Camping as permanent accomodation

[SteveJ]

NNW - anything is possible, you just need to find a host and set up a mutually benificial arrangment. There are also Farm-share, Land-share organisations etc that do similar stuff,

[andrewa]

Steve, what a great concept. Didn't know it existed.

Many of the posts sort of miss the point that "myself" doesn't appear to have a car, or boat....

With respect to cooking, I was amazed to go into Rays yesterday to buy one of those little Coleman gas single burner cookers for my boat....$19.95, including 4 or 5 spare gas cylinders! And, when I mention "boat", don't roll your eyebrows -it's 50yrs old, and I bought it on fleabay for $650.

A

[north-north-west]

NNW - anything is possible, you just need to find a host and set up a mutually beneficial arrangement. There are also Farm-share, Land-share organisations etc that do similar stuff,

Yeah, it should be possible, just take a lot of looking and organising. I need to get my fingers out and start searching.
Thanks.

[Myself]

Yeah the wwoof thing sounds like a great idea.

Location location location. The gear/inventory - although I don't have half of it yet - I am getting my head around how many things I need to account/equip for, picking the right place will be 80% of the prep.

[Moondog55]

Yeah the wwoof thing sounds like a great idea.

Location location location. The gear/inventory - although I don't have half of it yet - I am getting my head around how many things I need to account/equip for, picking the right place will be 80% of the prep.

Disagree mate. having the right gear means you can prop yourself practically anywhere. Think about how much stuff the early drovers had to carry or homesteaders in the USA, to be reasonably comfortable in many different scenarios means needing a bit more gear than for a casual week-end Unlike the drovers and homesteaders tho I think you can leave the forge and anvil out of the list. If I was going to do this and it has been a pipe dream of mine too, I think the large van is the cheapest and best option in the long run, for me the simpler the better

[Jaala]

Your statements have been that you are still researching what you would need, and that you have hardly any gear. So I'm wondering, do you have any experience camping out for any amount of time? Not being critical, just hoping you haven't made a decision in haste.

[Moondog55]

Your statements have been that you are still researching what you would need, and that you have hardly any gear. So I'm wondering, do you have any experience camping out for any amount of time? Not being critical, just hoping you haven't made a decision in haste.

Good question

[SteveJ]

when I mention "boat", don't roll your eyebrows -it's 50yrs old, and I bought it on fleabay for $650.

A

less than you paid for your Alpacka

[SteveJ]

When my wife and I moved to our farm it was a nothing more than a cow paddock, we lived in a samll caravan with a basic little bathroom shed for 5 years, cooked on a gas bbq outside while I built our house. It tought us the difference between needs and wants and changed our outlook on life in general, it thought us that the best things in life are not things at all a valuble lesson that our society in general needs to relearn perhaps. The 'things' one needs are very basic, having said that I would not want to spent 5 years in a tent without a bathroom.

Steve

[hunsta]

I couldn't be bothered reading all the posts, but try the Mary river in Gympie. You definitely wont be alone and there a rest area on the southern entrance that has toilets and atleast one resident who has stayed there for 5 years now unmolested by local authorities. You just may have to pack up quick if it rains for more that a week straight in the wet season

[hunsta]

When my wife and I moved to our farm it was a nothing more than a cow paddock, we lived in a samll caravan with a basic little bathroom shed for 5 years, cooked on a gas bbq outside while I built our house. It tought us the difference between needs and wants and changed our outlook on life in general, it thought us that the best things in life are not things at all a valuble lesson that our society in general needs to relearn perhaps. The 'things' one needs are very basic, having said that I would not want to spent 5 years in a tent without a bathroom.

Steve

Yep did the same thing but not as long. 4 berth caravan and annex. 4 bits of corrugated iron as outside shower cubicle. Pit dunny and water(spring fed and clean) from the creek. I was from inner city Sydney. *&%$#! uplifting

[clarence]

Hi Myself,

I love the idea.

When I was cycle touring around Australia I lived in a tent for extended periods, camping in all manner of places. My total kit weight (ie panniers with all clothes, gear, bicycle spares, toiletries, tent, sleeping bag, first aid kit and a few days of food) weighed about 25kg. This was more than enough to live off for weeks on end, provided food and water was topped up. This was everywhere from the Kimberley in mid spring to southern Victoria in autumn- we were rarely uncomfortable, rarely had trouble finding a spot (except near cities) and were never disturbed when we were out of sight of the road.

