Whats a Grey Nomad

twobob · Guru

Whats a Grey Nomad

Cruising Granny · Guru

Jeez Bob, now you ask!
I don't think the nomad has to be grey, but they're more likely to be retired or close.
They do have to have the wunderlust. Whether they're on the road all the time, most of the time or occasionally by definition makes them a nomad. Even thinking about travel in any way shape or form probably makes them prospective nomads.
They probably have to enjoy their own company or the company of their travel companion.
They don't have to have a destination. Like I said as long as they're planning to travel will do. Some of our fellow forum followers have expressed their desire to sell up, buy up and take to the black top by car, motor bike, motor home, tent, or some towed accommodation.
Defining is relatively simple, but I don't think there's an age? Cheers Granny

ibbo · Guru

A grey nomad is just a wanderer.Nomad meaning to wander.The grey nomad title is one thatolder Nomads have been given as a mark of respect.Well I would like to think that that is so.Cheers.Ibbi.

mike and Judy · Guru

Well I qualify, by all the above criteria,
WHOOPEE, hear that mum, I is a wanderer, just as you predicted

Roostertales · Senior Member

My understanding was the phrase was coined to cover those retired/gray haired people that were travelling around/heading north for winter etc . The names been around for quite a while.They were the real travelling pioneers of our age I guess.

I do think as the number of people and reasons for people travelling grows the definition needs to be broadened.

Also for myself am I an apprentice or probationery GN ?

If I was retired I'd be off like flynn with or without my better half.

I'd love to wander and see this beautiful country and to camp out whereever I please in a little van somewhere.It's beena dream of mine for 30 years or so.We have done an up the centre for 5 weeks /15,000 k but there simply wasn't enough time to really enjoy. I wasn't grey then either !

Hopefully I will have a chance to do it for more than just a week or two a year in due course.

In the next 12 months I want to complete the package with the purchase of a van and possibly be able to join friends on a tour for a few months in 2 -3 years.

Currently I do travel more overseas than here due to work commitments but also have the opportunity to link with personal holidays even if I don't get paid for taking.

Not sure if I've contributed to the debate or not !

Mike

dave06 · Guru

simplistic answer, over 50 and love to travel, I asked the same question a long time ago when I was a "newbie" I still query it today

the true definition of a "grey nomad" is one of advancing years always on the move with no specific home address, I.E. no definate solid "home" address as in the home most of us understand with a given street ref. fences, lawn, letterbox yada yada yada

I got all sorts of feedback on that one, had all sorts of toing and froing, but I still "aspire" to be a grey nomad, I dont class myself as one as yet because I still have a home, even though I am over 50 and travel a lot I am not yet risen to the ranks of the glorified ones

my idea of a "grey nomad" is one who has no "permanent" address as I recognise it as in a "house" now I hear all you buggers out there saying "my van is my house and I travel a lot through the year" well that in my eyes does not make you a nomad, you are the same as me, a part time traveller, NOT A NOMAD

a nomad to me is, well, just like granny, the van is her home, she is always travelling (when not crook or whatever) and that is what MY aspirations to become nomad are

Cruising Granny · Guru

Gee Dave, does that mean I've been promoted to a "glorified grey nomad"?
I'm honoured, along with everybody out there who live in their mode of travel and point the nose in no particular direction when the mood takes them.
We are all an interesting lot, and how we interrpret what we see within our lifestyle is fascinating to me.
Some of you are business folk, labourers in various fields, still working or retired, and all hard workers it seems.
To define can restrict, but hey, if you want to live where your wheels are parked, it's a great life. No rates, taxes, furniture or lawns. Most parks have gardens, and the bush we travel through is a garden in its own right.
Just van and vehicle maintenance, fuel and park costs. Ah, I just love it.
Cheers Granny

dave06 · Guru

well granny the one thing left in life that I aspire to be is a grey nomad such as yourself, we are still working now and just cant wait to get back out there

as Willy Nelson once put it "ON THE ROAD AGAIN, I JUST CANT WAIT TO GET ON THE ROAD AGAIN"

been most every other damn thing in my life, husband, Dad, grandad, tree feller, heavy plant operator, semi driver, farm plant operator, shift plant operator, cfs firey, volunteer ambo, office worker, part time traveller and now I just want me and my gal to be just me and my gal and do the things we always wanted to do without being told where to be when and how to be

CANT BLOODY WAIT!!!!

