The Final Leg - going for Home (well almost!)

We were pleasantly surprised arriving in Port Lincoln - a very pretty and attractive town, although it was blowing an absolute gale. It was a good opportunity to completely clean the van of the dust from Streaky Bay. It proved a marathon effort to put washing on the line as the wind held it horizontal (straight out!) - at least it gave the doona a good airing.

Following the coastline we called into Port Neil, Arno Bay and Tumby Bay - all very pretty seaside villages that have potential for our next visit.

Next stop was Whyalla, through country side that seemed more desert than central Oz. Whyalla proved to be - the "Pink " town - everything the one colour! We stayed on the forseshore of the caravan park and this was lovely until.....yes the bloody wind!!!! It was so strong that we were not able to open any windows or vents and when you opened the caravan door you held on with both hands - not a good experience. It was however an eyeopener to see the steelworks, the scenery was good and watching the many wind surfers was good entertainment. We also experienced a magnificent sunet from this beach

By this stage we were over the wind, and decided to head for the Clare Valley, we arrived there to sunshine and a calm day - what a delight!. While it was very dry and they badly needed rain we had three lovely days.

It was then off to Adelaide as we wanted to catch up with Len and Wendy Pennington friends we had not seen for some time plus say hello to Mary Byrnes again. Well, not sure if it was us but Wendy ended up in hospital the day after we arrived, however we were able to catch up before we left and had the usual few laughs. We also spent pleasant hours with Mary - lunch in Handorf, shopping and dinner and we managed to catch the caravan and camping show.

After a week it was time to head off again -down to Victor Harbor and the lovely Clydsdale horse tram accross to the island. We are definatly going back - just such a great area - Goolwa, Middelton and we sat opposite the Hindmarsh Island Bridge having coffee (but that is all secret womans bussiness). It was then off across the mighty Murray River on the river punt.

Warracknabeal was the next overnight stop as we wanted to find Peters Grandmothers grave plus see if we could see a horse race on Sky channel - we found the grave, saw the horserace (it did not win) and had a couple of cold beers in the pub.

Next stop was Goornong where we stayed overnight with friends Susan, Anthony and James - thankyou for the kind hospitality. Great to catch up on all their news.

The final day was almost here - next stop Yarrawonga where we set up in Liz and Gregs backyard where we stayed and celebrated Gregs 60th birthday, then a couple of days in Jerilderie on the lawn, back to Albury in Judy's drive and finally off to Jerrabomberra. We had decided that we would stay in the van once back in Jerra, as we were only going to be there for the time it took to pick up Mr Trump, do tax etc, see parents and family however....... after travelling 32,000kms around Oz and no issues with accommodation every van park in Canberra and Queenbeyan was booked out. So a quick call was made to the Hebrons and we found ourselves at "Club Bungendore" for the first night. We then made arrangements and returned to our house for a week. Mr Trump looked at us very suspiciously and is still giving us a bit of the "cold shoulder" - it will take a while. Renee and Glen have taken very good care of him and the house while we have been on our journey.

We are now down at our house at Turross Head for at least the next 6 months (unless we just pack up and go again) - trying to decide where our base will be.

We have had the best time, met some wonderful people and found the "nomad" lifestyle to be something that we both enjoy (much to many peoples surprise...ha, ha) - some stats for you, remebering that there were three of us for about 4 months.

Over 9 months we travelled 32,032 kms, used 6123 litres of fuel (the dearest at Barkley Homestread $2.10litre), ave $33 per day for food/living, ave $34 per day for accommodation. (used caravan parks including some ensuite sites). The most expensive state for living was definitly WA - everything is just so far away. Favourite place? - too many to say - Oz really is an amazing country and after 9 months have only seen a very small cross section of it - so we definitly will be going again.