Can passengers walk around inside a campervan while it is zipping along the highway?
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Good question, and the one most asked by everyone about our recent family holiday to the outback in a hired motorhome.
Of course, the only responsible answer is: most definitely not!
This would mean that accessing the fridge and slicing a piece of fruit cake, or just laying around on the couch reading a book during a 4000km trip to the centre of Australia, would be totally out of order and should not be engaged in.
Safety laws meant that all passengers not travelling in the front cab would be wearing the seat belts provided in the body of the campervan.
In our six-berth version, there were four seatbelts in the two benches facing each other around the kitchen table.
This made the journey in the back very much like train travel, with the world of mountains, salt lakes and scrub gliding by the windows as we coloured, read, played cards and snacked.
Us girls all took turns entertaining Kym in the front seat.
And unfortunately, this was where most of our wildlife sightings occurred – as roadkill.
Exclamations of horror from the girls filled the air as each daughter took her first front seat shift.
Soon enough though, we were all used to seeing dead and bloated kangaroos, sheep and cattle.
Before long, we focused only on the incredible wedge-tailed eagles dining out on the carrion.
On the way up to Alice Springs, we found ourselves on the road with the Army heading up to Darwin.
Every so often we’d pass a group of five army vehicles as they broke up into teams to make travel manageable for the rest of us.
About an hour out of Coober Pedy on our second day, we came across a horse transporter that had overturned.
We were most relieved to find no-one injured and young men in uniform taking charge by gathering and walking horses, directing traffic or heading back to their trucks with fire extinguishers in hand.
Kneeling on the back lounge of the campervan – gazing out the biggest window – we girls munched on freshly cut fruitcake as we watched the scene disappear into the distance.
Yolande Grosser
