Nicole has become a confident solo caravanner
Everyone thinks about grey nomads as a couple, but hitting the road is not always as a duo. Sometimes it’s about going solo.
One of my friends, Nicole, lost her husband Don a year ago to a rare form of cancer. Their story is one you hear too often, sadly. He had given up work at 56 to enjoy an early retirement. Both avid campers and caravanners, they purchased a new Jayco van in the early stages of his cancer diagnosis. Don, ever the optimist, was determined to fight this cancer. For two and half years he endured many treatments, hospital visits and a bone marrow transplant but in February 2024 his body had enough, and he had to let go. We all lost a very special friend that day and Nicole lost her soul mate.
This melancholy story may be close to home. You might have your own ‘Don’ or know a ‘Don’. You will miss that person as we miss Don, terribly. But there is more to this story. The couple discussed many things before he passed at age 62. One of them was about Nicole continuing to take the caravan out on solo trips. It was something she wanted, but the thought of ‘flying solo’ felt daunting. Don had always done the towing and the reversing into caravan spaces. “As many couples will tell you, the men often were the drivers,” Nicole explained. “Once, when I mentioned to Don that I should learn how to tow the van, his response was, ‘Oh you don’t need to do that because you have me.’”
But that changed with the diagnosis. They knew Nicole would need to learn how to tow their van. She recoils at the memory of her first towing attempt. “It was on a skinny, winding road with a drop off and too many trucks. I was so scared I didn’t want to tow anything after that.” But if she wanted to fly solo, she had no choice, and a search on the RACQ website recommended Caravan Towing Tuition’s towing courses.
“With Don getting weaker I had to know how to get home with the caravan,” she said. They were taking short getaway trips to a Sunshine Coast caravan park for a few nights — close enough to the Brisbane hospital should he need to be admitted. “Up to that point I had never towed anything or backed the car onto the trailer — I was basically at zero.”
Initially she thought of doing the towing course solo but suggested they do it as a couple. “Don said he didn’t need any course because he knew everything about towing, but he came along and ended up learning a lot.”
Nicole releases the stabiliser legs with her trusty electric drill
Learning how to tow
Wayne McLeod worked in RACQ’s Driver Education Department for 20 years, managing the unit for the last five years. When RACQ closed the department in 2018, despite being close to retirement Wayne thought he’d continue working in an area he knew and loved. In 2019 he launched Caravan Towing Tuition. “When Covid arrived, the business grew a life of its own,” said Wayne. “There were no courses 15 years ago, but with caravanning becoming more popular people are looking for help.”
Caravan Towing Tuition offers courses across Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Logan, Ipswich, Toowoomba and surrounding areas. There is a course for someone who has upgraded their van and needs a refresher, or someone who has never towed a caravan. “If a new caravan has been delivered to a home, we meet at their house to discuss caravan basics and teach them how to hitch and unhitch. We then go out on the road together,” Wayne explained.
Wayne is convinced towing is 25 per cent skill and 75 per cent confidence. “If you find someone who can give you confidence, alert you to the pitfalls and point you in the right direction, you will be better off.” Wayne remembered a husband and wife who attended one of their courses. “The wife came under duress, but by the end of the course they were amazed. She drove home through the CBD on a Thursday afternoon in peak hour traffic. Because she found the confidence to do it.”
Another successful hitch for Nicole
Learning to love solo travelling
Wayne has noticed an emerging trend among single females. “As single women retire many want to do more caravanning,” he said. “They are done with their careers, are comfortable in their own company and they don’t want to sit at home.”
Retired teacher Julie from Melbourne is single and knows if she waited for her family to come with her, she would still be sitting at home. Julie, in her 70s, loves travelling solo because she has freedom to do whatever she wants when she wants. “I feel the freest I have ever been in my life because I decide where I go. I don’t have a plan,” said Julie.
Julie’s caravan non-negotiables were for a comfortable bed, off the ground and solid walls around her. “A hard tent basically,” Julie said dryly. With her trusty Subaru Forester towing a teardrop van, Julie has driven across the Nullarbor and up the centre of Australia. She meets many women travelling on their own and has discovered groups with likeminded members. Julie helps run a Facebook group called, ‘Teardrop Travellers of Oz’. They share information and suggest places to meet up.
At the end of February Julie collected her new square-drop van in Brisbane and is slowly making her way home to Melbourne. Her van is so lightweight it can basically be pushed by hand. She manages without help, but that doesn’t stop some from trying. “I was at Somerset Dam, Qld, backing my van onto a site, when the man from the neighbouring site without asking reached into my car and grabbed my steering wheel,” she explained. “I quickly told him to remove his hand. I have found this is fairly typical behaviour by men who think a woman isn’t capable of reversing a van.”
