If you’ve ever ridden a motorbike on the roads you would appreciate the subtle nod of the head, the gesture that identifies you as part of the “clan” and is both welcoming and warming at the same time. It feels good to belong… There is a similar greeting in the caravan world, not as subtle, but nevertheless it’s a greeting that welcomes you into the fold and identifies you as kindred travellers sharing the same sort of experiences and “journeys”. A wave of the hand from driver to driver, sometimes including the passengers hands too if you are a really enthusiastic team (not as likely on our side as Hayley is often indulging in a little travel nap), is a simple and effective greeting, but as with anything I am sure there are some unwritten rules and regulations that should be adhered to. Current observations of the possible rules and hierarchies have led me to the following:

Firstly, a similar tow vehicle (in our case a Jeep) or similar van type (New Age) should warrant an extra enthusiastic wave, possible from the entire car (if they are awake), especially if the oncoming combination is a match on both counts!

Secondly, one should try to wave no matter how tight the corner, narrow the road or how many trucks or other obstacles are demanding your attention. I have, however, allowed myself just a courteous nod as replacement if things are a bit tight for comfort – waving does generally require a hand off the wheel after all! – but I am also working on a simple “lift your finger” version which I believe should be acceptable in more challenging circumstances..

While I am happy with the caravan to caravan wave, I am not yet settled on the required etiquette when encountering an RV / campervan.. My natural instinct appears to have been to do nothing, and that’s exactly what I did, until I noticed an RV wave to me one day. Now challenged for etiquette in this world in which we are relative newcomers, I may need to seek out the experience of some of my more seasoned caravaners to make sure I do not upset the delicate equilibrium by including them where they do not belong.

As with food chains and life in general I expect there is some sort of hierarchy that operates in this environment, reflecting the appropriate level of “kindredness”. If I had to guess it should be ordered by the type of “rig” – at the top of the chain is the hardcore roof top campers and camper trailers (they after all share more rugged experiences and access more remote areas), next come caravans, the skill that is required to tow and reverse the rig sets them above the RV in terms of skillset required (although you need nothing more than your existing license to tow, not even a driver training course or basic certificate which I have to question more and more as I see some of the towing “skills” on display) and then comes the RV / campervan.. This is just a theory mind you, and like any good hypothesis requires further observation and testing to either prove or disprove.. I will have to report back after appropriate amounts of investigation and verification.

When we last left the blog, which probably seems like quite a while for you and certainly seems ages for us, we were headed back to the coast from Jindabyne to Pambula Beach, next to Merimbula. The first thing that struck us on the way into the park was the enormous water play centre (Narrabeen eat your heart out) with a monster slide for all the family and buckets upon buckets of water raining down. As we entered the park the second thing that caught our attention was the family of Kangaroo’s that seem to live in the park itself.. This made for a lovely experience for the kids, who started out the stay just observing this “troop” of Kangaroo’s from a distance, but by the end where patting and hugging them like they were long lost friends! If I was a songwriter I would make good use of the fact that a group of Kangaroo’s is called a troop, because troop rhymes with poop, which was also a feature of their presence! Not sure I could sell that one to the Wiggles though – another alternative career dead end!

After the hustle and bustle of Jindabyne, Pambula was a chance to just catch up – catch up on schoolwork, catch up with some old school friends (Hayley’s friend Sarah lives about 200m from the caravan park) and catch-up on the reason that our brakesafe system (which applies the brakes to the caravan in the event of separation) was beeping at me on the last journey. As it turns out the pins on our 12 pin plug hadn’t even been wired up correctly – thanks to the car experts who helped us out with that one! Being on the road you are somewhat at the mercy of the local tradies and you really can’t head back to the place that did the work to get them to rectify it, so you are stuck just grinning, bearing (and paying) for it!.. To date we have had only minor things go wrong with the van, nothing that cannot be pretty easily fixed, but it seems a common story that you should expect a few hurdles along the way and I would say that every stop to date has required at least one “fix”, generally by me..

