11^th October: Peachester

We're back!! We arrived home on Wednesday around midday. Jeff and Cherie had mowed the grass and the place looked good. However, since then we have been extremely busy, making phone calls to catch up with people, unpacking, washing everything while it is fine, renewing my driver's licence which was due a week ago and which I will need if I am going to test drive a new car, and tidying the house which is full of caravan stuff.

It was a joy to go to Brisbane on Thursday and see the four grand children. Hannah clung to me! She was so excited! Even Sarah was pleased to see us and she talked to Poppy all the way to school!!Rachelle and Ryan were more reserved but Ryan showed Poppy the dirt bikes and talked non-stop.  Unusual for him.  Rachelle and I had a nice chat until Angie came home with their dinner.  

New tyres have been ordered for the car and Glen has started cleaning it too – well the motor at least! Diane next door gave us a welcome home dinner on Wednesday night which was lovely! And we resumed Friday night drinkies. So now I feel as if I am truly home. The garden awaits and life continues! The wonderful pawpaw tree has died and so amazingly has the nut grass – at this stage!!

The trip is becoming a wonderful memory and so I will end this blog. Thank you to all those of you who have followed and I know there are a few of you– it spurred me on to write when I was tired! I now have a full description of our trip which I can reread at my will.

In the words of that Disney character: That's all, folks!!

7^th October: Warwick

The drive here was tedious more than anything else. The only noteworthy aspect was the extraordinary amount of road kill. Much more than we have ever seen on other roads- and all sorts of animals. The road in front of this park is extremely busy, all day and all night. It is the New England Highway and the volume of heavy traffic is huge! There is a dip on a culvert just outside the gate as well as some bumpy road and the trucks come roaring down the hill on either side, either braking to go into a built up area or accelerating out of town. They bounce across the bridge and rough road, thumping  heavily and rattling every time!

As predicted, we were here before lunch. It was hot and still and so we sat in the shade and idled away the afternoon. I had itchy feet as we are so close to home and if I have to go home, I want to get there! Richard asked me if I was excited to be coming home and I answered that my feelings were ambivalent. I am excited about seeing the children; more excited I suspect than they are. But it has been a wonderful trip and we have so many great memories! And so many photographs! In reality we are all travel weary and it is time we went home. There will be a next time when we have regathered our resources!!

This is such a big country in all respects and there is so much to see! Despite our trips we have only touched the surface. There are so many places I want to revisit and so many that we didn't see. There is so much that is astoundingly beautiful and unique. I do feel sad that it is over yet we can't just keep travelling!

6^th October: Moree

Nothing much to say about the trip today! It is a bit like water on a stone:persistant wearing away of the kilometres as the road is not exciting or picturesque. But we arrived here in Moree in good time and Gail went swimming in the mineral waters in the pools. I don't like hot spa pools and Glen doesn't like swimming and so we sat here and had a whisky! Tomorrow, we go to Warwick. I would like to go straight home as we will be in Warwick by 11.00 am but Gail thinks she will be too weary to drive home. So we will sit a day at Warwick!

5^th October: Nyngan

Here we are beside the Bogan River after a long day of driving through countrythat was not inspiring. Almost 600 kms through arid, rolling mostly featureless plans, seeing only flocks of emus (no stripeys!) and mobs of goats with their kids. Feral we presume! As we approached Nyngan, stunted trees and salt bush gave way to taller eucalypts and then some wheat fields. River gums grow in the sandy creek beds where water flows in the wet. I shouldn't say the plains were featureless as we came across some very unusual trees: one was flowering with coloured undies, another with shoes, the next with the socks and then there were the plastic bottle trees, the glass bottle trees and the metal can trees! It added a note of humour to the day!!

I selected this park (and there are two here) because it was the Riverside Park and I fancied camping beside water. Well, was it a hive of activity! It is a long weekend of course! Three lovely sleek ski boats with deep throated V8 in-board/out-board motors were roaring up and down the river with shrieking teenagers and children behind on floats as well as skis. At dusk, the boats were tied up but the noise didn't lessen as it was the Grand Finals of the rubgy League wasn't it!! Televisions were rigged up and the drinking parties continued to the chants and screams of support and dismay as the game progressed!! But it is a big park and people were spread out along the river bank. It is such a lovely place with lots of friendly campers and so it was all good fun!! Although the smoke from the fires did bother me, we were able to eat a special meal Gail cooked me, with bubbles, between the two vans and so I had no trouble sleeping!

This was because there was another issue: daylight saving started on my birthday! Our 600 kms took us 9 ½ hours didn't it!! We left Broken Hill at 8.00 am and arrived here at 5.30 pm local time! We gained 1 ½ hrs along the way! Very long trip!!

4^th October: Broken Hill

It was amazing this morning! Everyone packed up and left! After being like sardines, cheek by jowl and unable to move, we suddenly became isolated in a paddock of wood chips with virually no-one within cooee! Was it something that we said? Or did we smell?

We spent the day looking at a few things but being Saturday of a long weekend lots were closed! We did go to the Visitor's Centre and found that most of the good stuff (like the art and silver jewellery)had moved to another place – where the Big Picture was. Most travellers love the Big Picture – an enormous mural 100 metre long round the viewing platform depicting very brightly coloured aspects of the landscape of the west. It was painted by the brother of the owner of the place, Peter Anderson. I appreciate the concept and the sheer effort involved but I was much more impressed by the work of Pro Hart which we also saw in the gallery of his work! I love his pictures of life in Broken Hill with stick like figures and the bright, almost harsh colours of the red earth. However, I didn't know of his religious themed work or of his social comment about life underground in the mines.(I didn't know he had worked for 20 years as a miner!) They too are very evocative! Then there is his dragonfly on carpet! (Do you remember the ad? “Oh! Mr Hart!”) I loved the dragonflies of which he painted numerous versions. 4 Rolls Royces on display in the garages and a collection of silver rattles that his wife had collected from all over the world. They had 5 children, all of whom are artists in their own right. An amazing man!

