They live in a caravan more than a house, spend months at a time travelling around Australia and know more camping sites than most Australians have had cold beers on a summer's evening.
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But don't call John and Elaine Tickner grey nomads. They say they're part of a splinter group Mr Tickner likes to call the “geriatric gypsies” – or the real adventurers.
“There is a distinction between the grey nomad and what I call the geriatric gypsy,” says Mr Tickner, explaining there's more to earning a title than pouring your retirement savings into a new four-wheel-drive and a caravan with the works.
“A lot of grey nomads don't get off-road – we're geriatric gypsies, because we go bush.
“We probably started off as grey nomads. Nine years ago we were novices.”
But Mr Tickner says their travels have evolved and now involve little planning and lots of relaxing.
“People say 'you're going on another holiday'; we're not on a holiday, we're travellers and we're travelling. Life's one big holiday for us now that we're retired.”
The pair have circled Australia twice and criss-crossed it dozens of times for up to 11 months at a time.
The only time they visit capital cities is to catch up with friends or family – and they almost always fly because they don't want to deal with city traffic.
While they have a flat in Perth, for most of the year it's empty. They have mail sent to their son who looks after bills and urgent matters.
He says the holiday bustle of the east coast is too much for them, they prefer more remote locations.
One of the directors of the Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia, which has 65,000 members, agrees there is a difference between the growing grey nomads and the adventurers.
“Some people pack up altogether and basically wander where the weather goes,” Ken Kipping says.
He says there is a battle brewing for the caravan dollar and it's getting ugly, with caravan parks lobbying governments to restrict “freedom camping” – forcing more people into the parks.
Mr Kipping says it has backfired in Tasmania, with caravaners heading to other states and bypassing the Apple Isle, taking its toll on the caravan parks in the process.
“Tasmania has pretty well shot itself in the foot, they've closed a lot of their freedom camping. People are now voting with their wheels.”
Mr Kipping says Australian states and territories are now realising the economic worth of grey nomads, with some investing in dump points for grey and black water of increasingly popular self-contained vans.
“Most young people are going to Bali and places like that. Grey nomads are the low fruit . . . I'm sure the tourist bodies should chase the overseas potential but look at the local opportunities as well," he says.
But the caravan and motorhome scene is changing.
“A lot of them don't want the jumping castles and slippery slides,” Kipping says. “For smaller towns, if you become RV friendly then you're on the go-to list.”
