This is it

Well, This is the post I've been delaying to write.
Some how putting it in words makes it all real, 
So, here I go, We are back.
From Brisbane we came up the coast, staying in Hervey Bay, Rainbow Beach out at Inskip Point, and 1770, just trying to kill time and delaying the inevitable. Feeling melencholy wasn't going to be the way to end this, so one last destination was decided upon to spend a few days before high tailing to home.  Rubyvale was the place we settled on and with a little fossicking, in the hope of finding the  "big one", it was a great way to finish the trip. Even without the "big one". 

                                           And one last relaxing sunset to set us home

 

After travelling 23 713 kilometres, zigzagging most of our way South, East and North,
We have come up with a few statistics

• highest point we reached was 1830m (Charlottes Pass)
• lowest point of elevation  -11m (Lake Eyre)
• most expensive  price paid for fuel $2.11/l,  Oodnadatta
• cheapest fuel $1.42/l Canberra 
• worst Pizza was in Port Lincoln (Les' judgement)
• best Pizza, Melbourne of course
• most expensive caravan park, Harden- middle of no where and nothing to offer
• most scary moment - sliding into Oodnadatta
• best moments - too many to list

Les'
Top three camps                                                        Top Three Attractions

• Shellbourne River, ACT                                       Australian War Memorial
• Tennant Creek, NT                                               High Court Australia
• Otway National park, Vic                                     Mount Panorama

Denise's
Top Three Camps                                                       Top Three Attractions

• Vittoria State Forest, NSW                                    High Court Australia
• Jingellic, NSW                                                       Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement
• Porenpunkah, Vic                                                   Geographical Centre of Australia

Jessica's
Top Three Camps Jess has four favourites.                Top Three Attractions

•         Adelaide - Grandma's                                      Question Time - Parliament House
•         Melbourne - Micks and Nanna & Pops           Swan Hill Pioneer Village
•         Merimbula - Trisha & Keith                            Australia Zoo   
•         Blackbutt - Carol & davids 

Grace's
Top Three Camps                                                      Top Three Attractions

• Port Augusta, SA                                                 Questacon, Canberra
• Port Lincoln, SA                                                  Sandboarding, Port Lincoln
• Bendigo                                                                Swimming with the Sea Lions

Thanks everyone for reading, and sharing this amazing adventure with us.
We have met so many characters and made many new friends, but now looking forward to catching up with all our friends at home.
Can't say I'm really looking forward to getting back into the school routine, I think it will be a rude shock come Monday morning.

Australia zoo

When Carol suggested for us girls to spend a day out at the Australia Zoo I wasn't really keen, we've seen the croc shows at Hartley's and at the Tropical Zoo, you cant get much better than that, also have done Dubbo zoo and Melbourne and Adelaide Zoos so, you know, what would be different here?
I am so glad we went, WOW.  I don't think we went past any enclosure where a handler wasn't in there hands  on with these wonderful animals, whether it was patting the rhinos ( a new born in there) or changing the the leaves for the giraffes and zebras, walking the cheetah, or cleaning up after the dingoes and wombats, everyone was so hands on and so passionate about what the zoo was about, conservation of these endangered species.

The Girls were doing it for themselves.

NSW was a new challenge, Les flew home from Merimbula for work commitments and it was up to the girls and I to tow the van home.  Les and I have always taken turns in driving with the van so I wasn't concerned with the towing or parking, but being such a heavy caravan I'm not confident in un hitching or re hitching, so with a bit of forward booking to drive-through sites so no unhitching had to take place, Northwards we headed.


Camp site at Nowra.
First stop

Hampden Bridge, Kangaroo Valley

Site seeing was near impossible with a caravan on the back but never the less what a great time we all had.  The girls were able to play their music at full bore, 1D, Abba, anything Les wouldn't normally tolerate, even a bit of Robbie Williams:)

The last time I drove up this coast  was 25 years before hand, most of it is unrecognisable. Batemans Bay a sleepy fishing town no longer, and Coffs Harbour has a major shopping centre on the 2 lane highway passing through.















