Whats with the handwave? After being on the road for about 6 weeks I still cant work out the oncoming traffic handwave. It seems like there is some unwritten rule that oncoming caravanners must wave to "fellow caravanners". When driving along the roads in South Australia caravanners were more common than flies so there was a lot of waving to be done. Its amazing you can almost tell the character of the oncoming driver just by their wave or am I just taking things too seriously when it comes to the friendly or even not so friendly handwave? Early on in our travels we found it very interesting or a new experience anyway with the oncoming caravanners waves especially after driving in Melbourne where oncoming traffic would rather give you the finger if anything.
After getting into this new found wave action for the first couple of days I was almost offended when a "fellow" caravanner didnt wave to the point of giving them the finger after they had long gone past. The Murph had to settle me down but even she would come out with the comment of mother f..kers or something like that now and then. Sometimes I would wait to see if the fellow caravanner would instigate the wave but then most of the time they were past me before I got to reply so from then on I just eased into the wave to every oncoming fellow caravanner in some form or another. There is quite a variety of waves happening out there on the bitumen which could be dependant on what sort of character the fellow driver is or the mood they are in which I can see in the types of waves I do sometimes.
First there is the full hand wave (a much friendlier type) with the whole hand off the wheel, the full hand but still touching the steering wheel, even the royalists queen wave, (a smile has been seen occasionaly too which is good). Then there is the one finger types of which there are a few varieties: there is the vertical 1 finger, the angled 1 finger almost pointing at you and then the half hearted droopy 1 finger which I associate with the people that couldnt really be fucked waving but are doing the "right thing" and then there is the frowned upon NO WAVE driver from which I get the comments from murph or even we get to make the same comment at the same time.
To break the boredom of the wave action there can be the odd "out of usual" wave action which I must admit we have participated in now and then. There can be the full hand off the steering wheel wave and even with the passenger joining in as if you have come across a long lost friend which I must admit can be a nice change and a bit of fun especially if the road is long, straight hardly anything else to see but fellow caravenners. I have tried a wide variety of waves changing my types now and then probably depending on my mood. I have counted two thumbs up waves since heading off.
Now there is the other wave actions which I think amusing as well which I can imagine you are at the edge of your seat waiting to find out what they are now. The motorhomers or I call motorhomo's are another breed of travelling holidaymakers as we only get a wave now and then from them but they have their allegence to themselves I have been informed by my motorhomo mate who has commented that he doesnt get the regular waves from caravanners but does from fellow motorhomo's. Another twist to the motorhomo is the rented out motorhomo's mainly rented out by euro's which very rarely wave at all which I am guessing they cant work out this wave action (pack of dumbarse poms and frogs etc).
If its not caravanners and motorhomo's on the road then its truck drivers who wave rarely just to catch me out expecting a snobbery look from their big rigs so depending on my mood at the time will wave at every truck driver going in the opposite direction for a change to get a response but I am getting the thoughts that the truckdrivers look at caravanners as a pack of travellers which are only pests and shouldnt be on the roads.
Maybe one day there will be some government research on it all just to burn up some taxpayers money giving us stats and graphs just like we did at school or even a documentary narrated by someone like David Attenborough.
I thought of taking photos of people doing the above but with laws about privacy bla bla bla etc I just thought while sitting down relaxing under the annexe I would put this piece of crap together but I guess that is partly what blogs are all about.
