D-day minus 1

We are off on the retro road trip tomorrow and this prompted me to think back fondly on the road trips that were a common way of travelling in the 70’s and 80’s. Air travel was too expensive for poor uni students in the 70’s and way too expensive with three kids in the 80’s. 

The car was our lounge and kitchen on wheels. We thought nothing of packing three kids in the back of the big Falcon and driving 2,000kms in two days. Half the fun was in the planning. Packing a gas cooker to boil the billy, sandwiches and fruit, paper maps and street directories, public swimming pools for a shower and a cooked chook on the pool lawns and pre-dawn departures watching out for kangaroos on the roads. 

I think it appears more fun in the recollection than it probably was. An interesting Australian phenomenon the road trip. 

In the 70’s, Tas and I would do one or two hunting trips each year and the long drives out to Hay and Oxley on the Lachlan River hunting pigs, quail and bloody great brown snakes were memorable. 

In those days, a road trip consisted of a good pre-departure booze up or lunch and a booze up. Two essential pre-trip maneuvers; the servo for fuel and the bottle shop for beer, because any trip required at least a six pack of cold tinnies lodged between the seats and discarded out the window when finished. 

Albury to Melbourne required a pit stop in Eurora or the side of the road somewhere. 

On the road to Hay, there were thousands of discarded VB cans. Like a green carpet. Somewhere about half-way they changed to Melbourne Bitter and the colour changed to red. I am ashamed to say we contributed significantly to the roadside collection. 

I was not unusual in those days for the passenger to wind the window down – yes you had to wind it with a handle – and poke the .22 out the window and plink away at the cans. I wonder now why they were cans and not stubbies? Weight I guess. 

Well, there will be none of that fun on this trip. We have GPS, talking maps, phones and quaint and comfortable accommodation, with a maximum travel distance of around 300kms per day. One sleep to go. Oh, and we are not allowed to say “Are we there yet?” Or “How far is it?”