by Leisa Cooper from CAMPS AUSTRALIA WIDE
It was a pleasure catching up with full time traveller Lis Brown of Tasmania recently for a chat. Lis is Dutch-born, but grew up in Queensland. She had been a Queensland Police Officer for many years. At age 48 she decided to retire early, and at 55 headed out on her new path – the road!
Her first trip to Tasmania was for five weeks, in 1999. On a rushed drive through Corinna to catch a booked scenic flight at Strahan, she made a promise to one day return to Corinna. It took 15 years. Back on the Mainland (the ‘big island’ as Tasmanian’s like to call it), Lis continued to travel, when a friend requested she accompany her to Western Australia. Lis agreed, on the condition they travelled via Tasmania.
On finally returning to Corinna she was offered a summer job as hostess on the historic Arcadia II boat that cruises the Pieman River. Her travelling companion bought land and built a house. That trip to the west didn’t happen. Working seven days on and seven off from Corinna, Lis saw enough of the state to know it was to be her home and six years later still lives on the road in her motor home with her two beautiful West Highland White Terriers, Maggie and Mollie.
Until Covid, her longest stay anywhere was three weeks at what is now a base camp in Launceston. With an alternative camp at Port Sorell, and rather liking the slower pace, Lis alternates between the two while still doing trips. She recently completed one of her favourite drives – the Western Explorer Highway that snakes its way through the western wilderness of the stunning Tarkine region. Lis says its definitely an adventure and to her, feels like the ‘outback’ of Tasmania. The road was being graded on her last visit, which should make future adventures much easier.
Her Westies are her travelling companions and no matter where she stops, or for how long, she sets up a yard for them of up to 36 metres of security screen ‘fencing’. She has a lot of Westie friends throughout the state with many of them being siblings to her girls. Lis often babysits other Westies, sometimes at their home and sometimes they join her on the road.
Lis is an amazing lady. You’ll find Lis’s adventures on her Tasmania All Over facebook page where she documents lots of images of her travels with her and her dogs.
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Puppy Adventures
The Western Explorer