A friend of mine was in a similar situation to what you describe. He decided to set up semi-permanent camp in a national park, which was less than 1hr walk to a train station. He set up in an overhang, with a basic amount of gear, and stayed there for many months. He was less than 500m from one of the most well used walking tracks. The small overhang protected his site from the weather and sun, and the nearby cliffline was a natural barrier to people wandering off the track and coming across his camp. The site was clean and well managed, and he could pack up and leave whenever he wanted. Any of the creature comforts were available less than one and a half hours walk/train ride away at the nearest suburb. He would cook on a fire at night time when there would be no walkers around.

He could stay at his camp during the day if he wished, or walk to the train station and get the train in to a major town in less than two hours. He seemed as happy camping in the bush as he had been in his less than ideal accommodation arrangements in suburbia. It may seem stupid, but is far more respectable than living in a park or under a bridge as many people certainly do.

The area around the greater Sydney region has untold options for this. With train lines heading past Kuringgai NP (north), Blue Mountains NP (west), and Royal/Heathcote NP (south), all of which have sandstone geology (and hence overhang/cave environments) it is wonder more people are not doing it. I think the critical thing is looking around and finding the right location, and the correct site within that location. Even in the major national parks, once you get away from the trailheads, tracks, beaches and major infrastructure, it is exceedingly rare for people to be anywhere nearby.

If you never try it, you will always wonder what it's like.

Clarence

[Eremophila]

Clarence, what toileting arrangements did your friend use?
Seems that digging at least one pit per day, adds up to a lot of pits very quickly.

[Solohike74]

Some national park campgrounds have power outlet & a shower but not many. There's a small fee, and time limit of 2 weeks in them in NSW.

[Myself]

Hi Myself,

I love the idea.

When I was cycle touring around Australia I lived in a tent for extended periods, camping in all manner of places. My total kit weight (ie panniers with all clothes, gear, bicycle spares, toiletries, tent, sleeping bag, first aid kit and a few days of food) weighed about 25kg. This was more than enough to live off for weeks on end, provided food and water was topped up. This was everywhere from the Kimberley in mid spring to southern Victoria in autumn- we were rarely uncomfortable, rarely had trouble finding a spot (except near cities) and were never disturbed when we were out of sight of the road.

A friend of mine was in a similar situation to what you describe. He decided to set up semi-permanent camp in a national park, which was less than 1hr walk to a train station. He set up in an overhang, with a basic amount of gear, and stayed there for many months. He was less than 500m from one of the most well used walking tracks. The small overhang protected his site from the weather and sun, and the nearby cliffline was a natural barrier to people wandering off the track and coming across his camp. The site was clean and well managed, and he could pack up and leave whenever he wanted. Any of the creature comforts were available less than one and a half hours walk/train ride away at the nearest suburb. He would cook on a fire at night time when there would be no walkers around.

He could stay at his camp during the day if he wished, or walk to the train station and get the train in to a major town in less than two hours. He seemed as happy camping in the bush as he had been in his less than ideal accommodation arrangements in suburbia. It may seem stupid, but is far more respectable than living in a park or under a bridge as many people certainly do.

The area around the greater Sydney region has untold options for this. With train lines heading past Kuringgai NP (north), Blue Mountains NP (west), and Royal/Heathcote NP (south), all of which have sandstone geology (and hence overhang/cave environments) it is wonder more people are not doing it. I think the critical thing is looking around and finding the right location, and the correct site within that location. Even in the major national parks, once you get away from the trailheads, tracks, beaches and major infrastructure, it is exceedingly rare for people to be anywhere nearby.

If you never try it, you will always wonder what it's like.

Clarence

That Sir, is an excellent and positive response

You'd be unsurprised by the number of raised eyebrows I've had even mentioning such a proposal. I just quietly think the words "Go f#%&$ yourself", smile and dismiss the less constructive advice.

Anyhow, plans are well under-way, and I'm on course to start travelling to the Lower Blue Mountains no later than mid-winter. There are plenty of things to organize, and I don't want to overlook anything major so I've taken plenty of time to plot and plan as many angles as possible.

I've had a website for the past four years i've done nothing with really, and I'll be using that to keep a photo-diary/blog of my doings. My bag will probably reach around 25kgs too, I really didn't want it to get over 15, but as time's ticked along i've added the 9000mAh 12v powermonkey, gps, batteries, water filter, 4-season/3-man tent, 0oC s/bag and the list goes on.

I've already started looking at what can stay behind, and what must come with me, but it's coming together pretty well.