I had asked at Reception here about dinner. She sent us to an old pub which didn't inspire us very much. But she said the food was good and so we thought we would give it a try. Well, I was glad we booked! The place filled rapidly and the noise level rose! The food, a long time coming, was very good and innovative: beef or chicken schnitzels with a variety of exotic toppings. We did enjoy it! With bubbles, of course! Glen gave me a fancy plate I had admired during our visit to the Big Picture.

Lots of resting during the day which was good as tomorrow we travel!

3^rd October: Broken Hill

Well, here we are in Broken Hill, packed in like sardines in a tin! I can only find this one park and there are hundreds of vans and camper trailers in here. We are on a row which is two vans/trailers deep and our annex is touching the camper trailer next door. We had to back around a tree which bends over our site by a metre on the other side and there is no room to walk down the side of vans if they have an annex. Squeezy! A large group of rally drivers came in as we did. Fundraising, I think!

I didn't mention that once again the caravan parks are surrounded by tall fences with gates that lock at night and dire warnings about thieves.  Thjis place is no exception. The world has become a sad place! I googled Iron Knob and discovered that the mine is owned by BHP and is still working! Lots of ore trains in Port Augusta and on the wat here we passed a train loaded with heavy, low containers.   I am curious about them too!

The journey here was uneventful through mostly saltbush country. We came via back roads to Peterborough, a trail that many caravanners seem to take. The little towns of Wilmington and Orroroo are very old with lovely stone buildings. They were probably opened up when the pass through the mountains was discovered by Horrocks in 1841. A windy, narrow pass, it is lined with huge old gum trees and is rather attractive in an austere way.

We stopped for coffee at Yunta which is where my next door neighbour grew up in a spot called Panaramitee, 12 kms to the south. Glen texted her a photo and I tried to find something with the name Yunta on it. They used to have stickers at the BP station but since being taken over by an Indian Company,there is nothing like that! But I bough a postcard although it doesn't really show much of the countryside! It is rather arid barren country but as there are a couple of sheep holding and loading yards along the road, I suppose they graze sheep here. I didn't see any! Just dead kangaroos, a few goats on the side of the road and three emus!

We stopped at the border for lunch at Cockburn which boasts a caravan park with full amenties! Well, I don't think anyone has stayed there for a very long time! But in the weedy “park”, in the dried mud, stood two patches of flowering purple croceus plants! Rather out of place! But I didn't take a photo of that and I should have. It was so odd! As was the Hills Hoist complete with washing on a hill beside a dry creek in the middle of nowhere! I have to learn to take the time to stop and photograph these oddities!!

We are spending our last rest day here as the trip home has some big stretches of driving. Gail wants to see a number of things but I am resisting running around too much as the rest day is for her as much as anything! We will come back to Broken Hill when we come to SA next year!

2^nd October: Port Augusta

We celebrated Glen's birthday with some style. Gail and I both gave him a bottle of good whisky (Shivas Regal and Glenfiddich), we had bubbles for afternoon tea, Shivas for drinkies and bubbles for dinner. I cooked rissoles which fell apart, with gravy (an unprecedent effort!) and we ate in the camp kitchen, with a clean tablecloth!! All very proper! We say grace wherever we are – it usually silences those around! The children all rang despite the fact that we had no reception for most of the day! My birthday will be worse as we are travelling from Broken Hill to Wilcannia, Cobar and Nyngun that day!

Travel to Port Augusta was past huge fields of wheat in various stages of ripening – green through to harsh gold- and numerous tall white silos in every little rail head. Those sticky little wheat flies pester every time we step out of the car!! We are careful not to swallow or breath in any. This park is beside the head of Spencer Gulf and the sun is rising golden over the water. Once again, we are near a train line (I do pick them!) and trains rumbled in all night! I suspect they are ore trains going to the port. Once again, the park is packed and people are being turned away although this is an enormous park. Just as well I make a habit of booking ahead!!

We had lunch at Iron Knob which I remember from Primary School: Iron Knob and Iron Monarch. I wonder if there is any mining happening now as the town is almost a ghost town with old galvanised iron shacks and houses. There are trucks on the huge hills of over burden but mabe they are rehabilitating the mountain! I must research when I get home!

1st October: Ceduna

Not much to write about tonight. We took “Rest Day” seriously and did very little. Not even washing! We did walk down to the town and the beach but there was such a bitterly cold wind, we didn't dally. The wind is from the south – Antartica in fact! - and is a strong, piercing, bitter wind that chills to the bone. It is freezing tonight and I am glad of my $6.50 sweatshirt I bought in Freemantle!

We drove around the coast south of here and found little limestone bays with azure blue water which, because of the wind , was very rough. Little fat skinks waddled across the road at regular intervals and we had to swerve to miss them. We have never seen so many! This place is famous for its oysters but we saw no evidence of them except advertisements at the hotels. There is a Oyster Festival next weekend that the locals are very excited about! Apparently,it is a sin not to like oysters here!!

We looked at the port. They load salt, gypsum and wheat here as well as minerals sands. Not in huge tonnages but the storage for wheat is quite extensive!

We move on tomorrow to Port Augusta. It's Glen's birthday!