Once the kids had made a few friends at the craft mornings and the incredible water park they were out and about riding around the park, playing on the play equipment and generally kicking around with some new “friends” Hugo (who may just have edged Kai in Aprils book!) and Anders from Cootamundra.. We even managed to get an invitation out to the farm that I am sure we will take them up on as we head back through NSW at the end of the trip.. We have yet to meet any “families” doing a similar trip to ours, but it’s great to be able to meet new people and for the kids to make new friends and bonds as we go. I expect that once we get out of the holiday season we may well meet some more families and unless we have our planning a bit wrong I am sure some of them will also be heading in the same direction we are!

Sunday markets are a bit of a “thing” around towns and the Merimbula markets gave us a chance to get some “essentials” like egg cups and a purse for April along with some beautiful local produce (stonefruits and veggies as well as a sausage sandwich for lunch). It’s a beautiful area and it’s easy to whittle away the hours just enjoying the lifestyle and beaches of the area. We also made a day trip to Eden and the Killer Whale Museum, detailing a fascinating relationship between the Killer Whales of the Two Fold Bay region and the local human whalers, where the Killer Whales led Baleen Whales (like the Blue Whales which are the largest creatures on earth at up to 30m long) into the harbour to be harpooned by the whalers, in exchange for some of the body parts (apparently the lips and tongue are particular delicacies) of the deceased whale. Obviously whaling has long since had its day (in 1947 Australia signed up to the first anti-whaling agreement) but it’s an amazing story and insight into the intelligence of these creatures..

From Pambula we crossed the border into Victoria and arrived at Lakes Entrance which by all accounts is a popular tourist destination for Melbournites. Slightly out of season and with the weather slightly out of sorts it was at least a chance to catch a few more fish (again too small to eat but it’s the process the kids enjoy – we need some lures that are designed just for casting and reeling in!), enjoy some pretty landscapes and update Denver’s audiobook collection from the local library.. I also managed to pack up the van and get its first service (within the recommended 300-1000km range) at the nearby Bairnsdale dealer (which sounds easy but it’s an all or nothing affair!). The dealer was excellent and wasn’t that impressed with how the van had been pre-delivered to us (thanks caravan experts) but he gave it a great going over and assured us all was now exactly as it should be.. Bairnsdale was also in the news at the time as the base for the Patties foods / Nanna’s frozen berries Hepatitis A scare, something we took some notice of given we happened to have a packet in the freezer. Luckily at the time my bread making hadn’t extended into tart making and so they were sitting idle in the freezer waiting for the kids to get sick of Weetbix and request a banana and berry smoothie..

A day trip to Buchan caves (always a “pleasant” 17 degrees underground) was an excellent and enjoyable experience.. Buchan Caves are spectacular limestone formations, created almost 400 million years ago by underground rivers cutting through the limestone rock. The tours are pretty entertaining (at tour guide school they must all learn a few comedy routines as it seems to be a prerequisite for all tours!) and the formations are just stunning both in their beauty as well as their age (it’s incredible that a centimetre of growth can take up to a thousand years).

From Lakes Entrance we headed to the southernmost tip of mainland Australia. Wilsons Prom (much easier to spell and pronounce than Wilsons Promontory) National Park is full of spectacular beaches and scenery as well as plenty of animals to cross off our Animal bingo game (well it’s not really a game but if it were the Wombats, Emu’s, Wallabies, Kangaroo’s, Echidnas and heaps of different birds would get us a long way towards completing our card!). Staying at Tidal River (for the first time in “free camping” mode without power or water to our site) allowed us to be right in the middle of spectacular walks and beaches. A quick catch-up with Richard from Sydney at his mates place in the Prom allowed us to get a quick fix of “home” as well as some local knowledge from Tom who was able to point us in the direction of some great walks and his favourite local beaches.

This was the plan for each day until the weather caught up with us again (seems like we must have tricked it for a while there as we had some beautiful warm sunny days) – the temp dropped over 5 degrees in an hour and kept us out of the water for the last day of our stay (but at least it prepared us somewhat for what would no doubt will confront us in Tasmania!).

The cold snap didn’t dampen our enthusiasm to get outdoors, we just had to get out the sleeping bags to rug up for the outdoor cinema screening of “Paper Planes” which was a pretty good family movie for us all to enjoy (and allowed us to stay up late enough to see our first wombats) before we headed off to Melbourne.