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The day Miriam Blaker left her city life to explore Australia in a caravan, she saw a huge rainbow looming in the sky.
“Maybe it sounds a little woo-woo, but I felt like ‘this is the start of something really big,’” Ms. Blaker said. .”
The sign in Melbourne’s sky proved prophetic.
What was supposed to be a three-month escape from the city’s Covid pandemic doldrums in July 2021 has become a two-year road trip with no end in sight.
Ms Blaker and her husband Doug quit their professional jobs and sold their family home, swapping their daily life for the vast coastline of Western Australia and the humid tropics of Far North Queensland.
Along the way, they swam in crystal clear waters, explored cliffs and gorges, and watched the sun set over the ocean on secluded white-sand beaches.
What was supposed to be a three-month escape from the city’s Covid pandemic doldrums in July 2021 has become a two-year road trip with no end in sight.
The day Miriam Blaker left her city life to explore Australia in a caravan, she saw a huge rainbow rising in the sky.
Ms Blaker says the trip changed her outlook on life, as the stress of a mortgage, bills and the complications of city life faded into the rear view mirror.
“When you’re on the road, the worries you have are very different from those you have at home because it’s about survival: where to stay, food and water,” she said.
“It’s just going back to basics.
“When we wake up, the view is always different, and I love that. »
The couple have encountered a growing number of young professionals working remotely from their vans or families homeschooling their children on long trips across Australia.
“Covid has really caused a lot of people to reevaluate their lives, their values, their struggles, the things they paid for at home, the way they worked,” Ms Blaker says.
“More and more people are realizing that there is a different way to live.”
Australia’s caravan parks have become the unlikely center of post-pandemic life, as the country’s population moves more than ever.
The parks are not only rest stops for people exploring a new life on the road, but also havens for those who have been shut out of the rental market or lost their homes in disasters.
Luke Chippindale of the Caravan Industry Association says the parks have responded by embracing their social purpose.
“What’s at the heart of caravanning and camping is connection,” says Mr Chippindale.
“We are leaving because we want to feel connected to our regional and rural areas, as well as to the country, and we want to feel connected with the people we are traveling with.
“So the way we respond to disasters is often just an extension of that.
“We try to surround people as much as possible.”
Caravan parks could also evolve as rural Australia leads the national transition to renewable energy.
Some operators have the potential to house solar panels, batteries for energy storage and electric vehicle chargers, providing a technological boon for locals and visitors.
“Covid has really caused a lot of people to reevaluate their lives, their values, their struggles, the things they paid for at home, the way they worked,” Ms Blaker said.
Ms Blaker and her husband Doug quit their professional jobs and sold their family home, swapping their daily life for the vast coastline of Western Australia and the humid tropics of Far North Queensland.
Mr Chippindale says the community’s focus on sustainability is just one of the ways caravan parks are evolving to support a decades-old tourism sector that adds billions of dollars to regional economies.
“Moving around in a caravan is still as relevant today as it was 20 or 30 years ago,” he says.
“Now you can get what they call a ‘divorce saver’ service where the park manager will help you reverse your van, until you can park in an electric vehicle and stay in a three bedroom cabin.”
Martin and Kylie Ledwich were among many caravanning and camping adventurers who collectively invested $10.45 billion in the Australian region during their travels last year.
The Ledwiches, former civil servants, have been on the road for much of the past five years, having sold their home in Craigieburn, Melbourne, in 2018 ahead of what they thought was a 12-month journey.
Since then, they’ve slowly toured Australia and driven through the middle in their Roadstar Infinity trailer named Buzz Lightyear, after the superhero action toy character from the Disney-Pixar Toy Story franchise.
They drove through the outback on the Great Central Road from Western Australia to the Northern Territory and the Plenty Highway to Queensland, and towed their van to Cape York.
Their dogs Poppy, a white terrier, and Chorizo, a sausage dog, keep them company.
“We certainly don’t feel like we’ve been on the road for five years – we don’t really keep track of time,” says Mr Ledwich from a camp near Gladstone, Queensland.
“That’s one of the beauties of it all: sometimes we look at each other and say ‘what day is it today?’
“It’s a great way to live.”
Mr Ledwich said he has noticed an increase in the number of people traveling in vans in recent years and that parks are booking months in advance.
“If you can handle living together in a trailer of about 20 feet without getting worked up, that’s a pretty cheap lifestyle to lead.”
The couple have no firm intention of resuming a normal life.
“On the back of our van is written our names and ‘to infinity and beyond’. »