Misty water-coloured memories, of the way we were.

We woke up to a beautiful morning at St Lawrence campground, and were both feeling good about most things. Sure, the bed was as uncomfortable as ever and getting up for a piss sucked, but being among kangaroos, magpie geese and black swans was making up for all the negative parts. Plus, the toilets were clean and flushable.

A better way to start the day

It was so lovely that we decided to spend another night there. We had a slow start to the day and the only thing of note that happened was an uncomfortable interaction with another bloke staying at the site. He'd started a conversation from distance, while edging into our camp. Once there we'd have a short burst of uninteresting back and forth, followed by 30sec of total silence while I racked my brain for another conversation starter. While my Englishness forced me in engage in the cul-de-sac chat, Becky didn’t give a shit and just started doing other things and in the end saved me by saying I had things to do too. After I rolled my eyes at him giving the classic “women, tsst” exchange, and he fucked off. Becky told me I needed to stop being so nice, but what can I do, it’s in my DNA.

Over the course of the rest of the day we only managed the 500-metre walk around the wetland. I didn’t take my binoculars, which was a bit stupid, but it was nice nonetheless.

Merry, merry king of the bush is he

The next day we decided it was time to move on. Sitting around doing nothing is fine, but we’ve got places to be and people to see. As we packed up the other couple walked passed and started to chat. Luckily I was packing up but he still stood about for the longest 5mins of my life while I tried to ignore him.

That day we’d be passing by Bowen, home of our friends Kris and Nan. Nan had mentioned what a lovely place it was, so we thought we’d check it out and see if they were about, before heading to Bowling Green Bay NP. As we entered Bowen, I realised we had been here before, 10 years ago when we drove from Sydney to Cairns. On that trip we’d broken our digital camera, so had to take pictures with a couple of disposable film cameras that had an unintentional “shot in 1980’s” filter on. We had taken one at the campsite in Bowen, and that helped us both ‘member.

Photographic evidence that I was, indeed, a grown man in the 1980's

Bowen is a lovely little town, and even has a council run waterpark, which I had to try.

Fun for all ages

We were enjoying Bowen, but we hadn’t heard back from Kris and Nan and we were just thinking of leaving when Kris called. Unfortunately they were out of town, staying with their daughter in Townsville. However, Kris suggested we stay in their shed overnight, which had a bed, shower and toilet. After some back and forth between Becky and Kris about whether we should, Becky agreed it would be nice to stay somewhere with a mattress. The conditions set by Nan were that we visited a few of the highlights of Bowen, which we duly did and were very picturesque.

One of Bowen's highlights

That night Becky couldn’t be bothered to cook, so we had sandwiches on their deck and enjoyed the local wildlife in their garden. It was also great to once again experience a real life mattress.

The next morning we waited for Kris to return from Townsville, as he had said he’d be back in town that day. As we sat around their deck wasting time, something we’ve become very good at, we called a potential housesit opportunity at Mt Fox, just outside Ingham. The lady seemed very nice, and explained that we’d need to feed a couple of horses. Becky said this should be no issue, as she used to ride when she was young and had experience from her time at the RSPCA, I said I knew what a horse was and liked cowboy films when I was young. This seemed to be enough for her and we arranged to call by the house in a few days. A few hours later Kris arrived, and we had a lovely cup of tea and chat. It was great seeing him again, and this time Becky remembered to take a photo.

I'm the one on the left

As Nan was still in Townsville, we said we’d pop by and say hello to her and Becky could pose for that photo… Blokes with blokes, and girls with girls, that’s the rules.

We left Bowen and on the way out had something from Red Roster, as that’s where we ate 10 years ago. It was a nostalgic trip down a fast-food memory lane, and it tasted just as shit now as it did 10 years ago. I just hoped our next destination, Bowling Green Np, had decent toilets, as this meal didn’t feel like it was going to end well for anyone.

Although it wasn’t far to Bowling Green Bay NP, our late start meant we didn’t get there until quite late. As we arrived we suddenly ‘membered we’d been here before too, 10 years earlier. That time we’d just stopped to do the walk and have lunch; it was good visiting the old haunts.

Ageless beauty

It was fast approaching dinnertime and after the faff of cooking that lovely chicken curry stir-fry days earlier, Becky had gone off the idea of proper cooking again. Unfortunately, the mince we’d bought several days earlier was nearing it’s use by date, so reluctantly she started making her famous spag bol, while I set up camp.

