EXTRA: Van Life Dream Vs Reality

You're listening to a MoMA mea podcast. Mamma Mere acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast is recorded on. Hello friends, I'm Holly Wainwright and I am mid midlife, midfamily, mid post work fantasy. Today, I've got another story for you about a woman who's doing her third act differently, a woman whose husband died and whose kids wrapped their arms around her and said stay here, mum, and who decided instead to go and live on the

My whole life has been seated the pean's decisions, so if something come up, I've never planned anything. My husband and I were sort of in the verge of separating. We had a home at Pottsville Beach.

Mid North Coast.

Yeah yeah, Nie Kingscliffe from those areas, lovely place, but we weren't happy for a long time. But we stayed together to pay for the home. And he passed away, and my kids, all six of them, said, don't worry. I know you don't own the house. We'll pay for the house and you can stay there, and of them was a lovely offer. But I thought, I'm sixty eight, what am I going to do. One of my best friends, I don't have a lot of friends, but she'd passed away and I thought, I'm going to be muwen Lawn's

So an RV, just tell me because I'm going to ask some dumb questions here, right, because that's like, it's like a camper van, right, So when all in not a caravan, it's like a camper van, Yes.

All in one. So I found one at Sydney RV in Penrith, and my sister lives close and I was away at the time. I said, go and have a look at this truck. What do you think? She said, Oh, god, it's big. She said it's called Matilda, and I went, oh, that sounds good. And when I went to see it it was just the whole front was like a big leather lounge and I went, all that'll make a good bar. I like it. So the deposit was on it, and I'd had my house on the market and it hadn't sold,

Have you ever driven anything that big before?

Oh?

Look, years and years prior I used to work on an Aboriginal community up the Northern Territory and we had a little diner that I used to go in to pick up groceries with so on and so forth. And it broke down. So the locals walked into town they towed me in and coming back home they said they can't fix it. We're giving you this one. And it was a semi trailer. Oh wow, And I went, I've never driven anything that big. And he showed me if. I don't know how many gears it had, like twelve

So you'd driven a semi trailer before you drove Matilda.

Yes, that's right.

Was it emotional packing up a life like that or were you excited about that?

I was the adventurer had hit in then seat of the pants. It was something different.

And so you said you worked in the territory, had you seen a lot of Australia over the years.

So I had to go and you knew, well, no, not really. My husband liked traveling. I had six kids, so we'd go and visit them. They were in perse Northern Territory, cans Gold Coast, so we'd always gone around a couple of times and visited. But it's different when you're by yourself.

Yeah, for sure. What was it like those first those first days when you were out in Matilda on your own.

Well, I called into my sisters first, and I went, oh my god, this is so funny. Drive miss and I got as far as just outside of Tai and there was a rest stop there and I thought, I'm starving and not being in a truck before I was white and uppled. I was hanging onto that steering wheel, you know, and I'm thinking, oh my god, you know this is this is weird. And I pulled into a rest stop and I thought, I'll make a sandwich and

Mom?

I said, I didn't know whether I was going to get killed or get lucky. I wasn't quite sure.

You had, like us, you had to like a security detail of driving up the coast. Have you speaking of that? Have you traveling on your own and doing this this trip as you've done several times now, are you ever worried about safety? Does it feel quite safe? There are lots of people doing it.

There are lots of people doing it. I've never felt unsafe. But now and again, you pull up, because I love absolutely isolated areas. You pull up sometimes and I have an uneasy feeling and I might only move one hundred meters up the road and pull over again, and it's okay. I don't know what that is, but I do follow. So you listen to your instincts. And it's interesting how some places just don't feel right, isn't it.

No?

And I hate caravan parks.

Right, So I was going to ask you, so where do you so? Where do you mostly park Matilda?

Any free parking?

Yeah? You must be someone who likes their own company. Yeah have you always been? I mean six kids and like married life and all that. You must have. You must have not had that much time on your own.

