Reflections on our new life in 'The Silvery Nomad'

Silvery reflections

It's Day 7 of our new way of life and we are having the time of our lives.  So far so good.

A head turner - not me, the Diversion

We really love the Winnebago Diversion and it's getting a lot of attention, being a brand new model and a new concept - four berth campervan meets motorhome, without the big box on wheels. A reversing camera makes life easy as do the automatic gears.

Cooking is a breeze - an ocean breeze!

Cooking is a breeze with our microwave, three ring gas cooker and of course our barbecue. We entertained the other day and it was no trouble catering for a few visiting family members.


We are here until Saturday morning and at this stage we are planning to head on to The Great Lakes for a bit of lakeside living and fishing.

The view comes to you

Locals told us we'd just miss the whale season, but two came swimming by and cavorted right in front of us for over an hour!

Settling into our new nomadic existence aboard The Silvery Nomad

Settling very easily into this new life

I am totally over houses, gardening, housework and being stuck in one spot! 

The routine aboard our Diversion is so easy. No beds to make up. The double bed slides down from the ceiling at the push of a button. With some campervans you have to make up a bed every single night of your life.

It's all so easy.

But there are some routines, especially when you drive away. Our 'pre-flight checklist'...  Lock fridge door, tether TV, wind down roof aerial, pull out power cord etc. I was very proud the first time we set off that I had remembered to do absolutely everything - except for leaving some hot soapy water in the sink, thinking I might wash a few more things before we left, but then never quite getting around to it. There was quite a bit of mopping up to do after this one.  But you only do that once.

It's amazing what people do forget - driving off with the electric step still sticking out, leaving the aerial up, or even, amazingly, forgetting to take in the wind-out awning. Hard to believe, but we're told it actually happened.

I don't think I'd ever drive off with the awning out!

Roy Blogs: "A writer must be allowed his subject. With me it's ancient Egypt archaeological thrillers. Why?"

There's no picking how authors pick their heartland subject

A writer must always be allowed his subject, it’s said. 

With me it’s ancient Egyptian archaeological thrillers. Why?

How do authors pick their heartland writing subjects?

There seems to be no way to pick it.

When I look at fellow authors who Tweet, I find one is a qualified veterinarian. A veritable zoo of famous animal books spring to mind. White Fang, Black Beauty, National Velvet, Jock of the Bushveld, maybe even Jaws or Moby Dick, but no, this famous author writes science-based techno thrillers. 

Another is an authority on building structures and what makes them collapse. Great, I think, I can see the ultimate deconstruction thriller where an iconic Capitol building falls down trapping the president/congress. Who did it? Can they mount a rescue?

Forget it. 

I suggested as much to him, but he let it go to the keeper, in cricket terminology. This author has his imaginative head firmly into Sword & Sorcery sagas. Why not?

And me?

I grew up in Zimbabwe at the edge of a game reserve and have been a Creative Director (Mad Man) for international advertising agencies in Sydney Australia.

So naturally I write Egyptian thrillers about a witty and renegade British archaeologist named Anson Hunter and about dangers to the world from the ancient past. I am an amateur Egyptologist and I have been devouring the subject since I was about twelve years of age. I and my wife have also made numerous study trips to Egypt.

Go figure.

I suppose we each find our metaphor, our prism through which we focus the human condition.

I see archaeology as a metaphor.  It even applies to characters. 

People are like archaeological sites, stratigraphical layers of history, their secrets waiting to be unearthed, layer by layer.

Then there is the lure of buried and often forbidden antiquities.

Much like life.  

We are all in search of for some ‘divine radiance’ that will illuminate our lives.

So while I travel around Australia in my mobile office and stimulate my mind with new ideas, I may branch out into new writing paths in the future… but I wouldn’t really bet on it.

Taking my writing on the road

(A guest blog by my husband, Roy, as we embark on our Journeys of The Silvery Nomad)

More than a Diversion - a total escape from the everyday

Plugged in to a world class view

Me at our first camp

This looks like a set-up brochure shot - but it's for real

Excitement unfolds on our screen - reminds us of the drive-in as kids

View from Roy's man-cave day tent

We like it here so much we've extended our stay from 7 days to 10

Wow.

We're here.  People pay millions of dollars to live with a view like this. We paid $134 a week, which includes electricity, water and free broadband at this amazing Central Coast park.

Consider that our last electricity bill alone in our Blue Mountain home came to $2,150! That's quite a 240-volt jolt! That's also a lot of camping  money.

Our Winnebago Diversion is a dream and this Boomer community is amazing.

This morning Roy decided to try out one of the ablution blocks (even though we have our own shower and toilet on board).  It was pristine.

He met a guy coming out who said, with such genuine and friendly inquiry, "Hi, how are you going?" that he almost felt like telling him the truth.

"Well, not too good. I've just had my stomach cut open in two places to remove bilateral hernias. which turned out...."

Then a guy inside, busy shaving at a mirror, picked up the chain of greetings. "Good  morning, how are you doing?"

"Well a bit painful really, but fortunately they weren't actual hernias, but benign things called Lipomas, kind of fatty cysts, but they removed them and meshed the area anyway..."

Then on the way out another said.  "Good morning, how are you today?"

"Well, to be honest, I'm swollen down there like a bullfrog..."

Then it struck Roy.

These people were H-A-P-P-Y.

And a different kind a happy. 

A childhood, freely shared kind of happy. Not the smugness and selfish pursuit of luxury you see at a luxury resort.

There really is a kind of camaraderie of campers.

This grey nomad movement, or silvery nomads as we prefer to call them, certainly has a lot going for it.

Why didn't we do this years ago?

Finally taking delivery of the Winnebago Diversion - our Silvery Nomad

The Silvery Nomad (the one on the left)

So we've finally taken delivery of our Mercedes-Benz Diversion and it's taken over eight months!

Selling houses is not as easy as we thought, even in Leura in the beautiful Blue Mountains - a place where we have many friends and plan to visit often.

Many thanks to Sydney RV Centre Penrith and the team there. Nothing was too much trouble and we got quite a few nice upgrades.

Upsizing the TV

While the house is sold, with settlement at the end of the month, we haven't ventured far yet.

Two small hitches.  Roy has a pair of hernias to be patched and it's about to happen on Monday.  He'll be entering a world of pain for a while, so we're thinking of heading for the coast afterwards on our first run for some recuperation and depressurization.

From a 5 bedroom home to a van

Packing the van is a science. It's a massive downsize we're doing from a five bedroom house to a van.

Our lives have shrunk down to 3 boxes - a PO Box address, a small Storage Lock-up for seasonal switchovers and storing a few special things - and of course our Diversion Motorhome, the third box, although it's anything but a box on wheels.

The Mercedes Benz Sprinter van is a joy to drive and not like driving a box at all.

All very luxurious and comfortable.

Roy has already written some advertising freelance in the van, using our iphones as Wi-Fi hotspots.

But a downsizing move is not downsizing the labour involved and we both need a good rest.

Will keep you posted on The Journeys of The Silvery Nomad.

A surprising joy to drive