Hurdy, gurdy, put the chicken in the pot.

It was a great feed, but she insisted on putting some aside for another time, so my portion was smaller than I’d have liked. With the camp set up and food ingested there was only one thing left to do…sleep time! Especially as there were quite a few mosquitos about, and we could only find relief in the tent.

The next day we set about our business of doing fuck all. We started by visiting the swimming hole while it was still quiet for a morning dip.

Morning fresh

The only downside of this site was the huge number of horse flies we had to deal with during the day. The little bastards were relentless, and we were killing a large number of the fuckers. To help fill the day with things to do I was feeding the dead ones to some ants on the picnic table.

Fuck with me, I'll kill you and your whole fucking family

That helped keep me occupied, while Becky made another brush turkey friend, who had a crooked beak, that Becky named Gobbles.  

A face only Becky could love... explains why she's with me

Of course that couldn’t help us fill the whole day, so we had a quick game of “how much can you balance on the other persons head”. Not the catchiest of names, but it did help fill some time. Becky went for a small soap container and a tampon.

Flat top

I countered with a stubby cooler, soap container and bag clip.

Larger base

Although I’d managed more things, Becky clearly won for the higher level of balancing required to get the tampon upright. Oh the fun you can have in the great outdoors, and after such an exhausting day, we both went to bed absolutely shattered.

The next day, after leaving Bowling Green Bay NP, we called in on Nan in Townsville to say hi. She made us a lovely cup of chai and we had a great chat. We also remembered to take the photo.

Somewhere in Townsville

Nan’s grandkid was there, and was a big football fan. I had a quick chat about his favourite players and teams, before we snuck off to have a game of FIFA 2018. Unfortunately, this was also around the time that we needed to leave and we had to quit out before we could finish a game. I think this might have been just as well as he was already 1-0 up and we’d only been playing for under a minute.

After saying our goodbyes, we had a Noodlebox, the first time we’d had vegies in a few days, stocked up on food and headed for our next stop, Paluma Range NP. The real question remained, had we been there before?

All Aussie Adventures: Series two

We left Ikea with mixed feelings. It was nice to be back on the road, but at the same time we were both dreading the first night back in the tent. We had decided that we weren’t going to go for the big long distances this time, and so thought we’d spend the first night at Wongi State Forest. Our faffing that day had cost us quite a bit of time and we didn’t get to the campsite until late afternoon. It was a very nice spot, and we only shared it with one guy in a campervan. As we set up, Becky’s spirit hit a wall and she started to voice her regret at continuing. As we tucked into our cheese and digestives dinner, Becky worked out the minimum number of days we’d have to be on the road to make it past Xmas… only 49 days to go!

I had the time of my life, and I never felt this way before

The next morning, after a good 12hr sleep, we awoke to sunshine and the birds singing and both felt much better for it. Sure, some bogan drove past the campsite in the middle of the night (it was actually only about 10pm, but we’d gone to bed at 7pm) that gave us a shock, but we both were feeling a little more positive about the next 48 nights.

Happier, but not happy.

We were tempted to stay another night, but decided we’d be better off continuing north, I don’t remember our reasons why. We’d singled out Deepwater NP as our next destination, an area we’d visited with Jess when she was over a few years ago and had always planned to camp there at some point. The campsite was listed as not having wifi, and for that reason, and that reason alone, we stopped in McDonalds at Childers. We’d been looking at housesitting as a way of 1) killing off a few of those 48 nights, and 2) doing so in a nice place. We’d seen a house being advertised in Daintree that looked amazing, with the pool overlooking the rainforest and sea. As we tucked into something off the “gourmet” menu, we signed up to the site, paid the $50 and sent an e-mail to the owners of the Daintree property explaining what fucking awesome people we are, and we would never fuck up their shit or piss in their pool or anything like that. With the net cast, we headed for Deepwater, stopping only briefly so I could have my McSquirts at a layby toilet.

There were a few people at the Deepwater campsite, but we were still able to find a nice spot and the layout meant it all felt quite secluded. The campsite was sheltered, so despite a strong wind coming off the sea, it was very calm around the tent. It is a beautiful national park, and after pasta mixed with a sundried tomato stir in sauce, we walked to the windy beach to enjoy a lovely sunset.

Nothing to complain about, but we'll try!