That's probably what it is more there, and you go, no, I've been really busy. I go and visit people in the city, my kids, and they're all worried about got to do that, the powers due this week, that's due. I don't have any of that. And I don't understand it when people go, oh my god, it was on the today and this happened and that happened, and I just get why let it worry you, you know? But I don't know whether that's because I'm on the sunny side of eighty now and I just go, well, you're

Yeah, So if you don't stay in caravan parks, how do you like how do you meet people? Because I would have thought that that's where you would meet people in the evening and have a chat with It's funny.

I think if you talk to a lot of single campus and that not all of them, but some of the long term ones, you seem to get squashed into caravan parks. You're too close and they're that they're like that little club. You know, they've got their friends with them and whatever. And I don't know. Some people say it's because you're single, they've got husbands. One lady actually said to me, oh, you know you're single. I said, God, love, I don't want your husband. I don't want to have

Really why is that.

I've been through there a couple of times. A couple of years ago. It was the Air Peninsula, which is oh man, I could live on oysters for the rest of my life, and it was just beautiful. But this last trip, this twenty twenty four, I followed the coast as close as I could, so I got off the highway and went off into all the little side places. And there's not every ten minutes in South Australia, there's something else, a lake at Crater. It's incredible. I loved it.

Yeah. I was going to ask you, is the trip the loops around Australia? Are you looking for a place to say or is the travel the point?

No? I think it's just travel. Yeah, And I go in and out. You know, I've come back from Oh sometimes just gone Tweetheads to the Gold Coast and I call into every side place. But I've done that a couple of times, so I don't need to do that again. But sometimes I've taken three months to go one hundred kilometers. Depends you're not on a schedule.

It's not like you're going to have to get here by this time.

No, that's true.

That must be so that must feel so good.

It's yeah, it's enlightening. I think it's just you know, I've only got one. Sometimes my daughter that lives on the Hunter will say I've got to go away because she has to travel with work. You come and mind the animals, So I'm usually scraping up horse pew for a month or something, which is very glamorous.

Do you get it to your feet when you're stay in one place? Now after a few years.

I can't stand it really. Yeah. About four years ago I was up at my sons who lives at Conunger said, hell on a you staying maybe three weeks?

Oh?

Yeah, that's good. I was lasted four days and he rang me went t works where I said, I think I'm in GIMPI now, but I find I'm getting worse. I just cannot stay in the one place. And I think my kids are worried now because they keep going Mummy, you're getting older. What are you going to do when you can't drive the truck? And Filma and Luiz comes to mind, But oh.

Gosh, I was going to ask you practicalities of being older and driving around and being in can you just like, what do you do for health concerns? Can you just pop into a local doctor? Like? Is it like?

How does I don't go? Yeah? You don't go.

No, you just don't.

I just don't go.

So you've been like you've obviously not had to have to deal with anything.

No, you know, six kids and having me knees done. So I've been in hospital seven times. That's all I need in my lifetime. And every scratch I get on the road, I put no polishry mover on it. A certain polish remover kills any germs. Oh my god, there's another tib And now I think my granddaughter's put on their pimples. I'm not quite sure, but it works on them. M up.

Next, I asked the rain whether she's had any hairy moments traveling on her own and sometimes unpredictable weather and far away places. Stay with us. You must be at the obviously traveling Australia at the whim of the weather and the extra the floods, storms all that. Have you had any hairy moments with the natural environ No.

I haven't. I've been caught in floods and always up the territory. There's fires on the side of the road. You've just got to be aware of them, you know. I mean, if the wind's blown straight to your truck with the flames. You don't get past it. You've got to use a lot of common sense and don't drive too close behind the kettle truck. So I've found out this year too. I get covered in the the fellas will laugh and you know they're on the CB gun.

So you've got you've got a CBE radio in Matilda. What are they like? What? What home comforts have you got in Matilda? Or rather what what are the things that make her home? You know what I mean that it's really a house.

