Adelaide, Penola, Ballarat, Strathmore 3 – 10 November

Up bright and early as Stephen was busting to see the bus we were parked next to pack up and leave. Not just a bus but a huge luxury motor home which we had seen once before when we were in Katherine many moons ago. He had spent the previous evening talking to the Dutch guy and his wife who owned it but was unable to talk his way into an invitation to actually get inside the thing and check it out. He watched their car, a Mirage, being loaded onto the hydraulic lift and then fitting neatly inside the bus chassis. All very impressive and made our little caravan seem quite small and insignificant.
The weather was not too flash and the rain was quite persistent. The drive from Clare to Adelaide was very pretty and we even saw a tree which had been stuck by lightning not all that long ago. It had been completely split down the middle; you don’t often see stuff like that.

We were finally confronted by lots of traffic as we drove slowly into Adelaide, all a bit much for these country travellers. We set up in Gerard and Lola’s driveway and while we waited for them to come home from work we watched the Melbourne Cup on the TV in the van. It was lovely to see them after such a long time. I don’t think Bruce, the dog, was all that happy as we were invading his territory. We spent our time in Adelaide visiting the Gallery of SA - saw John Brack’s exhibition, checking out the Adelaide market, cruising around the CBD and shopping at Coles in Glenelg, the biggest we have seen on our travels. We spent time with Naomi, Simone and Matthew and listened to all their news. Gerard was working at the races most days because of the ‘Melbourne Cup Carnival’. We didn’t realise that all of Adelaide celebrated this event with such vigour. Lola was a gracious hostess and spent lots of time with us chatting.

Stephen had picked up a newspaper advertising a tool sale at some place in Adelaide on Saturday and was mad keen on picking up a new saw if he could. On Saturday morning we packed up to leave and put our destination, Penola, into the GPS. Stephen also put in the address of the tool sale but we realised it was 30 kms out of our way so he deleted it, or so he thought. I was very surprised by the route we were taking but Sheila has managed to get us all around Australia so why would I doubt her. Suddenly we were in an industrial estate where – you guessed it I’m sure – the tool sale was being held. Someone had not deleted the address it seems, or was it Sheila’s fault who Stephen seemed to be blaming!! “Oh well, we are here so I might as well take a look”. After many strange stares from hardware men at me sitting in the ‘Vic’ car with the caravan on the back, and having to answer comments like “you’ve come a long way for a bargain luv”, and one large saw and a saw horse later firmly tied to the top of the Blue Lux we headed out of Adelaide.

We arrived in Penola late afternoon, probably because we had added 60 kilometres to our trip in the morning, and spent the rest of the very hot day in the very small town having a look at what was on offer which was not much. We had nibbles with a couple from Glen Waverley before retiring to our van for dinner. We had a very slow start to Sunday with a newspaper and a cooked brekkie, both rare treats. Around 11.30 we ventured out into Coonawarra for some serious red wine sport. With the temperature around 35 it was not the best day for tasting red wine but like the troupers that we are we managed to fill the day in and buy a number of good reds to take home. Now these are good, bold red wines from the best area in Australia. Another very warm night followed by a slow start to the day before hooking up the van for the last time. We watched a couple take 2 hours to pack up a camper trailer and were very grateful we had bought a caravan which takes us about 15 – 20 minutes for the same procedure.

The drive to Ballarat was quiet. We were both a bit stunned that we would soon be home and weren’t too sure about how we felt about that. After stepping over the line back into Victoria, we stopped at the Royal Mail in Dunkeld and had a drink at the pub to celebrate. The scenery all started to look familiar as the town names like Casterton, Coleraine and Hamilton flew by. It was not long before we arrived in Ballarat to a wonderful welcome from Chris and Di. Our grassed site was ready and waiting for us and, as we were not going anywhere that night, we left the van on the car. This overnighter was one of our brighter ideas as Chris and Di did a similar trip 4 years ago, so we had lots of experiences to talk about. It was almost like a debriefing session for us. A late night and a few drinks resulted in me not feeling all that flash the next morning but thanks to the healing powers of Berocca I was much improved on the journey home to Strathmore.

We arrived home at 11.30am, unhooked the van and drove straight up to see Cath and the girls. We were a bit dubious about the reception we would get from Frances but our fears were soon put to rest when we were covered in hugs and kisses from both she and Maggie. Cath was also very happy to see us and in only minutes managed to have her diary out and had us booked in for babysitting on a number of occasions over the next few weeks!! We now pay the price for being away for sooooo long. Later in the afternoon we walked around to St Martin’s to pick up Fynn. He didn’t know we were home and his little face, with no front teeth, lit up when he saw us. It was a priceless moment. We had dinner with Pat and Fleur that evening and of course our good friend Aileen who told us we weren’t to go away for that long ever again.

So the journey ends.

In 7 months we have travelled 33,160 kilometres, have used 4,696 litres of diesel at an average price of $1.37 per litre and a total cost of $6,332. Unhooked and re-hooked the caravan 66 times and stayed in 77 different camping grounds, and a horse paddock in Broome, at a cost of $5,402. The most invaluable thing was that we had no trouble with the car or the caravan. Between us we also took 6,468 photos: of which I took, maybe, 68.

We set off to escape suburbia and have an adventure. We’ve achieved those things in bucket loads and, in addition, we’ve discovered much about our country. It’s even more beautiful and vast as those Qantas ads show. I still don’t feel qualified to make any grand pronouncements on the nation and its people. I do, however, feel a new connection to the country. The Red Centre, the Kimberley and the Pilbara are no longer just places on a map. The two great issues facing Australia are the environment and the Aborigines and neither gets the attention they deserve. It will be a crime if the north coast of WA is handed over to the gas companies. The issue of the aborigines will still be with us long after the global financial crisis ends with precious little progress in sight.

One of the best things about the trip has been spending time with each other. We discovered we have lots of fun just being together and even found the time to really talk. Time is a wonderful thing and you certainly need to grab every moment you can as life can sometimes be short. We have met some fabulous people and now have a blog full of yarns. As we return to our ‘normal’ life we again have a kitchen, bedroom and bathroom: a place to pee in peace with thick toilet paper.

Paul Keating once said: ‘If you’re not living in Sydney you’re camping out.’ He obviously didn’t understand the value of camping out.

Thanks to each and every one of you for your emails and best wishes. We hope you enjoyed the journey as much as we did.

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