After another 12hrs of sleep, we awoke to another lovely sunny morning. The only thing I was a little concerned about was the lack of beers we were carrying. Becky had wanted me to dry out a little after staying with Adam, and I had agreed but two nights later I was ready to start drinking again. The nearest town, Agnes Water, was only 10km away, but it was along a sandy 4wd track, meaning it could take a while to get there. As we were waiting for a reply from the Daintree property I said we could combine my beer run with an internet check. This worked well, until Becky discovered a spot on the beach where we could get 2 bars of Telstra. Not wanting the 20km return journey just to be a beer run, I changed tact, and said we could have a big lunch in town and therefore not have to cook dinner that night… she agreed this was a great plan and off we went.

Easy pickings for a car held together with gaffer tape

The 4wd track road was a real 4wd track, but we made it without anything falling off, and that was a win. We also had a lovely fish and chips lunch, another win.

Another healthy lunch

Becky wanted to drink with me and, as the beers were quite expensive, we opted to share a 10 pack of 5 Seeds ciders that Becky spotted on sale and were $6 cheaper than anything else. Once back at the campground we realised we’d had this cider before and neither of us liked it. It was fucking rank, and was one of those drinks that seem to get worse the more you drink it. We did finish them, but it was tough and really didn’t feel like we’d saved $6. I guess other things happened over the rest of the day, but not only had we’d drunk some shitty cider but this all happened over 2 weeks ago from when I write this, and I can’t remember that much. We have a picture of us checking our e-mails on the windy, exposed beach, so we must have done that.

How do you show it's windy if you have no hair?

The next day was much the same in terms of doing stuff. Becky made friends with a brush turkey she’d called Timmy. He was running around the campsite hovering up any scraps we’d dropped, including some Weetbix dust Becky “accidently” left on the ground. I did the same with some other scraps, and then in true Aussie fashion got annoyed at him for taking the piss and trying to get into everything. There is a reason you’re not allowed to feed the wildlife.

Becky's new best mate

Even though we just sat around the campsite and weren’t doing anything, I was purposely neglecting more than just the blog in favour of nothing. My hair was longer than it had been for a long time…OK, the hair on the side of my head was becoming visible. I was quite enjoying running my fingers through the grey hair I had. Becky insisted on taking a photo of the top of my head, hoping to encourage me to cut it.

Shinny top

While it didn’t get me to cut my hair, as I’d begun to want an old man mullet, I did start wear my cap more.

As the day stretched out we went for numerous (two or three) walks on the beach, mainly to check e-mails.

Happier still

On one of them we found what looked like an untouched coconut shell. Excited by the prospect of something to do, we hurried back to the camp to crack open and eat some of nature’s bounty. I started hacking at the husk with my machete, trying to remember what I’d be taught by a local on the beaches of Thailand, twenty-two years earlier.

Bushman Tom is back!

Finally I cracked the shell, only to find a black liquid inside that spilled out and stank worse than my McSquirts. Luckily, Becky had also found a dead fish, so we set it up as a camp mate, hoping the dead fish smell would over-power the rotten coconut odour.

Part of our new family

We were really enjoying our time at Deepwater, despite the mix of smells, but we were starting to feel ready to move on. The only shower at the site had no walls, so we’d been showering with swimming gear on, and I was starting to feel like the dead fish was masking more than just rotten coconut. Another downside to the site for me was the mess someone had made in the men’s toilets, and no ranger had been past to clean. There was literally shit all over the seat and cover. It almost looked like a piece of modern art, and could only think he must have touched his toes while having explosive diarrhoea. So, I was keen to move on just so I could have a shit.

"Jeez, Fishy, you're quite quiet this evening"

That night it rained, so the next day we had to pack away a wet, muddy tent. We’d also found out that the house sit in the Daintree had been taken. All this didn’t bother us too much, as we’d had a nice time and were feeling very philosophical about our new start.

Packing away is even more fun in the rain

We decided that, despite what we’d said several days before, we’d try and get quite far north so we could meander down back instead. During the drive, we discussed how much we were enjoying our new trip, but started to guess what might break us this time; Becky had her money on the weather, mine was on the car. But for now, everything was going swimmingly. In fact, Becky had even decided we should have better dinners than pasta stir-in, and once we’d reached Rockhampton, we popped into Coles to buy the ingredients for a curry chicken stir-fry Becky had concocted, and for her favourite dish, spaghetti bolognaise.  Fridge stocked and beers bought, we headed towards the town of St Lawrence, for a campground that over looks a wetland.

