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For the Bentley kids, Elliot and twins Tracey and Megan, there’s nothing that’s more exciting than spending time with their hero, fishing extraordinaire Scotty Hillier.
Scotty, a host on Creek to Coast, Australia’s longest-running network television program dedicated to exploring the outdoors, is also an On The Move ambassador and was one of the special guests at the company’s recent Owners Retreat.
The kids, who have been fans of his their entire lives, had an awesome time fishing with Scotty on the banks of the Tweed River.
Although she declared her sister the “better fisher”, Tracey, seven, was the first of the kids to reel in a big one.
“Holding the rod still,” was the trick to fishing, she said. But, the secret that didn’t fail her was waiting until the rod mimicked a button press until she started reeling it in.
Their mother Gayle, who brought them to the event with their father Russell, said the kids were thrilled to be able to hang out with Scotty again.
“They love fishing and they love Scotty. He’s like their little idol we’ve seen many times. Elliot first met him when he was just a little boy,” she said.
The family, who also went to last year’s event in Gympie, attended the Northern Rivers retreat in their four-year-old Traxx Series 2, 18ft triple bunk van.
“We love the wide bunks because it means the kids have got like a little room,” she said.
“When you’ve already got triple bunks, they just don’t have enough room. I wouldn’t like to sleep on a little skinny mattress, you know? So yeah, they just love the wide bunks because they’ve got so much room and it makes them happy. Everyone has enough room in the van, so we don’t feel constricted and tight.”
The van gets a pretty good workout as the family are always together travelling.
Gayle, who has a condition like multiple sclerosis that will slowly take away her mobility and the ability to walk, said you don’t know what’s around the corner and wanted to spend as much time together as a family as they could.
“It’s pretty hard if you’re in a wheelchair and can’t do stuff, so while I’ve got mobility, we use it,” she said.
Gayle said the family, who homeschool the kids, had always planned on buying a caravan to make it cheaper to go away on holidays.
“We love free camping,so we got the battery set up as well as solar panels and all that so we can be off the grid,” she said.
“We love the gravel pits on the side of the road. We’ve had some really memorable trips on those that have been absolutely amazing out west.”
One memorable trip was the Dinosaur Trail in Queensland, where the kids got to touch a real dinosaur bone, and a trip to Hervey Bay.
“We went fishing off the Hervey Bay jetty, which is huge. We caught a couple of fish before the toadfish got in – they were monstrous,” she said.
“So then everyone was losing their hooks and lures and lines and it’s like, you just go home then. But we really just enjoy being together as a family and it’s good to be away from home, without the stress and pressure of everything you’ve got to do.”
Gayle said she also enjoyed visiting places to relive her childhood memories.
“We went to the Crows Nest National Park, which isn’t far from the Brisbane region, which was really nice. I used to go camping there in a tent many times when I was a kid. So it was nice to go to the same campgrounds.”