I will update with a general itiniary in a few weeks when I've got my routes planned.

[Moondog55]

Then I suggest you read the old books which discuss ways to maintain a camp and stay hidden. Things that should become second nature after a while. Trying to keep different routes to your campsite and using them at random so you don't open up a path that curious people may follow. Making smokeless fires ( Dakota fire pit ) and other "Bushcraft" advice.
Clarence is right in that most people stay on the tracks and even 100 meters is [ or can be] enough to stay reasonably well hidden.
A little stealth can go a long way so perhaps you may want to do a little reading on camouflage etc; and look to getting a length of hessian to throw over your kit.
Avoid bright candy colours for your gear. If the tent you have bought is a bright and easily seen colour it can be dyed or you can just throw the hessian over the top. Maintain a clean and well ordered camp with attention to adequate disposal of waste to keep away flys and vermin and take out you rubbish on a regular basis and maintain your personal health by good camp hygiene
What you don't know you can learn Good luck

[Myself]

Then I suggest you read the old books which discuss ways to maintain a camp and stay hidden. Things that should become second nature after a while. Trying to keep different routes to your campsite and using them at random so you don't open up a path that curious people may follow. Making smokeless fires ( Dakota fire pit ) and other "Bushcraft" advice.
Clarence is right in that most people stay on the tracks and even 100 meters is [ or can be] enough to stay reasonably well hidden.
A little stealth can go a long way so perhaps you may want to do a little reading on camouflage etc; and look to getting a length of hessian to throw over your kit.
Avoid bright candy colours for your gear. If the tent you have bought is a bright and easily seen colour it can be dyed or you can just throw the hessian over the top. Maintain a clean and well ordered camp with attention to adequate disposal of waste to keep away flys and vermin and take out you rubbish on a regular basis and maintain your personal health by good camp hygiene
What you don't know you can learn Good luck

Cheers bro.

The tent is the only (and largest) iten that needs concealment, being a solid block of sand-coloured fabric it's not as badly visiblea s the bright green, orange or yellow tents, but any solid block of colour stands out. It's in f act not sand coloured, but more a beige similar to ghostgum bark, but unless I can find a spot that's naturally shielded from view, something will have to be tossed over it.

The pack's alot easier to hide than the tent of course, and all I'll have to carry are the 90L pack and a bag of food, so once the tent's setup that'll be the most obviously spottable thing. I myself already prefer earth-toned clothes so i don't really have any bright colours and won't be taking more than one change anyway.

So it's really just the tent. I haven't even entertained the thought of a campfire, unless I end-up joining some other campers and feel camo isn't necessary, but have practiced-up getting a fire from a firesteel if I need to and havea. Small container packed-full of dry cotton to get it going.

I know I want a portable stove, but haven't settled on which type would be best. Seems to be down to either a Pocket-Rocket style with cannisters, or an alchohol stove, which seems a but on the dodgey side. I grabbed some solid fuel tablets and stove a while back, but don't like how quixk the fuel blocks burn-up, or how heavy they are. Each square fuel block burns for about 8 mins, after which you gotta lift the pot if the food's not cooked, and start another pellet.

I get the impression cannister stoves don't last more than one hour, which is even less than the solid fuel, but you at least get a controllable gas flame from them, whereas the solid fuel flame doesn't even stay on the bottom of the pot of there's the slightest breeze.

There's also the fact gas stoves are legal to use everywhere, while many other altenatives seem to be banned.

Edit: there're probably alot of typoes in there, sorry it's the ipad onscreen keyboard.

[Myself]

I also considered a camo bivy but realistically i just couldn't see myself being at all comfortable in a coffin-shaped construction that's only slightly larger than my sleeping-bag, there'd be no room at all, and being the only shelter-on-demand I'll have out there I wanted enough space for myself and my bag, and the 3-man fits the bill nicely.

I actually chose the sand-colour because I figure if I'm rained-in for days, the "warm-white" light the fly produces will be good enough for most indoor activities. I draw and paint when I'm in a calm state and reasonably happy, see, and that just couldn't be done in a tent with a bright green or yellow fly, and the only camo tents I saw generally were bivy's and tiny 1-person tubes etc,.

[Myself]

I'm also undecided about the water-filter to go with. The Life-straw family was the first one i looked at, but it looked very bulky, and then I discovered (while @ youtube) there're several, including a half-bike-pump sized swiss-made device that filters down to .01 micron and is hand-pumpable.