I've got a queen size bed that I don't have to climb a ladder to get up to. So queen size bed, bathroom, toilet, kitchen, big lounge area. I did take two of my daughters and two grandchildren to Ularu a few years back. God it felt crowded.

With a lot of people.

My oldest daughter end up flying home from Adelaide. She could take it any longer. So no, there's room for one. I can sleep six, seven and carry five. But really it's your place. Yeah.

Do you see a lot of older women doing what you're doing.

There's a lot. I've just come back from a local camp and there was thirty people and I think there's only about four fellers in that and they're in their eighties and in trucks. They've got houses though, a lot of them, and I think, oh, that's lovely. You know a lot of people contact me and go should I sell me house? And I go, well, you've got nowhere to go to when you can't drive. You should think

It's really what do you think is about it? White line in the road?

It's just the traveling. I love those roads where you can't see anything but road for distances of you know, one hundred kilometers and the outback. The painted is that all of those places they are just they're beautiful till the on in the cabin. Yes, but you see when I'm parked up, if I'm not on power, I don't have egor right, and I've only just this year bought a battery operated fan. But most of the time it's you know, it's too hot. You sleep under a wet tail,

And all you've got solder, don't you on the roof?

Yeah?

So you can power things if you need to. And I've saw you say that you've got a you've got a little TV, but you never watch it.

Yeah, I hardly ever watched Telly.

It would work if you want.

Yeah, yeah, no, My TV's twelve power and two Fordy vaults. Same with everything through the truck.

So and what happens if you get a flat tire or Matilda breaks down or something happens.

I've learned over the ten years that there's a lot I can do myself. Wow, my sister's got a lovely mechanic next to her. I think he hates me by now, Philip, How do I do this? Philip? And he'll show me what to do and whatever, shows me how to change fan builts and things like that.

You must be a very very capable.

Woman of Oh yeah, I don't know. I had no choice because again I didn't make plans. I didn't know where I was going. And I was right up on the golf development road. I think that was one of my first trips. And there's like a sharp corner that goes to Croydon and then to Normanton and I could hear this noise and I said, oh no, I hadn't seen anybody for ages and it's just a big dirt area there. They pulled over and I've got a flat and I said, oh my god. Okay, and the wheel itself.

They are a normal cart tired wheel is heavy.

Yes. I was laying on my back on the red dirt with being bitten by black ants and whatever and pushing it out with my feet. Anyway, I finally got it all changed and a truck he pulled up and he said, can I help? You just done it all? But he checked the nuts for me and he said, oh, you've done really well.

So yeah, and you take your dog with you, right.

I've got a cat and a dog. Now, cat and a dog, yes, so they.

Keep your company.

I guess, yeah, the dog does. He used to get very anxious though, so I thought I'll get him a partner, and I didn't want another dog, so I picked up a cat in Victoria last year.

And how did they get along?

And really well actually, but he still gets you know, they both get crazy. Now when I get home, they're jumping all over. But the cat stopped trying to sleep on the steering wheel now, which is good.

So the group that you're saying, you're a member of a few camping groups, so you mostly traveled on your own. But if you want to hang out with other people, you've got there are groups of other people doing this thing you or yeah, and you can you can sort of that company around Australia.

You know, you can just look them up and somebody will say, I'm going camping here if anyone wants to join me, And I've got a couple on. We're going down to Bilanglo Forest of all places.

Oh yeah, the Death Forest, famous forest and yeah, and then Maruyah and then I'm up to the entrance for the blues festival or whatever it is.

And then Glenworth Valley food and wine. Oh so you go into a few I love that place. You do plan a few festivals and things. This is the only year I've done it the first.

Year, So why have you decided this year to do a bit of planning instead of just seeing where the road takes.

That's a good question. I don't know. You know, it was a I stayed away a lot last year and camped up the terretory. It was beautiful, and I go back onto the Aboriginal community to visit them and they still know me and you get along fine. But yeah, it's a sad and sorry place. So I don't know whether I'll go back. I think I and most of them have passed away. They're lucky if they live past sixty up there there.

