About

Why would two purportedly sane adults want to drag an 80 year old women with limited mobility and dementia around Australia in a caravan, with two dogs?

The journey, pardon the pun, started when my father passed away. He had spent years looking after my mother after she had bone cancer in her jaw. He refused any help, saying it was his responsibility. If you look up ‘stoic’ in the dictionary you will probably see a picture of my father. So what to do with someone with limited mobility and dementia?

The obvious answer is to stick her in a nursing home and let them deal with it. But when it’s your mother and you know it would be the last place she would want to be you move her to your house and look after her there.

Problem solved! Well not quite. My mother had, prior to cancer, been extremely active and had loved to travel, so sitting at home watching TV and reading books doesn’t always cut it. You get questions like “Why can’t I fly to London by myself?” No amount of explanation works, because she’s forgotten it the next day, thanks dementia.

We took her on a cruise on the Murray River in a houseboat which was fantastic. The lovely people at Whitehouse Houseboats in Mannum got us the perfect boat for someone in a wheelchair. She was able to watch the scenery pass by and wake up in a familiar room. The problem was getting there. Trying to find a wheelchair friendly place to stay each night on the road was not easy. The biggest issue was the confusion mum had sleeping in unfamiliar surroundings each night.

The obvious answer to the issue of unfamiliar surroundings is a caravan. So we just go and buy a caravan. Problem solved! Well not quite. Wheelchair accessible caravans are as rare as rocking horse, um how shall I say it, doo doos, and one that sleeps three is rarer. So we would need to get one built. Luckily there are two manufacturers in Melbourne. Accessavan who work with Coronet Vans and Evolution who build their own vans. We went with Evolution simply because they were able to build one for us for spring.

So that’s where we are. I will be detailing further our van, car and other equipment in posts on this blog (look under category ‘Our Setup’) as well as posts on our adventures.

Thanks for your time Ross, Nina, Harry, Maggie and the star of the show Nana (Val).

(Any mentions or recommendations of Suppliers, Businesses, Products, Organisations, etc. are our own opinions and not sponsored. If, however, anyone wants to send us brown envelopes filled with cash we will happily mention them and show it as sponsored for transparency.)