Welcome to our now labelled 'Gerpipacker' blog which we hope will enable you to understand where and what we're up to in terms of our wanderings. We
The Geripackers ©
So why the *&^# are we calling this 'The Geripackers' you may be asking.
As most of you know, we're in the 60+ age vintage (who cares) but 'The Geripackers' title is also meant to convey a sense of an adventurous travelling mode to locations which may be a little different to the norm... whatever that may be. The actual term 'Geripackers' originated during a recent trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos with 2 very enthusiastic good friends.
Having booked an overnight train trip along the Vietnamese coast from Da Nang to Nha Trang, we found ourselves waiting waiting waiting in Da Nang for a train impacted by massive delays. We made the decision to cancel our train tickets and instead take a sleeper bus to Nha Trang.
A sleeper bus is one where people literally have a narrow bed in double deck style to sleep on with little room to stretch out let alone turn over with 5 'beds' stretched across the rear back of the bus.
With bus tickets in hand, we hadn't quite realised a few small things like:
- the trip was going to take at least 14 hours overnight
- the bus was going to be full of energetic backpackers and their cheap Vietnamese brown rum. Imagine their surprise seeing the four of us lined up across the rear beds, bit like having your parents travelling with you.
This photo shows the layout of the bus and unfortunately my feet!
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| My feet poking down the bus corridor |
It was during this looong trip that the four of us when asking ourselves, "why are we on this bus?" referred to ourselves as 'geripackers', the older age equivalent of backpackers.
This trip whilst being somewhat uncomfortable was however in its own way, very different, fun and humourous, especially once the rum was consumed.
If You Don't Go...
Back in 1990 during our family trip around Australia, whilst contemplating whether we should drive from the WA coast inland to Mt Augustus, (http://www.mtaugustustouristpark.com) at a time when the track was 4WD only, rough, remote and no tourist parks existing, our oldest child simply said to us... "If you don't go you don't know".
Well we didn't go for many logical reasons (small kids, very remote, late in the season etc) but his comment left us with a sense of unfulfilled discovery and has stimulated us to 'wander' a lot. We will get to Mt Augustus one day!!
So now true retirement from work has infused itself into both our lives and our thinking, stimulating us to seek out and visit alternative parts of the world, places which cause us to stretch ourselves, keep learning and experiencing.
We decided our draft travel plans until 2020 ($'s dependant) and are about to head off again, hoping to wander into some of the more remote and/or stimulating parts of the world and willing to try various ways of getting to them, whilst the bodies can cope anyway.
Soon you will soon discover where we're off to next and hopefully also over time we hope you will see improvements in our other hobby, photography.
Posts which follow in the months to come will occur as time and the rigours, fun and circumstances of our travelling permit.
Our plans are truly premised on seeking to go to places a little different as kept in the forefront of our minds by our sons incisive comment...
"So if you don't go... You don't know!"
