The Last Post

So, that’s that then. 

Over the last six months we have travelled more than 32,000 kilometres ‘around’ Australia.  We’ve visited all of the mainland’s states and territories, some more than once.  We've made camp 112 times in 186 days and seen, literally, thousands of amazing places and things. We’ve spent over $9000 on fuel, but less than $4000 for camping fees (we couldn’t bring ourselves to calculate the cost of food, drink or repairs!) and we've met many fascinating and friendly people.

Of course there have been some difficult times:  Long hours of travelling. Getting bogged (more than once). Brutal corrugations. Dust. Heat. Cold. Storms. Lightening. Floods. Flies, midges, mosquitoes and scorpions. Tinned ham for dinner. We’ve suffered through them all.  But in hindsight, even these feel like good times.

We shattered our rear windscreen and cracked the front, we drowned two starter motors and snapped four UHF aerials.  We curved side steps and scratched paintwork.  We replaced brake pads and discs and CV joint boots on two separate occasions.    With all the new parts we've added to the car, you could argue that it has arrived back in Sydney newer than when it left (though it doesn't drive like it.)

As for the good times, of course there are too many to mention, but we won't forget sitting around a campfire in the desert under huge starry skies, or camping all alone on white sands and helping the kids to catch fish for our dinner in the azure water (or seeing pods of dolphins fish for theirs’), or watching a big red sun set over an even bigger red land, or drifting with the current through schools of brightly coloured reef fish, or navigating deep creeks and log bridges, or hiking and swimming through those gorgeous gorges or, or, or...

We all learnt a lot on the trip; about the county, the wildlife, the people, but also how to tell a black headed python from a tiger snake in the dark at twenty paces, how to live together as a family, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in the close confines of a camper trailer, and how to fix almost anything with gaffer tape and fencing wire.

And we had an excellent adventure.

So the question is now:  What’s next?