Julie picking up her new square-drop van
The daunting first solo trip
Nicole grew up enjoying camping and boating. Her parents owned a caravan, and they planned on going on a Big Lap around Australia. But her father passed away suddenly when her mum was only 42. “Back then it was much harder for women to do things for themselves like I was thinking of doing after Don passed.” Nicole knew she would lose her confidence if she didn’t take the van out, and wanting to avoid feeling ‘trapped’ like her mum had in that different societal time. Her first solo trip was a three-hour drive south to northern New South Wales’ Broken Head Holiday Park. “My brother Pete lives down that way,” she said. “He suggested I come to a nearby caravan park, and he would help set me up.”
But the morning she was to leave Brisbane she couldn’t hitch the van onto the car. “After trying for 45 minutes, I got in the car, wound the windows up because I didn’t want the neighbours to hear and had a cry and a few screams. Because I don’t have the physical strength to use a jockey wheel on the tread hitch, I splurged on an electric Black Jack trailer jack. But this jack leaves no room for error — it has to be dead on to the tread hitch. And I was not on a flat surface, which wasn’t helping. I yelled out to Don in frustration, ‘If you want me to go away in this caravan you better let me get this damn caravan on.’ He must have heard, because I was successful the next attempt. I said, ‘Thank you Don.’”
“It’s OK, I’ve got this”
Nicole reversing to hitch up the van using the Black Jack trailer jack
Nicole is in her late 50s. “I look young enough to have a partner but too old to be single.” At a few camp sites she has been asked where her partner is. “When I tell them, they often feel bad for asking.”
When arriving at a caravan park in Pottsville, NSW, Nicole noticed that as she was backing her van a few men came out to watch. One guy ran up and asked if she wanted him to move his car, implying she would need more space. “If you feel you need to,” she said back in reply.
“As a female, they underestimate you. I find it interesting. If the roles were reversed, and I had died and Don was on his own, he wouldn’t ask for help or be offered help.”
Kerry from Brisbane re-partnered many years after splitting with her husband. Alan was someone she had known for many years. When he asked her to join him on a caravan trip, she didn’t hesitate to say yes. Sadly, only 12 months into their new relationship and caravaning fun, Alan was told he had inoperable, terminal cancer. A devastating blow to the couple. He was given six to 12 months, so they continued to travel. On an impulse Alan sold his Prado buying a Porsche Cayenne to tow his caravan. When Alan passed at age 69, Kerry inherited the car and van. When she realised servicing a European car was expensive, she sold the Porsche.
In September 2023, Kerry bought a small English caravan. When her father passed away in May the following year, her sister suggested they do a caravan road trip together to scatter their father’s ashes in Port Fairy in southwestern Victoria. “My van is not as robust as ones made in Australia and on the way home it was damaged,” Kerry said. She is currently waiting for her van to be fixed so she can hit the road again.
Kerry’s 2005 Bailey van
Like Julie and Nicole, Kerry is in her 60s and feels a bit indignant when a man comes over to give her advice or take charge. “I want to say, ‘It’s OK, I’ve got this.’” If she needs help, she will ask. “I’d much prefer if a man asks if I would like any assistance first, rather than assume. Because there are some tasks that are physically too demanding to do alone.”
Modifications that help
When it comes to safety, Andree from the Redlands in Greater Brisbane has a few tips for solo travellers. “Trust your instincts, if a place doesn’t feel right, move on,” she said. Andree has a Crusader Chameleon caravan with a few features that make her solo trips a little easier and more secure. “The Camec entry door is solid, with heavy glass plastic on the outside and security screen on the inside means I can keep the door open for ventilation,” Andree said. “The windows are also tinted for privacy and the triple-locking rear door gives extra peace of mind at night.”
Andree’s Crusader Chameleon
Having a shower and toilet inside has been a game-changer for Andree as a solo traveller. “I don’t have to go outside in the middle of the night, and I can pull up anywhere without relying on campground facilities. Solo travel is all about finding that balance between adventure and feeling secure, and having the right setup makes all the difference.”
After that first trip to Broken Head Holiday Park, Nicole made a few changes to the gear she carried. “As a female solo caravanner I began looking at everything from an efficiency point of view.” She found a company selling flat hoses on a reel, the Multi-Reel by Flat Out International, a game changer when it comes to winding and unwinding her hose. At a caravan show Nicole saw a video featuring an awning by Shady Gear that uses Velcro to attach shade walls. Designed by a woman, this has made setting up so much quicker and easier. And she now has a power drill that makes erecting and dismantling the van legs a breeze.
Nicole with her handy Multi-Reel hose by Flat Out International
With every trip Nicole’s confidence grows and she is looking forward to many more holidays in the van. “I have a lot more life to live.” At the time of recording the interview Nicole said, “One day I will take my grandson Mal with me, but it has to be the right time, because he is only two and might run away.” Six weeks later, I was up at Coolum Beach in Queensland taking photos of Nicole and the van. Grandson Mal had stayed with her for three nights! And they both survived just fine.
Nicole and her Jayco set up at Coolum
Solo travelling might feel daunting at first, but it’s also a great opportunity to learn new skills and experience a new kind of freedom. While there can be plenty of challenges when it comes to towing on your own, just take things one step at a time, focus on building your skills and confidence and remember to keep your own pace and enjoy the ride.
THE NEXT STEP
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