Kempsie  and Yamba were lovely spots, still small towns compared to the others, I considered taking the girls to Nimbin but thought twice about it and just kept heading North. Jessica's navigating skills were excellent as she directed me through the Sydney motorways and into the Parks each night.

 

There are so many places we need to revisit. Next time.  Kangaroo Valley along the Nowra to Moss Vale Road is one such spot, with Australia's oldest suspension bridge, also enjoyed Narooma and Yamba and  would love to have a better look around there.

 It took us a week until we arrived at our very good friends, David and Carols's new place in Benarkin, just west of Brisbane, near Blackbutt

It was great to see them both again, its only been 18 months since they had left Cairns, so a few catch up drinks had to be had.

From here I  drove into brisbane to pick up Les, who has flown back down to us to complete the final run home.  The end of our adventure is nearing.

 

 

From Snow to Coast

-8 degrees Brrr..   Enough of that, we had icicles instead of condensation on the ceiling, We're out of there.
Have to say it was really pretty to wake up to see all the trees and scrub glistening with ice.

It is time to hit the coast and blow this chilly weather, Merimbula here we come.
Les' sister and brother in-law Keith manage the Beachfront Units on Ocean Dve in Merimbula so the caravan park across the road was perfect for us to set up camp.
It has been too long since seeing Trisha and Keith and it was fantastic to catch up over a few drinks and home cooked meals, Thanks guys.  Les' Mum and Dad also made the trek up from Melbourne so we got to see Nanna and pop again too.
As first time Merimbula visitors, it was beautiful, what a unique seaside community, surrounded by waterways.

 

 

Comments

I have finally fixed my comments setting, please comment

Snow,Snow,& more snow

Normally I wouldn't post more than once in a week but.... today was so cool, literally.
Last night we had our coldest night since leaving Cairns, -1, Brrrr.. Thank goodness for heaters, otherwise I would have had to cuddled Les.... it was cold.
So, why was today so cool? Glad you asked.
Snow, we went for a drive up to Thredbo to start with and although we could see snow, we could only scrape the sides of the road to touch it, so we turned around and went up the Kosciosko road to Perisher and  Charlotte's Pass. OMG. How cool, I mean HOW COOL!!  Snow everywhere above 1400m, the first time the girls and I have ever seen it and it was amazing. It even snowed while we were there.
And yes Janine, I lobbed a snowball on Jess, Grace and Les.  made a snowman, pretty sad though, will be better prepared next time.

 

                                                               My snowman

Look Out Julia - Morrisons have come to town

Well, here we are, in our Capital. We had to extend our stay as it was just impossible to see everything in the week we had allowed for it. 
For a city oozing with so much culture and so many grand buildings it seems to lack personality, not to say the people are not friendly or helpful, as they are, but just seems the city itself is bland, parking a nightmare, and no fish and chip or pizza shops.
So, what have we been up to in Canberra? Well, Les and Jessica went to question time in the house of Reps, the day after budget, and yes Jess will tell you Tony Abbott's ears are as big as they make them out to be.  Also, to my surprise, Les was not vacated from the gallery for out spoken comments.
While Jess and Les were in the House Of reps Grace and I met Her Royal Highness QEII



We spent a day at Questacon, which was interesting.  Grace had a great time on the gravity free fall and also had a go on the 360 swing, but didn't quite have the strength to get it all the way round.
On our way out of here we passed Wayne in the street, he didn't have time to chat as he was busy on the phone, probably discussing the budget with Julia.

 

 

One of the highlights has been our visit to the High Court. The girls were even allowed to have their pictures taken holding the book :"The Constitution of The Commonwealth of Australia"

 

Learning about the three different court rooms and their individual purpose, what cases have been tried there, it was quite amazing.

Another highlight would have to be the Museum of Democracy, which is housed in the Old Parliament House.  Here the girls were given a study book to work out puzzles around the building, which is like a rabbit warren, and Les and I took a tour of the rooms and wings of Parliament from not really that long ago, Bob Hawke was the last Prime Minister to use these chambers.

