Home, Ringwood - VIC

10th December 2014


After 231 nights away in our caravan we have arrived home!!

We set up and packed up our caravan 81 times.
We only had 3 nights out of our caravan, when we stayed at Eurong Resort on Fraser Island.
Our total accommodation costs were $8,381.00.
The most expensive caravan park we stayed in was Darwin Free Spirit @ $63.00 per night.
The cheapest was free! There are lots of free camps out there!

We travelled 24,929 klms.
We didn't have any mechanical problems on either the car or caravan, not even a flat tyre!

We used 3,704 litres of diesel at a cost of $6,140.00.
Our average fuel consumption was just over 14 litres per 100km, while towing the caravan.
Our cheapest diesel was purchased at Terang in Vic @  $1.385 per litre.
Our most expensive diesel was purchased at Warmun Roadhouse in WA @ $2.16 per litre.

We didn't suffer any illness or major injuries.
Our only casualty was Stuart, who stuffed his knee and couldn't walk for a few days.

The longest time we went without showering was 5 days!

Now we are back and dreaming of our next adventure.

We hope you have enjoyed following our journey!!

We made it!

Our journey

Colac - VIC

9th December - 10th December 2014

Colac is our very last stop on our trip around Australia.  We have all had an awesome time travelling around our beautiful country seeing and experiencing the most amazing things.  We have many precious memories and meet lots of fantastic friends along the way.  I am however really looking forward to getting home and enjoying some luxuries!  How nice it will be to have a couch, running hot water, a toilet, shower, and the boys are excited to get back to a big tv!

We arrived at Colac and did a quick set up then watched a movie, relaxing before for the madness that will come tomorrow.

Our next stop is HOME!!!!!

 Arriving back into our home state!

Camp set up at Colac

Robe - SA

6th December - 9th December 2014

Robe is our last stop before we head back into Victoria and then make the short trek home!  

It is a place that we have wanted to visit for quite some time, so we were very excited to finally get there!  It's a little beach town that would certainly swell during the summer months.  The main street is full of cute boutique shops and of course there's the beautiful beach.

After many months in WA of beach driving, we took the opportunity to drive on the Robe beach before heading back into Victoria. Stuart was happy that the sand was hard enough to drive on without letting down the tyres!  The novelty of sand driving has worn off a bit throughout the trip!

The Robe Caravan Park had a great indoor swimming pool, so we spent a lot of time in the pool and generally relaxing prior to arriving home right in the midst of Christmas madness!

We met up and said our final goodbyes to Jon, Lorraine, Jasmine and Meagan Bale before they started their journey home to Victoria.  

Tomorrow we head for Colac in Victoria which will only leave us with a short drive home the following day.  The big adventure is quickly coming to an end.

 Last drive on the beach in Robe

Robe Beach

Robe Foreshore

Farewell Bales!

Adelaide - SA

4th December - 6th December 2014

We stayed in Semaphore which is near Port Adelaide, so did a lovely tourist drive along the beach front from Largs Bay to Glenelg.  The views and houses were beautiful, l could really imagine living there!  We stopped at the Largs Bay jetty, which was a popular spot for crabbing.  We didn't do any crabbing but had a ice cream and enjoyed the view.  We were quite close to AAMI Stadium so we drove in and had a look around.

The following day we did a bit of touring around the city.  Our first stop was the Adelaide Oval. We took some photos in front of the Victor Richardson gates and even saw the SA cricketers training. Apparently the Australian team also arrived today, but we didn't see them.  Our next port of call was Rundle Mall.  l was in heaven, the boys and Stu not so much!  It's been a long time since l've seen any decent shops!  I even picked up a few Christmas presents.

When we arrived back at the caravan park, Leonie and Dave Bere had arrived from Clare.  The boys were excited to see Sam and Ethan again.  They are staying here for a while so out came some Christmas lights and decorations.  It was lovely to feel a bit festive, as it really doesn't feel like Christmas is only a few weeks away.  The boys decided they would play a bit of cricket and soon enough had lots of extra kids joining in!  This is where we said our final goodbyes to the Bere family as they aren't returning home until January 2015.

Our next stop is Robe.