This place turned out to be a real wikicamps gem, and after we set up Becky made her delicious chicken curry stir-fry… I cut the ginger and garlic. It was lovely, but it was a lot of work and Becky didn’t enjoy doing the dishes. It turns out there was a good reason we’d been surviving on pasta stir-in. Still, I enjoyed it and that evening we watched a beautiful sunset over the Great Dividing Range.

See you tomorrow Sunny, my old pal

It seemed like next 45 nights are going to be a breeze!

Man-child, look at the state you’re in.

One of the most surprising things about arriving at Adam’s was the speed at which I regressed into a child like state, a child who could drink. The first half an hour we simply chatted about the last four months, and Adam gave me a bottle of whiskey for my birthday. He’d drawn cock and balls all over the package, something I’m not afraid to say I found very funny. A drawing of cock and balls is as funny as a smelly fart; they are just funny and will never stop being so. In my excitement, I forgot to take a photo of the whiskey.

After our catch up it was time to be useful and prepare for the BBQ later. As the gas to the BBQ was empty and needed to be changed, I started to take off the regulator from the bottle. Despite having spent 4 months regularly packing and unpacking our gas stove, I had forgotten that the screw on gas bottles is opposite to the normal “righty tighty, lefty loosey” rule and broke the regulator. Oh how quickly the wild Bushman Tom was lost to be replaced by a child, a rather slow child. Adam and I headed for Bunnings to get a replacement, and we also bought materials to build a target for his new compound bow… brilliant!

Back at Adam’s we started building the target. I was wearing my Mike Tyson “Thuns out, Guns out” vest, and looking cool as fuck. We’d both purchased the top online some time ago, and now seemed like the best time for us both to wear it, so Adam quickly changed to his… Not weird behaviour for two middle-aged men at all.

"...and then I did a really smelly fart"

After some faffing, we finally had the target built and ready for action. I’d never fired a compound bow before and didn’t realise how much force is required to pull back the string… the answer is a lot. We started 1m from the target, while I got the hang of it. I hit it every time! We then moved to 2m, and again I hit the target every time. By the time we’d moved to 5m, my arm was getting tired, and it was really hot, and I’d been drinking… so I missed and I hit his shed… twice. Things may have got even worse, but luckily my arm gave up and I could no longer draw the bow. Adam had one more go from 10m… and hit his shed. Being a man-child is GREAT!

Responsible adults

We spent the rest of the day drinking, had BBQ meat for dinner, and finished the day playing sonic racer on the PlayStation until Adam nodded off during a race. It was an awesome day, and I’m guessing Becky and Adam’s girlfriend, Sarah had just as much fun watching us, but I can’t be sure and there is no photo evidence to say either way.

The next morning I woke up feeling very rough. After Adam and Sarah returned from a family breakfast, to celebrate Adam’s birthday on the Monday, Sarah kindly gave us a lift into town to meet Ric and Lorelle for lunch, and Adam went off to watch some UFC fight.

We had a lovely lunch at the Brisbane casino with Ric and Lorelle. I hope they enjoyed it too, but I think we may have spent most of the time bellyaching about how hard our road trip had been. You’d think the amazing trip we’d been on was a punishment for some serious crime the way we were talking about it. However, they were very kind and tried to help us put a positive spin on it, and I think they did have a good influence, as afterwards Becky and I both started to feel that perhaps carrying on with our trip would be a better option than calling it a day.

After parting company with R&L, we met Adam for a beer in town, and then headed back to his playhouse to get pissed. The rest of the afternoon consisted of drinking, drinking while playing basketball, and drinking while throwing an Aerobic Pro. Aerobes are very different to Frisbees. I make this distinction, for even though I was experiencing a drunken child like feeling of joy, I don’t want to be grouped with the fuck-knuckle students in the great court at UQ, who’s no-consideration for others Frisbee throwing had been a constant source of frustration to me at work. Particularly when I had to navigate through their stupid games just to get some lunch. I always felt that a poorly thrown Frisbee by some cocky student would be the cause of my going postal some day… it still might be!

After all that exercise… yes I’m calling it exercise, we cooled down in some dog baths, as Becky and Sarah looked on perplexed.

Stafford Heights plunge pool

Cooled and tired after an exhaustive afternoon we settled down to play some FIFA and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. After several hours, including a nail-biting female international game of Sweden v Australia, we realised it was dark and the girls were no longer sitting with us... The day was finished off with some homemade lasagne and more beer.

