way to Cockle Creek (southernmost point of Australia that you can drive to). Dover is a beautiful little town with an excellent caravan park and second hand bookshop. The bookshop is located in an old church, with the path to the door overgrown, piles of books everywhere, and the owner offering home-made sausage rolls! H has decided to read some classic authors such as Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky for the first time. He has come a long way from the time when he declared that life is too short to read fiction.

After the wettest winter (2009) in 70 years, the summer of 2010 has been very dry in Tasmania. Hence there have been a number of bushfires during January and February. Thankfully good rain has fallen in the second week of February. H experienced almost a perfect day when he went for a wet bushwalk in rainforest at Lake St Clair, then hearing of good rain in Canberra and Hillston from his network of rain spotters.

Speaking of bushwalking, the combined tally of tiger snakes sighted by H and K is now four. On the bushwalk at Lake St Clair, H was just thinking it was too wet and cool for snakes to be out when a moment later a tiger snake appeared a metre ahead on the track. Thankfully the snake was less a ‘tiger’ and more a ‘pussycat’ and slithered off.

Other close encounters with wildlife include a very persistent possum at Lake St Clair that probed the Avan for any weak points in order to access some food. Maybe it would not have been so keen if it knew that most of the food was gluten free.

K continues to ponder the sociology of caravanning, especially caravan parks. We have noticed a distinct shift in demography since Tasmanian schools went back last week. Apparently the Spirit of Tasmania had over 900 cars on one journey from Melbourne at the beginning of February providing evidence that grey nomads (this term used with affection and respect) wait in eager anticipation for the families to vacate the key holiday destinations.

Jayco pop up campervans are by far the holiday accommodation of choice for families, while the grey nomads come with more elaborate caravan set ups, Jayco also having the larger share of this market. There are also two distinct groups of grey nomads. There are those who bring absolutely every comfort of home, and for some they have sold up home and their new vehicles, vans, bikes, satellite dishes and airconditioners would be worth that of our townhouse in Hawker. It would not be untrue to report that many of the van set-ups would be less than three years old. Of those who we have spoken to, many have worked for forty years, some for the same employer and these comments are observations, not judgements.

We have also run into more understated couples who prefer a much older campervan. Several only stayed in caravan parks a few nights in their months away from home. K met one woman in the New Norfolk caravan park who had only stayed in the luxury provided by parks four nights since the year 2000. She had the washing thing down to a fine art and apparently if you use wool wash you don’t have to do a final rinse. This group are adept at finding the free campsites and are ok with just parking on the side of the road. They don’t get asked to move on “that often”!

We are still unsure about the whole level of friendliness thing. The grey nomads are certainly very friendly and up for chats about all subjects from where to go and caravanning tips and hints to politics, although we have not been invited to neighbourly drinks yet. The families are usually in larger groups so we know that we are in a demographic all of our own. However, something lovely happened the other day in Lake St Clair National Park. We parked next door to a couple a little younger than us who were tenting. They were really friendly and due to the rain we ended up having a dinner together at the local pub. We discovered lots in common (including Christian faith) and appreciated the opportunity to connect at a deeper level than caravan park small talk.