| The GRAYnomad chronicles
are published bi-occasionally, their target audience is
people like me, or at least like I was, that is, baby boomers who
are thinking of making a seachange, a treechange — or as I
prefer to call it, a freechange — and need
some ideas on what's out there and what's involved in this lifestyle.
But even if you've already taken the plunge, maybe
you can relate to what we're doing and get a laugh from some of
the things that happen around us.
The Editor
Rob Gray (AKA the GRAYnomad) spent the
80s and most of the 90s as a mild-mannered computer nerd, and now,
in the naughties, has returned to photography.
In 1997, while on a camping trip to Frazer Island
and Carnarvon Gorge, Rob, and his wife Chris, decided that they
were sick of computing and that a change was in order. The seeds
were sown, and four years later they had grown into a 34-foot motorhome
(Wothahellizat Mk1) that Rob and Chris used to hit the road.
Rob was also an itinerant, globe-trotting photographer
during the 70s, a career sparked by the purchase of his first camera
in Panama in 1972.
Over the years he has photographed just about
everything from cheetahs in Africa, through disaster victims in
Australia, to lemon slices in London.
Rob and Chris have semi-retired and now travel
around Australia looking for images and avoiding real work as much
as possible. Rob shoots mainly wildlife and landscapes these days,
but also likes general pictorial work.
Rob has used all formats of camera over the years,
from large format to digital, but currently works entirely with
digital equipment.
The Editor's Desk
"Wothahellizat" is a 38-year-old
army truck. Rob and Chris bought the truck in 1997 and spent three
years turning it into Australia's largest and weirdest off-road motor
home. Then in 2007/8 they rebuild it into a smaller version (Wothahellizat
Mk2).
It's from the deck of
this vehicle (yes a patio folds out from the back) that most of
this diary is written, a 14-tonne editor's desk!
Wothahellizat is fully self contained with enough
food and water storage to spend weeks in the bush.
It's six-wheel-drive with good clearances, so
quite able to handle the rough stuff. However at over 3m high and
8m long there are a lot of places it doesn't fit, so we have two
mountain bikes, a trail bike, and a Suzuki Jimny 4x4 as well. |