So if anyone can shed light on which filters are reliable or not, feel free to tell me

[icefest]

I have a sawyer filter. I'm happy with it as I can flush it out almost anywhere.

[Myself]

I have a sawyer filter. I'm happy with it as I can flush it out almost anywhere.

Hand-operated? Drip/gravity powered? Reliable thus far?

Here's the small hand-pump one i was looking at though I wouldn't buy it from this site, it was just the first that popped-up

http://www.theoutdoorcompany.com.au/katadyn-hiker-pro/

Course, how long each filter lasts is important too, since I don't wanna be dragging a whole box of refills around with me as well.

[icefest]

http://sawyer.com/technology/water-filtration/

Can be gravity feed or connect to a bag/bladder and squeeze.

You wash it after use and that way it will last for thousands of litres.

No replacing of filters needed.

[Myself]

Yeah no moving parts i noticed, on the bladder-filter you have, which means less chance of failure when you need it, long as it doesn't get punctured, pro-con, pro-con!

[Myself]

I could always order one of each: the pump wouldn't puncture, and is swiss-made, but if it did fail, the sawyer would pack flat and take up no space at all, really.

Two devices isn't a very elegant solution of course, especially with the weight considerations now.

[icefest]

I use these as a bladder. They weigh 22g empty so you can carry several as a backup.

[Myself]

Be only a few bucks too, right?

I've never noticed bladders of water at grocery/supermarkets, though I'm not much interested in buying water when i am there shopping. Where are they sold? Coles? Woolies? Foodland or IGA? Or only online?

[icefest]

Make sure you get one with a screw lid and not a pop-top.

Have a look on the internet for bricks and mortar stores where they are sold. I bought a huge box at a wholesaler and haven't needed to get any more for a while.

[dancier]

No doubt you're well on your journey now but if I was in your situation, I'd be heading north, there seems to be lots of seasonal work between Perth and Darwin, not long back a friend was walking the Larapinta and was offered work which she did for a week and was told to come back the following year but she's got lots of other walks planned. I was cycle touring down the east coast near Byron Bay and was chatting to some guys that were hang gliding on the beach cliffs, one of the guys was trading in shares to make do, and that just paid the rent but he was heading into the outback with his camper to find gold which he had done before.

I often read of cycle tourists disappearing into the North-West of Australia, they seem to get job after job but in-between they're happy to cycle so you need to do something like that to stay occupied, Myself, I can cycle tour in Asia for well under $30 a day plus airfares so I'd be looking for seasonal work in OZ, and riding or walking for the remainder of time

If you want a good read then have a look through this guys journals, he's semi homeless in the States,
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/directo ... rider&v=1H

[Myself]

God it's such a pity he didn't apply a CSS stylesheet here and there, and use paragraphs on occasion, but he's certainly documented his travels. I notice the dates all fit within the 2004-2008 range, making me wonder if he's still alive, dead, or just got sick of writing about stuff, interesting though.

I was trying to decide which additional topos I should order since I won't spent the rest of my live in the Blue Mountains, until the Oregon 650 arrived yesterday and I stuck the Aus/NZ TOPO maps on it. Mind you, they're not as detailed as a real map, but detailed enough to arguably make paper topos not so necessary, and all of Aus is covered.

Going feom the impulse-driven $120 Magellan Explorist 110 - which I rashly bought while walking through a shopping centre - to the well-researched Oregon 650 is like stepping off an old bicycle wnd into a ferrari. I was almost ready to order an Explorist 610 too, because it had a free topo promotion, then in a 180o move started lookinga t Garmins for around that price withOUT any topos on em.

So in the end I snapped out of it, and realized that like any device: better hardware trumps inferior and almost all software can be downloaded for nothing, and got the O650. I'll take it out for a few geocache-dog-walks to get a decent feel for it, but thus far I'm pretty impressed. The only bad thong ai can say about the unit, is the USB port placement sucks. I mean, who puts a usb socket at a 90o right angle to a unit, preventing it from laying flat while it's plugged in?

They should've just spent the extra .50c manufacturing a second usb port that allows the unit to sit flat. Outside of that, I loce it.

[Overlandman]

This morning I was reading the Tasmanian Country Newspaper.
There is an add in the Classifieds for a caretaker for a 3 bedroom farm cottage, near Campbelltown, animal lover essential for old farm house inc 2 dogs, 3 horses & chooks, drivers license required, no pets (plenty here) some light work including house keeping, gardening / handy person. Hand written application, references required.
Regards Overlandman