The next day Adam and Sarah had to go to work, and we had important things to do too. We had arranged to have a mechanic fix the engine light issue and have a minor service. Our normal mechanics were booked out, so we tried a new one on Vulture Street, without thinking that as we were staying in Stafford Heights, this would mean a Monday morning drive through rush hour traffic to get the car to him. After a fun reminder of what commuting feels like, we went over what we’d already told him on the phone, that the engine light issue seemed to be linked the knock sensor, and we're not too concerned about all the oil dripping underneath, as the amount of oil was a result of the large number of km we’d done, and we’d had it degreased twice before and they were unable to find the leak. And with that we headed by foot to UQ.

At UQ, we first met up with Steve, who said he hadn’t read the blog for ages, so we went over the big things, like a fire in the engine, that sort of stuff. We had coffee and a nice catch up, before I told Becky to take a walk while Steve and I finished a manuscript we’d been working on when I left. It felt good to get the brain working again, but that hour of work tired me right out and only reiterated how little my desire to return to work actually was. After that, we caught up with Katrina, who hasn’t been keeping up with the blog, Nick A, who has, and Adam R, who may have, but all we could gather was that when he does read it, he really just wants to leave offensive comments but is too scared to because of my mum. One thing they all had in common, they had little time for our, we’ve-had-it-tough rhetoric, Nick even gave us the “no shit” look when we said living in a tent was hard work.

After seeing those that were there and available, we had lunch and sat by the lakeside discussing why people aren’t giving us more sympathy. I guess it’s hard to get sympathy from those who have spent the last 4 months working. But then they also don’t know what they are talking about, having never been a full-time holidayier, and it is harder than it looks… I suddenly know how Judith Chalmers must have felt… but they are right, it is better than working for a living. We spent some time contemplating this while watching the wildlife at UQ.

UQ wildlife

After waiting until 2pm for the dickwad mechanic to call, we rang him only to be told that he had confirmed what we’d already told him and the knock sensor was faulty, but he was having trouble sourcing one. We wandered back to his workshop, where the dickhead just wanted to tell us how bad our oil leak was. Becky tried to explain to him that we’d been told this several times, but he just kept saying this was our biggest issue, and not to worry about the engine light and the part he couldn’t source… yep, because selling a car with an engine light on is fucking easy, every fucker wants one. Realising he wasn’t going to be much use and we’d have been better off going to Kmart, we paid him for the service and left. I have developed a real hatred of mechanics on this journey.

Back at Adam’s, we sat about and waited for them to get back from his birthday dinner with his folks. They returned quite late, and we got to watch Adam open a mountain of presents from his parents, had some cake then went to bed. As well as all the surprise gifts we watched him open, Sarah had got him a boxing training gadget that reads punch speed/power etc and large aqua punch bag… For my birthday, my wife got me some pringles, sweets and a six-pack of beer that she drank half of.

The next day, we got up long after Adam and Sarah had left for work and started trying to prep the car for the next leg of the journey. We cleaned the fridge, sorted through all the crap and generally tried to figure out what we could give to charity, although we aren’t going to talk about that. We also started trying to make a plan, where we would go and what we would do. It had become clear that in order to avoid paying extortionate prices for the flight to Europe, we’d have to leave, either before mid-Dec or after mid-Jan. So if we were going back on the road we’d have to commit to at least 7 weeks in a fucking tent!

When Adam and Sarah got home I finally got to do a bit of boxing and try out some of Adam’s new boxing gear, including his new body protector, which made us look like a pair of fucking pros!

A classic combo

I had to call the blog photographer down and she wasn’t that interested, and even turned the live effect off on my go, so I only got motionless pictures. I’m not sure whether that was a good or bad thing.

A+ for the look of concentration

We then tried out his punch monitor thing. All I can say is I want one, as it combined punching and stats, two things that are high on my list of fun things to do. After punching the bag as hard as we could, we called it a night. Adam threw the hardest punch of the night, but I wasn’t far behind. Overall, I didn’t think I’d last more than a few minutes, but I did OK and only had a bit of sick come up in my mouth once…

By lunchtime the next day I could barely lift my arms over my head, and anything requiring quick movement hurt. We continued our preparation for the start of the second leg of the trip; ever questioning whether this was really the smartest thing to do. After Adam got home from work, I went with him to PCYC, only as an observer as any movement was painful by this point. It was nice to see a few of the old faces at training, and we all went for a few drinks after they’d finished working out. Chatting to people, I realised that my account of our holiday was starting to sound more positive. I chatted with Ric and mentioned that we’d decided to carry on, and he seemed relived that we’d finally ended our pity-party. Back at Adam’s, they again cooked dinner for us and Becky again moaned that it was a little late in the evening for dinner. They must love having us as guests!