JRH · Guru

dave06 wrote:

well granny the one thing left in life that I aspire to be is a grey nomad such as yourself, we are still working now and just cant wait to get back out there

as Willy Nelson once put it "ON THE ROAD AGAIN, I JUST CANT WAIT TO GET ON THE ROAD AGAIN"

been most every other damn thing in my life, husband, Dad, grandad, tree feller, heavy plant operator, semi driver, farm plant operator, shift plant operator, cfs firey, volunteer ambo, office worker, part time traveller and now I just want me and my gal to be just me and my gal and do the things we always wanted to do without being told where to be when and how to be

CANT BLOODY WAIT!!!!

All good things come to he who waits and all good people get good things happening in their life, I'm sure you are in that catergory pal, it's coming.

Basil Faulty · Guru

I now declare my occupation as "Grey Nomad" rather than 'retiree','pensioner','superannuant'....

Roostertales · Senior Member

Cruising Granny wrote:

Gee Dave, does that mean I've been promoted to a "glorified grey nomad"?
I'm honoured, along with everybody out there who live in their mode of travel and point the nose in no particular direction when the mood takes them.
We are all an interesting lot, and how we interrpret what we see within our lifestyle is fascinating to me.
Some of you are business folk, labourers in various fields, still working or retired, and all hard workers it seems.
To define can restrict, but hey, if you want to live where your wheels are parked, it's a great life. No rates, taxes, furniture or lawns. Most parks have gardens, and the bush we travel through is a garden in its own right.
Just van and vehicle maintenance, fuel and park costs. Ah, I just love it.
Cheers Granny

Hey ... and no letterbox means no mail ... and no bills either. When we lived at C****too in Vic - a charming little mud puddle of a place that no one seems to have ever heard of - and god forbid you lay claim to living in such a place when out with people who live in "Brighton sniff sniff "!)- we only ever collected the mail about once every three weeks - it was great fun occasionally remembering to do it -it was like xmas ev erytime ...save for the damn bills cos we had a permanent abode

Roostertales · Senior Member

Hey Bas

Gotta tell ya

No wonder you're a nomad - You look like santa and the dog ....does she answer to rudolf by any chance ....oops hang on too many reds - it's after 5 oclock.

Mike

Cruising Granny · Guru

My address is a little black box in the wall of the Edithburgh PO, on SA's Yorke Peninsula. My eldest daughter packs it into a pre-paid express bag and sends it to wherever I'm camped, when she remembers, or I remind her.
My mobile phone bill is emailed to me, and I pay it by BPay. Other bills are paid monthly by auto debit, so I don't have to keep remembering. I have trouble with the day of the week.
My van wheels are on the grass of a Cairns van park. It's like living in an aviary, and the birds change shifts in the fig tree next to my van, about every 3 weeks. This week it's Rainbow Lorikeets in the early shift, and then the bats move in for the night. During the day it might be fig parrots, mina birds, and many others I hear but can't see. The kookaburra family calls in for a sing up a couple of times a day. And the rainforest forms the background to my vista. I'm on the straight and narrow grog wise at the moment, but I do enjoy a quiet Bundy or wine when friends drop by. Now, that can't be all bad, can it?
Cheers, Granny

Roostertales · Senior Member

Granny T

There are a number of explexitives that I am familiar with that could be used to describe my response to your latest post .

No doubt you have heard them all before !

dave06 · Guru

well granny i guess if one really must be crook then that sounds like the place to be.

I dont go to the quacks anymore they kept on finding things wrong with me, doctors blood test, doctors blood test

jumped off that roundabout and all the weirdos that are stuck on it!! thats all a lot of people do is go to the quack

jandas fun · Guru

surely the grey in Grey Nomads refers to the "grey matter" between our ears that tells
us to follow our wanderlust and to enjoy the journey as much, if not more than the destination.
as far as having a home or base is concerned, even nomads return to the same place eventually.
For 25 years we travelled between Sydney and Kinglake Vic and Ballina Nsw on a regular basis visiting parents, with 4 kids in the car. We would often pass old couples on the side of the road having a cuppa. That is when we knew that one day we would do the same, and actually stop at all the little places we passed thru, and stay as long as we wanted.
I dont feel age comes into it.

