We left Collie on the 5th of May and will arrive back on the 23rd of October after around 17,000km and 171 days on the road (and over $6,600 in fuel). This is planned to be our last caravan trip east of WA, so we covered a lot of familiar ground and some new locations. We visited every mainland State except the Northern Territory and ACT.
Some highlights of the trip:
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| Are you my dinner? |
Monarto Safari Zoo – Lions 360 experience – bucket list item
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| Ahh - Moorook |
Two extended stays at Moorook Reserve on the Murray River – green grass, water, and birdlife
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| Just us at Fitzgerald Bay |
Two extended stays at Fitzgerald Bay (near Whyalla) – ocean views to die for.
Our lengthy stay at Bill and Sandy’s farm near Kilkivan QLD – great spot and good company
Our almost three weeks stay at Paul and Desley’s house in Burpengary (north side of Brisbane) – great company and taught them how to play Sequence 😊 Caught up with my other siblings as well. My brother Gary and I went whiting fishing – only three fish but some good brother time.
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| Old Barra Fisherman |
I flew up to Mackay to spend three weeks fishing with my brother-in-law Tom. Barra, Barra and more Barra, a few mud crabs and some sweet water sooty grunter, and a saratoga. Great company and great fishing.
Our two weeks stay at Michael and Leah’s farm in Portland Victoria for Linda’s family reunion. Fantastic to catch up with her large family and Michael and Leah made sure that they looked after us.
Linda won nearly $2000 on a single game of Keno (I probably lost that much playing pokies ☹).
I brought a crib board from an Opp Shop in Streaky Bay and taught Linda how to play crib. She is now almost unbeatable (maybe I should have put this in the “lowlights section below?)
We have a freezer full of fat lamb sausages (fifty of them) from the butcher in Burra (SA). We made a detour through Burra on the way home just to pick them up. Yummy.
Some lowlights of our trip:
Severe dust storms in SA on our way east.
Absolutely freezing weather and lots of rain for at least three months of our trip. The new diesel heater sure got some use!
We lugged our Kayak for 17,000km and only used it at a few places – mainly because when we had planned to use it on the Murray River it was bitterly cold and raining.
Coming north from Streaky Bay to our last stop at Penong before heading across the 2,000km stretch of the Nullarbor (where there are no services) the car started overheating again – talk about stress levels going up! See diatribe below on the four “H’s”.
Our car, despite a new radiator being fitted in Adelaide continued to overheat due to the four “H’s”
Extreme Heat
Strong Headwinds
Long Hills
Dick Head driver – who realised (only after finishing the Nullarbor crossing coming home in near 40C heat) that if the automatic transmission was left in Auto (during times of extreme heat, strong headwinds and long hills) it subsequently hunted between fifth and fourth gear trying to find a happy medium – which also caused a lot of heat. Locking the transmission in fourth gear during these stress times resulted in no overheating and surprisingly better fuel economy. So, looks like issue is now solved.
We covered lots of ground, caught up with lots of family, visited new places, I grew a beard, Linda lost weight, I gained some 😊and we are so glad we went. Now to spend some time at home before heading off to Alexndra Bridge in February and then North to Pardoo and surrounds for five months in May.
A very early Merry Xmas to followers of my blog.