 Largs Bay Jetty

 Largs Bay Beach

 Adelaide

 Victor Richardson Gates, Adelaide Oval

 Adelaide Oval

Sam, Josh, Ash & Ethan

Clare - SA

1st December - 4th December 2014

Clare is a picturesque town located in the Clare Valley.  Initially we weren't heading this way but l was very pleased we changed our minds.  The thing to do in the Clare Valley is to visit the many wineries! The Clare Valley region is renowned for its Riesling.  I'm not a huge fan of Riesling so we chose to visit Annie's Lane, as l enjoy their Chardonnay.  The lady at Annie's Lane was so welcoming and friendly.  She let the kids collect and eat the fresh pine nuts off their tree!  She was a wealth of information about the town of Clare, and even told us that we must try the local butchers sausages, as he has won many awards for them.  She was absolutely correct the sausages were amazing and l don't even like sausages!

We also visited the Sevenhills Winery which had an interesting history.  It is run and owned by the Jesuits and the winery is the biggest producers of alter wine.  On the grounds of the winery was a church which had a crypt under it, and the cemetery was next door!

Knappstein Brewery was definitely our favourite.  Stuart and l enjoyed their beer and wine, so it turned out to be an expensive visit!  

Our next stop is Adelaide.

Annie's Lane, the kids collecting pine nuts!

 The church at Sevenhills

 Sevenhills Winery

 Sevenhills Winery

 Knappstein Brewery

Clare Valley

Flinders Ranges - Wilpena Pound SA

27th November - 1st December 2014

The drive into the Flinders Ranges was amazing, the views were beautiful.  We set up camp with The Bales at Wilpena Pound and did a hike to Hill Homestead and then onto the Wilpena Pound lookouts. We read the stories of the residents of the homestead and the struggles they faced. The lookout provided great views of Wilpena Pound and the surrounding ranges.  We then returned back to camp to cool off before going on a drive which took us around Bunyeroo and Brachina Gorges.  We have been to lots of gorges on our trip, but never before had we been able to drive through them!  Beautiful scenery and an abundance of animals.  We saw emu's with their babies, kangaroos, rabbits and goats!

The following day we did a 4wd track called 'Skytrek'.  It was a huge day out taking us 7 hours to complete the track.  The track takes you around Willow Springs Station which is a 70,000 acre sheep station. You are given a map and a key to complete your trek through the property.  There are huts and other places of interest which you pass.  The information booklet provided great information on the various plants and trees we saw.  There was some stunning lookouts which provided a 360 degree view of the Flinders Ranges.  The track totalled 80 klm most of which was quite easy, but the last 12 klms were quite challenging.  Stuart had lots of fun testing the car out on some scary tracks!

We come across lots of emus with babies, kangaroo's and lots of sheep!  One of the highlights of the day was meeting 'Roothy' and his old land cruiser "Milo"!  He was filming a new DVD on parts of the Skytrek track.  We stopped and had a chat and got some great photo's with him.  He was a lovely bloke and his crew were very friendly too!

After two huge and very hot days we decided to chill out on our third day and hang around camp.  Jon and Stu started off by washing the cars as they were very dusty and dirty after the last few days!  It was a very hot day so we decided to cool off in the resort pool.

Our next stop is Clare, off to taste some more wines!

Flinders Ranges

Baby Emu

This kangaroo was so hot, it spent all day under the van

 Wilpena Pound

Home Hillstead

Entrance to Willow Springs - Skytrek

Josh opening one of the many gates!

Roothy, Milo & the boys

Skytrek

 Skytrek

Skytrek

Skytrek

Whyalla - SA

26th November - 27th November 2014

We did a quick one night stop on our way to Flinders Ranges at Whyalla. It is a very industrial town being the base for OneSteel.  The steel operation is located on the foreshore area, the steel is taken straight from the factory and onto the jetty to be shipped.  We took the tourist drive around the foreshore and up to Hummock Hill.  On top of Hummock Hill was an old military gun post.  During WWII soldiers guarded the precious foreshore trade in threat of bombings from the Japanese.

Looking forward to our next few days in Flinders Ranges.

Whyalla Foreshore

OneSteel Plant Jetty

Hummock Hill Lookout

 View from Hummock Hill lookout