JohnW

suenami · Senior Member

Did you call? 'cept I'm not grey. Everything everyone has said - ditto. Overnight in Birchip on my way to Mildura.
I always take back roads. Don't often see other nomads only permanent park residents. This time no residents - hardly a park.
My mailing address is my son on the central coast NSW. This is almost confusing for Centrelink but we get there. I know how to claim rent assistance now...everytime I do, my son gets a new pension card in the mail. What a waste.
The other day, son wanted to ring me back later - I told him don't worry I'm home all weekend - without realizing what I was saying ashamed

- he replied "yes mum, I figured"....I have to keep moving, at present, lest I lose my courage to.....y'know, keep going.....but it's good...
Cheers,
Sue smile

mike and Judy · Guru

Nows theres a thing I forgot to mention before,Like a lot of us a pension is deposited to my acc,and a card is sent to the current address
Before departing on the alice trip last year, I went in too explain where I was heading ,and they sent me a normal blue card with the heading on it titled "Travelling", never had this before
anyone else got one ??

Cruising Granny · Guru

You can ask Centrelink or "The Department of Insecurity" to stop sending cards every time you register for rent assistance. Worked for me. Don't worry, it's not you who's confused, it's that department which can't get its act together.

And Dave, if it wasn't for the quacks finding stuff I may not be on this earth to enjoy this lifestyle. The upside is some my "chronic" issues have been reviewed, and can be fixed with surgery. I'm excited to know I may get some of my life back without all the pills which keep my condition stable. I only go when I need scripts, and the buggers do a blood test and check my blood pressure. But I'm here because of them. Health is a biggy to a good life.
Take care. Cheers Granny

dave06 · Guru

granny, Health is everything, but I had a little "attack" just recently, still getting over it, but it was a wake up call for me and to see the clowns that are on the medical merry go round

the quacks would make an appointment for me, I would turn up to see 10 or a dozen waiting to go in, I would go in see the quack, he wanted a blood test, so off I go to the vampires turned up early to get it out the way, well bugger me it's the same dozen that were at the quacks all standing around talking about their "zippers" and "mercedes" "and chinese eyes" didnt have a clue what they were on about

doors open and I kid you not it's a bloody free for all, pushing and shoving, the girl at the desk pointed to me and ushered me in she said that the quack had rung and I was more important than the others so I go first, I said hell that was crazy and she said they are all mad and always like that

bloods done back to the quack, quack wants a cat scan, up I goes well bugger me if the same faces arent there all talking and carrying on and greeting me as if I was a long lost brother, I said to the sheila operating the scan what are these people doing with their life to be like this, she said it's the same every day, same people same complaints

back to the quack well this time it's very vocal greetings from every corner of the room, bloody hell I thought I've entered the set of one flew over the cuckoos nest and I've got the lead role

I seen the quack and he said tests were inconclusive more bloods and another cat scan, I just said nup I'm fine see ya, on the way out I said to these drongoes why are you doing this why arent you out travelling and enjoying life instead of being here all the time there answer was "oh no we got to see the doctors, we are not well" I just shook my head and walked out

I still see them lined up at the pathology lab waiting for the door to open, same faces all yakking about their various illnesses and operations

the zipper is a heart bypass or replacement, the mercedes is a liver transplant and chinese eyes are kidney transplant, this I learnt very quickly whilst amongst the "undead"!!! it's a strange world in which they dwell

this is not in any way a reference to your illnesses granny just an eye opener for me, I hope you get a lot better very soon and get back out on the road again

suenami · Senior Member

Thanks for that info Mike and Judy, Granny. I just worked out today that I'm OK it's Centrelink. "dept of insecurity" sounds about right. Can't get thru to NSW or Vic offices. Guess I need a major centre. Will try "travelling" and see where that that gets me.
Dave, I'm with you, hang in there....Sue