Vanlife during pandemic…
Vanlife during coronavirus: To go or stay?
The situation regarding the spread of coronavirus in Australia continues to complicate life for vanlifers, grey nomads and others for whom the nation’s roads are home. I earlier wrote about risks and precautions around vanlife. This story continues that theme and reflects the evolving situation around living in vehicles in a time of infectious virus.
It’s the question vanlifers and grey nomads are now asking. Should we:
- continue travelling?
- stay where we are?
- take to the hills for weeks, maybe months of self-imposed isolation?
By vanlifers, I mean:
- those living fulltime in their vehicles, for whom their vans or other vehicles. are their home
- those on extended or shorter road trips
- grey nomads following the great circle route around the Australian continent.
All suddenly find their road trip disrupted by the need to contain the spread of coronavirus. What to do about it is presently the topic of occasionally heated discussion on vanlife and road travellers’ social media.
What to do?
Even before federal and state governments closed state borders and imposed the mandatory 14 day self-isolation for those choosing to cross into another state, there was an awareness among vanlife social media users that their movement around the country could eventually be restricted. Now it is.
Tasmania was the first state to close its border. That was the start of a cascade of closures which has now brought most non-essential cross-border travel to a standstill.
The closure of state borders to limit the spread of coronavirus strands vanlifers and grey nomads sometimes far from home. It is evident from following the conversation on vanlife social media that some are choosing to return home and complete the mandatory 14 day self-isolation to ensure they do not carry the virus or are not yet showing signs for symptoms.
Australia is a big place, however, and within the states there is plenty of opportunity for moving around. The morals of doing this are presently the topic of assertive online discussion.
Staying in-place: the argument
It is clearly the sentiment among vanlife social media users that staying in-place, where they are at present, is the preferred option for those whose vehicle is their home. It is also the option for those who have been caught out away from their home state. The argument hinges around a four points:
- one danger in continuing to travel lies in exposing the traveller to the virus where it is present in rural towns
- another danger is to rural townspeople if the traveller has picked the virus and symptoms are not yet present; continuing to travel risks the infected person exposing regional town communities to the virus and, were it to spread, risks overburdening the limited medical facilities of rural towns; a couple rural doctors wrote in vanlife social media asking vanlifers not to travel for this reason
- continuing to travel also exposes other travellers to the virus, the risk coming mainly from the use of shared campsite facilities like washrooms and toilets where the virus could be spread via door handles, taps and other fittings even when the recommended 1.5m social distance is practiced
- as for taking to the hills and self-isolating in remote locations, social media comments have mentioned that some national parks, the preferred destination for some of those commenting, are being closed; another consideration is resupplying with water and food, which entails travelling to town; some say they can carry enough to do this weekly, some longer between visits.
A complication: refusal of service
Something else could create problems for those continuing to move around as well as for those voluntarily self-isolating and resupplying in rural towns. At present it is only a potential problem because there have been only a couple instances that I am aware of. It is the refusal of service to non-residents: some rural town businesses are refusing to sell groceries and food to people from out of town.
In a case in rural Victoria, this happened in a town a couple hours drive from Melbourne when city people went there to buy food after panic buying emptied supermarket shelves in the city. As news of the well-stocked rural store spread through social media the store were deluged with urban shoppers. Local businesses later decided to sell only to locals and to ask for identification to prove they were locals. A business in another town did the same. Rural people from other places, commenting on social media, support the exclusion of non-residents.
It is clear that refusal of service to non-locals could starve vanlifiers holding-up in or near rural towns of essential supplies, were the practice to spread. That would force them onto the road and defeat the purpose of voluntary self-isolation and limiting travel.
Caravan parks as refuge
What about holding up in a caravan park? That’s possible at the time of writing. The recommended 1.5m social distance can be maintained there.
It increasingly looks as though this will be an option for some vanlifers only. Already, a number of caravan parks have locked their shower and toilet blocks and are accepting only self-contained vans, those with their own toilet and shower. They have told the non-self-contained to leave.
