Home!

Well – it’s over! 407 days on the road and we are home again. We have travelled through every mainland state of Australia and stayed at 80 different camp sites for durations ranging from 1 night to 2  months.

Just to summerise our trip:

2015

Leaving Perth in April 2015 we headed across the Nullarbor, during May we spent time on Eyre Peninsular and Flinders Ranges in SA, all June was spent heading up the middle stopping at Alice Springs, Longreach Waterhole, Mataranka and Edith Falls for lengthy periods, most of July and half of August was spent travelling across the Savanah Way thru Normanton, Croyden, Mt. Surprise to Tinnaroo Dam in far north QLD, the second half of August and nearly all September was spent in north QLD (almost a  month fishing and camping with my brother-in-law in Mackay), all September, October and November was spent at various lakes, dams and rivers in central QLD chasing red claw and the mighty Saratoga, December and January was spent with family in Brisbane.

2016

We left Brissy at the end of January and spent most of February chasing Murray Cod and Yellowbelly in central NSW at various lakes, dams and rivers, March saw us visiting the Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo and catching up again with family at Orange and Wollongong, we spent my birthday week at Wallagaraugh River Resort near Mallacoota catching flathead and bream, April was spent catching up with new friends and old around Melbourne and at Portland in southern Victoria, May saw us camping along the Murray River (in Vic and SA) and catching KG whiting at Venus Bay in SA, and finally during June we trekked across the Nullarbor to home.

What a trip - so many fantastic places visited - meeting up with so many new friends, old friends, family and just nice people who like us are out there enjoying what Australia has on show. We joked, had cook-ups, fishing competitions, card competitions, swapped recipes, fishing secrets and locations of that “best free camp”.

It wasn’t all beer and skittles - we had our share of troubles - mainly car related. Mitsubishi in Alice Springs caused us lots of grief blowing up our gearbox seals and putting cheap petrol engine oil in the motor, ARB in Mount Isa broke and stripped three wheel studs when we got new tyres fitted by them, I banged the intercooler in the Flinders Ranges which caused us grief and a new intercooler 12 months later. Both starting and deep cycle batteries died and a flat tyre in Portland rounded things up. On our first trip around Australia in 2012-2013 we climbed mountains, hiked for miles and rode our bikes everywhere – not so this trip – Linda’s hip replacement and osteo in both my knees slowed us down and made us realise that perhaps we are getting older? – so things were done at a more sedate pace this time round but we still achieved everything we wanted to do.

Thanks  - to all of you who followed our blog, treated us like kings when we visited, shared our camps and strays and made the last fourteen months on the road a trip of a lifetime!

The Penthouse at Murray River Caravan Park - South Yunderup WA 

Heading Home

Finally heading west!

According to the SATNAV in the Pajero its 2,065klm from Haslam on the Eyre Peninsular in SA across the Nullarbor to Pinjarra in WA. We had planned to travel across to Norseman in convoy with our friends Carol and Steve for company and also security/back-up across the wide open spaces – this didn’t quiet go to plan as “someone” miscalculated the number of overnight stays (distance) between the WA border and Kambalda.

The Champs - 2016 Nullarbor Sequence Comp

Usually coming across the Nullarbor involves driving for 5-6 hours, selecting a roadside stop where you can get away from the traffic noise, getting a fire and diner organised, early to bed and doing the same thing the next day.

Roxy and her valets on the Bight

As “someone” miscalculated the distance to Kambalda (and we had made arrangements to catch up with family there) we did a marathon 11 hours and nearly 600lkm on one of the days – this is when we left our friends behind.

Some folk say driving across from Ceduna to Perth is a boring drive – we disagree – it’s quiet an interesting trip transiting from the rolling wheat and sheep farms near Ceduna, to the Mallee Scrub, onto the treeless Nullarbor, across the scenic Great Australian Bight, back into the Mallee and Salmon Gum forests of WA, through the vast cleared paddocks of the WA wheat belt into Perth.

Our last camp for this trip at Meckering WA

It’s an experience that we have enjoyed several times now and hope to do again.

Mission Accomplished

Nice spot - that's our van in the background

We were on a mission! Spend a week at Venus Bay to fill up the freezer with King George Whiting fillets, drop into Haslam Beach free camp for a couple of nights to top up on squid and the fill whatever room was left in the freezer with fresh oysters from the oyster farms along the Eyre Peninsula west coast.

You launch off the sand at Venus Bay

First three days at Venus Bay saw one KG come into the tinny despite many hours in bitterly cold weather soaking bait. Things got worse when pulling up the anchor the anchor rope broke (rotten after many years use) and I lost my anchor. So after a 145klm round trip to Streaky Bay for a new anchor and rope it was round two of KB vs KG.

She's a "keeper" my Linda

The god’s must have been smiling upon me as for each remaining fishing trip it was a bag limit of KG whiting every time! So off we traveled to Haslam to add nine squid to the fridge and six dozen oysters.

Mission accomplished!

Popular with the pelicans