A visit to Canberra would not be complete without paying tribute to our Service Men and Women at the Australian War Memorial.   We were overwhelmed by all the information  here, there is just so much to see and take in. We spent three days here and still have not seen it all. 

Les found Kingsbury's display, Kingsbury is the suburb Les grew up in, named in honour of Bruce Kingsbury, a real estate agent from the area who became a VC Recipient through the Kokoda Campaign.

The closing ceremony was very moving, Every night a story of a fallen soldier is told, and the last post played outside the grave of the Unknown Soldier. 

 

 





Poll Position - Trakmaster.

Since leaving Jingellic we have headed North through Tumut, where we based ourselves for a few days to catch up on some bookwork, we also did a day trip out to Blowering Dam,  the largest of the 16 dams of the Snowy Hysro scheme, it is also home to the largest Murray Power Plant No 3, unfortunately it is closed for upgrades so no inside tour was available, but still got to have a good look at the 6 huge pipelines coming down the mountain to run the turbines.

The Blowering Dam Wall

and the view down the valley from the top of it

 Murray Power Station No 3

 

 

While we were at Tumut we experienced our coldest night yet. 1 degree.  Brrr..

 

The highlight of the past week however, was our crcuit of Mount Panorama. Driving around the track has given me a whole new respect for the race, you have no idea how steep that mountain is. I can' t

wait for that weekend in Bathurst. To know we managed to break the 20km/hr going up that hill in low gear and as you come into Skyline change into 3rd and 4th, just before switching down to 3rd to get down the Mountain. Definitely a highlight. 

Hey Robynne- Brighty better lookout. Trakmaster got Poll Position this weekend:)

 

 

Heading North

Well, here we are, Northward bound, but oh its nice to be back in the van and on the move again.

We have timed this part of the journey perfectly to catch all the Autumn colours.  As we entered Bright, the views took our breath away and rightly so as it was the weekend of the Bright Autumn Festival and the town was alive with activities.

We did day trips from our camp in Porepunkah to Mt Buffalo and up to the Horn, where the view of the Snowy Mountains was breathtaking, no snow just beautiful clear skies and uninterupted views for miles.

The girls loved the swinging bridge at the caravan park, as did the adults.  Who can make it swing the most??

 

Today we leave Victoria, Hello NSW and continuing through the colourful countryside, we ended up at one of Les' old haunts, the Jingellic Pub, camped right on the Murray behind the Hotel and once again the Autumn colours just took our breath away, nothing to do with the Sambucca one has to have to stay warm.

 

Day trips once again took us up to the Kosciowsko National Park, and to the Geehi Hut and for education sake theSnowyHydro Scheme at the Murray 1 Power Station. What an amazing engineering feat even in modern day terms.

 

                                         Mt Kosciosko hidden by cloud in the background

Geehi Hut

Great Ocean Road

After quite a blast of wintery weather I wasn't looking forward to the ferry from Sorento to Queenscliffe, but the seas calmed and the sun shone for our 40 minute trip past the heads over to the other side of Port Phillip Bay. 

 

Port Lonsdale was our first Port of call (pardon the pun) once we had alighted, it was full full hidden delights, the clarity of the many rock pools was astounding, and the rock formations that made you appear to walk out to the breaking seas. You wouldn't have a Buckley's chance of surviving  out there, which by the way is the place that saying comes from, Buckley was an escaped convict who survived for 30 years at this site living with the local aboriginal tribe, white society couldn't believe he could have survived hence "buckley's chance".

Heading further along the coast, the wintery weather returned but Wow, What a coast line, and the company wasnn't bad either.  Dave and Julie braved the cold and met up with us down at Otway National Park, where the koalas and echidnas, foxes and even a mouse kept our company too.

 

Do you know there were never twelve apostles, there was ever only 9 and now due to corrosion only 7 remain

We enjoyed being back in the van and are now looking forward to moving on to the snow fields
Brrr. Even though Les may catch one more game before our departure.  We'll see.