To What age can we keep Touring ?

On Yah Jack, come the revolution comrade!!!!

Gday Jack
I am in that era as well, almost the last trip to the doc ,there were no man type books,so always having to wait, i jumped in the bomb and went home to get some books to read. Trouble is that when you go back next time ,all the good books are gone..

With your attitude John, you should be able to chalk up at least another 25 years.
I hope I can get another 40 years of touring in before I have to stick to the bitumen.
That will get me into the high 90's by then. LOL

About 84 each and still going, that sounds like a target to aim for Phil , I will be applying every health angle I know to get there , but I guess so many of these things are beyond our control.

Robin Miller

At first I thought "What are these fools doing out there" and then I started to think about it, and if I were to be out there at their age, it would be a great achievement - I've been travelling the outback on and off for 30 years now, and in another 35 years, I'll be their age.
Good health certainly helps, and some of that is the luck of the draw.

Great attitude isn't it. Good to be able to get on and just do it. Take the pills every day so you can.

Might be time to get one of those chinese import 50cc motorbikes and put it in long term storage Willem - I second thoughts , my son is riding his right now and its annoying me and impressing a couple of teenage girls , so maybe I should impound his for the future.

Robin Miller

Bit of a sad sting in that reply Matt.

I believe I can appreciate the rammifications

Robin Miller

Hi Beatit

Caravan is a big expenditure for sure , and I have seen now two lots of friends buy one for there big trip and basically sell it soon after as health has interferred.

I'm the "never got sick" type until just recently at 58 got pluresy , which I never really even heard of , went from chainsawing trees and building tracks on saturday to "stuffed and couldn't even drive for a month" in 48 hrs.

Sorta makes you think along these lines. For me I got over everthing and won't change what I'm doing but it will cause some changes long term.

For example in posts like these I have argued the case for manual 4wds over auto's but my arguements never considered the health angle.

The sickness I got caused severe pain if you put any pressure on your chest.
I just couldn't change gears as arm movement stressed the chest , however I could easily drive my wife's auto RAV 4wd.

A bigger factor in car / caravan type descisions for me in future will be the ability to react to changing circumstances and so get products that are easier to re-sell.

Robin Miller

I think that health is a major factor – the odds are working against you all the time as you get older. However it is not only the issue of getting some health issue it is also old age. I have been travelling with a couple in their 70’s and they were doing fine but last year they decided to move away from a camper trailer to a caravan for comfort. He said his old bones just couldn’t take the off road travel any longer.

Hi Robin,

The resale value is only good if the van suits your purpose in the first place. I take your point but being an optimist I really have to stay positive on the 20 year period otherwise I would make a totally different decision to accommodate a possible sale in say 5 years. For example a five year layout could include cheaper options rather than those that will last a lot longer.

In fear of getting a little too philosophical, but isn’t it interesting as we arrive to retirement age that we get concerned about our health etc and how much time we have left. The power of positive thinking may not help to depress that clutch pedal but I don’t like contemplating the alternative. Mind you, I have an auto with cruise control and so long as I can still see OK and have the brain communicate effectively I feel relatively safe.

Kind regards