THE END IS NEAR
For varying reasons, what we thought would be a 12 month trip has finished up a little shorter. We have had 10 wonderful months of roaming with not too many cares & woes. It has been great but is fast nearing an end and, as we work our way back through SA and into Victoria on our way home, we reflect on what has been a wonderful experience.
We have –
- Marvelled at landscapes which are flat, treeless, gorges and yet more gorges, termite mounds, Australian Grass trees (black boys), boab trees with their twisted & tortured shape, bottles trees, large rivers, dry river beds, colourful and ever changing wildflowers through WA, huge karri trees and ancient tingle trees, the Nullarbor Plain, prickly pear, water and ocean that you can’t swim in for fear of crocodiles and stingers (box jellyfish or irukandji jellyfish.
- Seen crocodiles, whales, dolphins, manta rays, turtles, stingrays (even in a swimming enclosure), dingos, snakes, pythons, lizards, goannas, birds, emus, goats, wild horses, kangaroos but unfortunately no wild camels, hawks, wedge tailed eagles, crows and roadkill.
- Visited museums, interpretive centres, galleries, art & craft shops, country shows and rodeos, historical buildings and gaols, aquariums, windfarms, up a working lighthouse, statues, monuments and plaques.
- Ross has fished and caught barramundi, giant trevally, blue bone, queen fish, bream, shark and, of course, murray cod.
- Experienced different time zones, cloudless skies for months on end, very few rainy days and NO FOG!!! Up north there is no need to check the weather forcast as the weather today is the same as yesterday and will be the same tomorrow.
- Encountered indigenous peoples, cane toads, green frogs, ants, ants & still more ants, not to mention flies, flies and more flies.
- Stayed in small (40 sites) family owned & operated caravan parks to the large corporate owned parks (300+ powered sites) and camped beside the road, beside rivers and by many beaches and sometimes taken our tent and camping equipment (leaving the caravan behind) and travelled into more remote areas where we needed to be totally self sufficient including carrying water.
- Travelled 31,000km (not all towing the van) and purchased diesel ranging in price from 103.9 cents to $2.60 at Kalumbaru, have had no mechanical hitches (just replaced the main battery in the car) and replaced the window in one of he rear doors of the Nissan (due to an encounter with a tree) although we have needed to have the car serviced several times. We have travelled many long straight roads, over roads of red dirt, red mud, dust and sand as well as traversing many river crossings not to mention the areas of km after km of corrugations and seen loads of different road signs, some of which are very amusing. We have passed through every State of Aust except ACT and Tasmania
- Driven for km after km through areas of sorghum, sugar cane, wheat, silos, mining and seen road trains, coal trains and those incredibly long iron ore trains.
- Flown in helicopters, small planes, a sea plane and stayed on a catamaran as well as a night in a luxury safari tent.
- Been to the most easterly, most northerly and most south westerly points of mainland Australia. Seen the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, Torres Strait, Timor Sea, Coral Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria. We have been in areas with no mobile phone service, no electricity except what they generate themselves and very limited shopping as well as aboriginal settlements.
- Met many people and made new life long friendships.
- Lived a laid back, uncomplicated and stress free life with minimal housework, almost no ironing, no gardening or committees or meetings, and very few time deadlines. Home for ten months has been a relatively small space (although very luxurious compared to some outfits we have seen) however we seem to have not wanted for anything and have come to realise that in our normal life we accumulate far too many possessions and STUFF – a lot of the time unnecessarily.
- Mostly we only wear shorts and singlet or T shirt with thongs and occasionally sneakers. Long trouser, shirts and shoes are something we will have to re-acquaint ourselves with in the weeks ahead.
- Have taken thousands of photos and lots of video and still not got that shot with the WOW factor – just happy snaps to remind us of where we have been – of little interest to anyone but ourselves. Many of these have been taken out of the car window or through the windscreen (these are called action shots!!)
- And now we are on the homeward leg, not sure of how we will settle back into life as we knew it – will it ever be the same again??? Work, gardening, snakes, cobwebs and the dreaded scales!!! But looking forward to the positives of home - family, friends and the good old Yea community.
In short we have sen a lot - done a lot - experienced a lot - learnt about this country's history and past - and are so pleased that we decided to do this now and have not regretted for a second our decision.
