Peripatetic Parents

I can’t say I am smitten, or that the caravanning bug has actually captured me.
Yet!
But I do admire and enjoy the neighbourliness and sociability of close-by residents. And it is they that constantly assure me “you will love it!”
God, it’s like an ever moving feast of Dale Carnegie enthusiasts; or the ra-ra-ra of an Anthony Robbins seminar. You buys your caravan and the verbal back slapping attends your every waking moment.
No one is ever critical of the novice nomad’s backing up a 6m caravan with a mind of its own; no one laughs when your awning springs unexpectedly out of your grip and loudly clatters back up to its roofline housing. There’s nary a comment when your guiding wife tells you to wind down the bloody window.
No.
“You will love it” is the only retort.

No five o’clock shadow here. But at 5 each afternoon nearby residents drop by to share a favourite drop and freely pass on the advice as to roads and sites both favoured or feared.
Would you believe it? This wellspring of travellers even have their own Wikicamps, an app where you can pass on the good news about all the stop-off places you are ever likely to see.
This afternoon it’s not Pete and Dizey dropping by, it’s Ken and Dizzie from Qld, Now let me see! There’s  been Ken and Helen, Greg and Denise, Marion and Gordon, Wilfred and Vivian and Wilf’s brother Rex the bachelor and oh! a parade of others we will doubtless cross paths with again down the track.

You are never alone in this business. We take over any small town. Nodding acknowledgement at Coles, the low down on grog specials at Liquorland, or sharing a yarn sitting together on a tour bus,
Also, every day it’s fascinating to hear old folk on their mobile phones–at 120 decibels– talking to the grand children all over Australia. “No! No! Zelda, Nanny and Poppy are in Western Australia………where’s that you say? Ask you mother or your father”

And a note about the bird life. Nomads must be recognised by native birdlife as all being from Assisi. The usual coterie of feathered friends visit your pitch every day, or perhaps it’s that the pink and greys are of a similar age to the nomads they visit.
And all this under the canopy of a 26 degree sunny day. But I must away for Ken and Dizzie will be here soon and I need to get the cheese and crackers out.

“We do love it!”