This forces those travelling in minivans, station wagons, on motorbikes and bicycles, and those accommodating themselves in tents, into free camps. Some of those have shared toilets, others have none.
As I write this, the older man living with his teenage daughter in a four person tent in a Tasmanian caravan park comes to mind. I met him when I stayed in the van park for a time and learned that he and his daughter are living there because they cannot afford the high rents being asked even for houses in shabby condition, an outcome of the state’s housing shortage. If they are turned out of the van park, where do they get into their little car and go to?
There are others in that van park who are not self-contained, such as the couple living in their car camping tent and the woman with her three children in their small caravan. What does the furure hold for them in this time of crisis?
Those caught-out
As the nation started to shut borders and introduce self-isolation for anyone entering some states, people distant from their home were caught out on the road, unable to return before the borders closed.
Commentators on vanlife social media said people should have seen this coming and returned home. Others said the closures were made with little warning and they are now stranded. Some say they are prepared to self-isolate to get home to be near family. The social media discussion at times turned offensive.
One commentator explained the difficulty in returning home through multiple border crossings. To return home to Victoria, he wrote, means driving from Western Australia into South Australia and spending 14 days there in self-isolation, then crossing the border into Victoria and spending another 14 days in self-isolation there.
Another wrote that the risk in trying to beat the border closures lay in long distance driving and, for many, towing a caravan or camper trailer. Long hours on the road means tired drivers and increases the risk of accidents. That is no longer an option now that borders have been closed.
For those caught-out on the Australian mainland, there is still the option of retuning home and spending time in self-isolation. That is not an option for others.
Family on the road
I met them while living awhile in a caravan park on the south-east Tasmanian coast. A man and woman, early 40s I guess, travelling with a young child in their camper trailer. The man was working on a short term contact in the area and after his work ended the woman was offered a cleaning job at the caravan park.
A few weeks ago they packed and set off to continue their journey, first in Tasmania, later on the mainland. Now the border closure effectively traps them in Tasmania. For how long? There is talk in official circles of six months, but no one really knows. They are not the only travellers in such circumstances.
What makes Tasmania different is that it is an island separated from the mainland by the 200km width of Bass Strait. To take a vehicle to and from the island entails booking passage on the Spirit of Tasmania vehicle ferry for the 12 or so hour voyage.
Visitors bringing their vehicles over usually plan on spending weeks, perhaps months on the island. Because the Spirit is booked out for months ahead, both the voyage over and the return, those in Tasmania when governments advised essential travel only and closed borders have to wait for the date of their booked passage. This perhaps explains why some social media commenters report seeing caravans and vehicles with out-of-state registration on Tasmanian roads. Some read this as people flouting the travel restrictions and continuing to come over for holidays. They are criticised for moving around, whatever the reason for their being in Tasmania. It was most likely people unable to get an earlier booking home.
The end of vanlife?
Could the coronavirus pandemic bring a temporary end to vanlife?
The comments on social media suggest this is already happening, thanks to government advice to limit travel to essential movement only, to border closures and to the requirement that people choosing to cross state borders spend the next 14 days in self-isolation to check for infection.
- for grey nomads and for younger vanlife travellers, whether on fulltime or on long-term journeys, the crisis means they are residents of wherever they decide to stop to see it through
- for those who finance their travel by picking up temporary local jobs now in demand by locals displaced by workplace closures, they join the long lines at Centrelink offices to claim government financial support
- for those who make their living by servicing online clients from wherever they can get internet access, let’s hope those clients are not among the businesses closing down because their markets are collapsing thanks to the reduction in demand brought by the virus.
These are uncertain time for all of us. They are even more uncertain for vanlifers. Perhaps we might adopt the Stoic practice of ‘amor fati’: It means to accept and make the most of the circumnstances we find ourselves in, even where those are less than pleasant.
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