It's spring in Australia and the "gray nomads" are drifting south again after their annual winter migration to the tropical north.
"We sold the house and hit the road," says 68-year-old retired fireman and small businessman Terry Kilburn. "I got rid of my lawnmower, rakes and all that crap."
Three years later he and his wife Kay, 66 -- mother of two, grandmother of five and a newly-minted great-grandmother -- are still roaming.
"I don't miss the house at all," Kay said over a cup of tea outside their caravan in a country park. "It takes me five minutes to do the housework."
Tens of thousands of people like the Kilburns are estimated to be on the road at any one time on the world's biggest island, says Cindy Gough, author of The Grey Nomad's Guidebook published this year.
"Basically there are three different kinds of Grey Nomads: those who sell everything, buy a caravan and travel indefinitely with no home to come back to; others who keep the house but take long-term trips of up to five years; and those who just go north for winter for six months or so each year."
The traveling life can be relatively cheap. The Kilburns paid A$17,000 (US$14,000) for the 4.7m caravan which is now their only home and spend a little over A$100 a week to use council parks.
They have no television in the caravan but are both avid readers who enjoy bush walks and visits to historical sites. "Graveyards are great," says Terry.
Many Grey Nomads are driven by the sense that life is slipping away and they need to make the most of the years they have left.
Ron Fletcher, 67, hit the road two months ago when he was diagnosed with lung cancer after a lifetime of smoking, stress and brief holidays snatched during his career as a lawyer.
"I've enjoyed every moment of it," he said in a leafy caravan park in Sydney as he and his partner Maxine headed towards their home in South Australia after joining the northern migration for the winter.
"I've never before had more than two weeks holiday in my life."
Doctors have told him he has between one and five years of life left, and he says he intends to spend a lot of the time traveling, having retired from his law practice shortly after the diagnosis.
"I wish he had retired earlier," said Maxine, who is also 67.
"It's winter in Adelaide, cold. We thought let's go somewhere north where it's warm. We just took off. All he wanted to do was get to the coast and go fishing in the sea," she said.
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