So after the break, Lorraine reveals the destinations at the top of her travel list and gives us her best recommendations for anyone thinking of exploring Australia in an RV. Do you have anywhere left that you're dying to see in Australia or do you think you've seen it all?

No? I think I'm going to do Western Australia again next year, and just instead of going down I might go to Calgiley instead of down the other way. Or yeah, still, you could spend a lifetime and still not see it.

All, is there a place you want to tell everybody to go? Like you said, South Australia was stunning, wa is stunning?

Gosh?

If I'm going, if I'm jumping in my camp van, which I don't have yet but I'm planning to have one in a few years time, where should I go first? I live on the south coast of New South Wales.

Oh, oh see, I'm going to Maria Nixon. I love the South Kens. My daughter that lives on the Hunter used to live in the Kyama yep and she was on sixty nine acres, you know, overlooking the ocean. Beautiful.

Oh so you're saying, don't go anywhere they were.

Well you can. You know, I'm happy wherever I'm park Really, if I choose the place, have a wander around. Hey, no, there is. There's so many beautiful places that you really can't pick one. But I think this well, last year, I keep saying this year. Last year, South Australia really blew me away. So I've been there before but hadn't done that coast raid. And then I went from there up the Stuart Highway, an unbeknown to me, I know

Do you stay in touch with the world. I guess you've got a phone?

Oh yeah, look now and again. It must be nice to be I watched the news last night for the first time in about three weeks. But it's all rubbish, isn't.

It's all bad news papers driving.

It's funny some people sit around and they'll talk to me for a while and they go, oh, I'm so stressed, said by a truck, by a truck. Just leave it all beyond.

Don't you have to worry about fuel, like fuel stops? Plug yourself out with that, like to make sure you've got enough to go where you need to go. Do you always have spares?

Oh? I always. I know how many kilometers I get out of the truck, and at the moment my fuel gauge is broken, so I've got to get that fixed.

You've got to guess.

So I've been guessing. I've been putting so many kilometers on the thing and then going, okay, you need to get petrol, and then didn't do it, and I was in the hunter and the track wouldn't start to go and get petrol. You know, stupid stuff like I'm not a beginner. It's still years and you could shoot yourself. And when I was up at Ingham, the air conditioner went so hot. I said, oh my god, what's gone on? Can't get it to work? You know, it's simple things

Do you listen to anything when you're driving? Listen to music?

Oh yeah, I'm usually on Spotify or something. I've never been a reader, which is funny. I get to the first page and I go to sleep. So I've never been a reader, but I love the music.

You're obviously happy to park up and just be in nature.

He's pretty cool out there, it is right.

Do you think that this lifestyle we'll call it, like the traveling lifestyle, is something that you were saying that you didn't really plan. It kind of happened. But do you think it's something that women should plan for and think about for that post work lifelve when they're going what's my retirement going to look like? What's it going to be like when I'm older and on my I know.

A lot of people that I talk to or send me messages and they say, oh, I'm thinking of selling my house and buying a caravan, And I always say, think about it first, hire a van first, or hire an RV first, go on to travel and see because nine times out of ten people only last a year. And you see them all the time for sale and they're only two and three years old, and you think,

It sounds like, sounds like it was the right call.

So no, I can't. I'm no good at advice. Ok. It's got to be in your heart. Definitely planned all my kids plan for every time. And I mean the kids now sort of said, oh, you can live with me for two months and me with two months and share yourself around. But I don't do that. The poor daughter in the hunter, you know, she's got land and horses, and she always ends up as she says, each time i'll leave, she sends the other message with saying, you've got the short straw. She's coming.

I love it, Thank you, Lorrain.

That's quite right.

I hope you enjoyed meeting Lorraine. She was a really good company. And if you want to hear more stories of post work life, please scroll back and listen to last week's episode about the friends who all moved in together. And of course there are lots of brilliant conversations in this midfeed and in the previous seasons for all kinds of stages of life you might be going through right now.