Our present venture - or adventure - really started when we spent a relaxing holiday in the beautiful fishing village of . . .

. . Kalbarri on the south bank of the Murchison River in Western Australia. Beautiful scenery, relaxed lifestyle.

In Kalbarri we came across a colony of 'Grey Nomads' - retired people travelling around Australia with a caravan or motor home, wintering in the tropical north then moving south again ahead of the hotter weather. We thought, “What a fabulous life! Why are we still working?” So we brought forward our retirement, bought a four wheel drive and a caravan and set off to explore. But, of course, it wasn't quite as straightforward as that . . .

The idea of packing up work and setting off around Australia wasn't just exciting - it was terrifying too. A lot of thinking preceded it, and most of that thinking seemed to start and end with big $$$ signs. Anyway, we decided to proceed cautiously. The first step was to hire a caravan for a long weekend and try out the lifestyle before committing ourselves further. This we did and it provided us with some fast lessons in hitching, towing and reversing a Roadstar pop-top caravan with our Mitsubishi Verada. (If you're going to bend a caravan, might as well bend somebody else's). One of our biggest worries - reversing - proved to be unfounded; it was a lot easier than we'd anticipated. That is, once I'd learned to decode Pam's unique hand signals and she'd realised that the system only worked when I could see her! We also discovered that living in very close confinement is quite different to anything we had been used to. The weekend went well; our first taste of the nomad lifestyle left us wanting more.

Step two was again to hire a caravan, this time for three weeks, to tour the south west corner of Western Australia. We stayed in many beautiful caravan parks and talked to a lot of enthusiastic and friendly people from all over Australia. It was an ideal way to learn; we seemed to gain something new from everyone to whom we spoke. It was great fun and we had a wonderful time despite the hired ’van leaving a lot to be desired. We returned home totally hooked on caravanning (pun not intended). Test one and two had been a success, so what next? To attempt the ‘Big One’ all around Australia we were probably going to be away for a couple of years. We decided that a much larger caravan was a must.

Hint to prospective Nomads: The amount of time spent towing each week is usually just a few hours. The rest of the time is spent living in the ’van. The biggest ’van you can safely and legally tow will result in the most comfortable home.

Anyway, a larger caravan being necessary, a larger towing vehicle was also going to be needed. After much research we settled on a diesel powered Mitsubishi Pajero. We opted for diesel because the 3.2 litre turbo charged motor gave excellent economy together with plenty of low-end torque. We then had bull bars fitted plus a long range fuel tank which gave us a total fuel capacity of 135 litres. Air suspension boosters in the rear coil springs completed the upgrade.

While all this was going on we were also looking at caravans. The house, already full of four wheel drive magazines, now acquired a stock of caravan mags too. We finally settled on a twenty one foot Jayco Heritage. The growing demand for new caravans had resulted in a six month wait but there was so much to do before we left that the delay was no problem. However, the moment the Heritage arrived in the caravan dealer's yard we were like kids on Christmas morning, playing with everything that opened and shut.

We named the Pajero "Billy" (for no good reason) and the Heritage "Bessie" (in fond memory of Pam's late mother). We had never towed a caravan with the Pajero, and certainly never towed anything approaching the weight of the loaded Heritage (close to 2½ tonnes). Therefore we thought it best to ease into it gently with a few small trips before embarking on the Big One. We arranged our first trip for the momentous day that we picked up our new caravan - we were to go straight from the dealer's yard to a camp site on the coast, just calling home to load up the ’van en route. Well, that was the plan.

It was one of those days when we should have stayed in bed. Venturing forth into the traffic towing the new ’van our first task was to buy a large battery for it. The man in the battery shop directed us into an alley at the back of his premises. We thought we could drive forward to get back to the main road but it was a blind alley. Our first attempt to reverse the big 'van out was a fiasco. Laurel and Hardy fans would have enjoyed watching that! Later, while manoeuvring in a confined space we got stuck up against a tree and couldn’t go anywhere until some kind person tied the tree back to give us room to move. Later again I missed Pam's instruction to “turn next right” off the coast road, so we took the following turn and had to turn the car and caravan round to rejoin the main road. On entering the turn-off that I’d missed, we discovered that the road ended after 100 metres - the road we’d actually wanted was the one we’d just left - so we turned everything around again and back we went. On arriving at the caravan park we were asked to park in bay 13 (significant?) and we broke off the caravan’s new radio antenna on some foliage while reversing in. But we were finally there; could anything else go wrong? Ohhhhh YES!

While attempting to connect the caravan to the water supply I discovered we didn’t have the necessary adapter for the hose. And when Pam plugged us in to the electricity supply she found that nothing worked - and by this time it was getting dark. With the aid of a torch we found that all the cables in the park’s power box had been cut - the box was disused but nobody had bothered to write a note. Then it started to rain.

On the way home again, two days later, I must have inadvertently nudged the setting on the caravan brake controller (mounted next to the driver's seat in the Pajero). Next time I touched the brakes there was the scream of tortured rubber from behind and the caravan wheels locked up. We were approaching a red light so we had to stop, but no matter how delicately I touched the brake pedal the caravan wheels just locked. Thankfully, being nearly home, we achieved the remainder of the journey without using the brakes. To round off a weekend-from-hell, I bashed the caravan awning support against a gate post while putting the caravan away.

On our next trip we were better prepared. The weather was foul and we got soaked through before we even left home. However, we spent an enjoyable weekend at Guilderton at the mouth of the Moore River - what a beautiful spot! Even better, we didn't break anything this time and though we encountered a few problems, there was nothing we couldn't resolve. Yes, folks, we were getting better! And on both trips the Pajero and the Heritage behaved impeccably.

Just to be sure, we took the caravan away for a month-long trip to Shark Bay. It was the final shake-down run before setting off around Australia and we documented it in words and pictures.