Protect the places you love with simple steps to minimise your impact and care for the environment.
Looking out over Wilpena Pound in South Australia, I’m in awe of the wilderness below me. A thick forest sweeps towards cliffs that encircle the ‘pound’ in Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park. It’s a landscape that’s been shaped by wind and rain for more than 800 million years. I am silenced by the beauty of this natural amphitheatre of towering rock walls in the same way I am enraptured with the pounding surf along the Great Ocean Road, and drawn to the twisted snow gums of the Australian Alps. It’s in places like these that I am reminded why sustainable RV travel is important. We must protect and preserve the environments that make us feel alive, not just for ourselves but for the mini RVers we hope will follow in our tyre tracks. It’s easy enough to start, one act at a time.
DITCH SINGLE-USE PLASTIC
It may be tempting to stock up on bottles of water to supplement your tanks when heading into a remote area, but with a little planning you can avoid the temptation to add them to your shopping trolley. Instead, buy stainless steel or reusable plastic jerry cans and fill up before leaving home. If you’re already on the road and not staying in caravan parks, you can usually find taps with potable drinking water at tourist information centres and council parks. If you’re concerned about hygiene, pop in a couple of water purification tablets.
For those with extra space in their RV, you can also reduce single-use plastic by buying toilet paper and the like in bulk. Other steps include replacing cling wrap with reusable wax wraps. And it should also go without saying that every road-tripper should have a reusable stainless steel drink bottle and coffee cup in their vehicle. If you don’t, pick one up from a store or online (they’re ubiquitous) or check out your local op-shop.
PACK BETTER
Glass food and beverage containers are best when it comes to the environment and your health but it’s not always the most practical option for RVers travelling on bumpy highways and byways. However, instead of relying on plastic containers that leech chemicals into your food when they break down, try silicone containers. They’re light, durable and some collapse into themselves for easy storage. Bamboo plates and bowls are also an eco-friendly option, and you can make other easy swaps in your RV kitchen by using wooden scrubbing brushes, biodegradable sponges, and tea towels over paper towels.
TREAD LIGHTLY
When you’re scouring tourism brochures deciding how to spend your week, choose activities and tours that have a low impact on the environment. For example, bushwalking trails with elevated boardwalks help protect animal habitats and flora. People-powered tours, such as Cradle Mountain Canyon’s kayaking tour of Dove Lake in Tasmania, are environmentally sensitive, as well as therapeutic.
It’s important to strive to ‘leave no trace’, so be sure to carefully pack away rubbish and dispose of grey water and other waste responsibly. Don’t pillage the natural environment for firewood (it might be an animal’s home) or, worse, cut branches from trees. And when walking, stay to designated paths.
STAY AT AN ECO CAMPGROUND
Green washing is rife in the tourism industry, with many businesses keen to brand themselves “eco” simply because they’re surrounded by trees and offer glamping. That means we need to dig a little deeper when deciding on where to stay (and what to spend our money on). When you’re looking at a national park campground, consider somewhere with composting toilets or designated walking tracks. There are also great campgrounds such as Habitat Noosa, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, where solar power and bore water are used.
There is even a growing trend in regional and remote areas to reduce light pollution and energy consumption. Carrickalinga, a coastal holiday town on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, is Australia’s first International Dark Sky Community. Such communities, reserves and programs not only make for excellent stargazing but also reduce travellers’ impact on nocturnal fauna.
TRAVEL OUT OF SEASON
Travelling to a popular destination when there are fewer people filling up campgrounds is an obvious benefit of off-peak travel but there are plenty more. Not only are the costs of campsites generally lower in the off-season, but RVers can reduce pressure on national parks and waterways by opting to visit during quiet periods. Another upside is that you can support local cafes, tour companies and the like year-round.
ENJOY A DIGITAL DETOX
Many of us are drawn to RV travel because it helps us unwind and get away from everyday pressures. Yet we sometimes fall into bad habits of leaving the TV on for too long or spending hours at night on our iPads. According to research commissioned by Australian portable fire pit manufacturer ArcMate, more than a third (36 per cent) of Aussies go camping for a digital detox. So why not set yourself the challenge? Put your phone in a drawer and pick up a book instead of a remote. Not only will you reduce your power consumption, but you’ll also regulate your nervous system, which leads to better sleep, so you’re rested for the adventures ahead.
REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT
Have you ever thought about reducing the carbon footprint of your trip by donating to a not-for-profit? If you can afford to do so and want to make up for that 4WD adventure, it’s worth donating to an environmental cause in the region you’re visiting or to a project you’re passionate about. But don’t rush into it. Do your research about where your dollars will have the best impact.
Nationwide not-for-profit organisations like Greenfleet Australia enable individuals and businesses to offset their carbon emissions. Choose an annual offset amount by vehicle type (for example $143 a year for 6.5 tonnes of CO2 produced by a four-wheel drive) and your tax-deductible donation will fund the planting of native trees in protected forests. For regular or permanent road-trippers, you can also nominate to pay per tonne.
Alternatively, you could join a volunteer day with an organisation such as Landcare Australia or simply collect ocean plastic on beaches around Australia in your own time.
As RVers it’s important to help preserve the natural wonders we seek to explore, so take a stand and become a better global citizen. The planet will thank you for it.