The next morning I got out of bed to say good-bye, from both Becky and I, as Becky was still sleeping, before Adam and Sarah left for work. As with our first departure, we didn’t leave the house until close to mid-day, and of course we stopped at Ikea for meatballs and mashed potatoes. Let's hope this is where the similarities end.

Bright-eyed and bushy tailed

Haggard and worn

Queensland, it’s a part of me. The sunshine is a part of me. Queensland, Queensland

Although we were excited to get back to the comforting warmth of QLD, we had a long drive ahead of us to get there. We started off on the right foot by not leaving the hotel until the 11am check out time. We cleared through SA quite quickly, passing into Victoria by late afternoon.

Obligatory border pic 1

Obligatory border shot 2

By dusk we felt we’d driven enough and set up the tent in a small town called Piangil. There was a free campsite on what felt like the town common next to the Anzac memorial. It was actually quite a nice spot, and had showers and toilets we could use.

Exploring Victoria

The next day was the same as the day before, just a fuck load of driving. We crossed the NSW border quite early in the journey, but we missed the sign for the obligatory border shot. In the end, we cheated and took a shot of the NSW border sign from the QLD border... Becky didn't like her photo, so vetoed its inclusion.

Still counts

We continued on for hours, driving until it was dark, and stayed at an Ibis budget in Dubbo. It wasn’t a nice place, but the rooms were clean.

Having done nothing but drive for two days, we decided to take a break and visit the Warrumbungles to do a few walks. On the way there we stopped at one of the many planets that make up the Worlds largest virtual solar system. Can you guess which planet I wanted to stop at?

HAHAHA, it sounds like "your anus"

Having collected some information about the Warrumbungles, we realised that the best walks in the park were all +10km, and neither of us had any intention of walking that sort of distance. Although the whole point of this excursion was to take a break from the shitty car, we decided that we’d just drive through the park, braving a short ~2km lookout walk instead. It was a nice park, and perhaps we’ll be back some day to enjoy the place in a little more depth.

Appreciating the the beauty in record time

We ended our brief tour of the park with a visit to the Siding Spring Observatory, which also had a nice view of the park.

Warrumbungles visited? check!

Feeling like we’d checked that off the list, we headed for the Pilliga nature reserve, and a lovely campsite called Pilliga Pottery, which also had a pottery studio, funnily enough. It was an idyllic spot, with abundant birdlife and backpackers supplying menial labour.

It's a hard knock life for us.

The next day we made a few stops through the Pilliga region, the first was the sandstone caves. Becky kept up with the shitty yoga poses for photographs, and I bet even her staunchest fans are starting to waiver.

Encouragement has led to her trying harder poses

We really enjoyed the walk and it was nice to have a few days remembering why we started this whole journey in the first place.

Nice morning walk

We were so impressed with the sandstone caves that we thought we’d take a gander at the salt caves too. These were less impressive, but there was a nice fire tower lookout that didn’t require climbing a tree.

With no tree to climb, Becky could also enjoy the view

After a delicious lunch consisting of digestives and cheese, we hit the road again, heading for the sunshine state.

We arrived at the border several hours later, and just like the VIC/NSW border, the state line was on a bridge with no clear place to stop for a photo. We made do with a drive by of a sign on a roundabout. It felt like an odd way to enter our home state, but after driving for so long very few fucks were given.

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig

We spent the night in a small town called Yelerbon, which had a council campsite in what appeared to be an old sports oval. We finished off the last of the pasta stir-in and enjoyed the sunset over the near by lake

Picturesque end to the day.

Well, Becky enjoyed the sunset, I wrote a blog post.

But Tommy don't get to enjoy it

The next morning as we were packing up, an old skinny fella with bad teeth was chatting with us, and told us of a nice scenic route into Brisbane that avoided all the traffic and lorries of the main roads. We opted for his route, only to find that it added an extra 2hrs to the 3hr journey... Under normal circumstances I might have enjoyed the journey, but since we left Perth, 9000km ago, we’ve only spent a total of five days where we haven’t driven for at least 2hrs, and two of those days had involved seeing mechanics. I wanted out of that car so bad I was frothing at the mouth. I was also looking forward to drinking beers with Adam, who we were staying with in Brisbane. He has a Playstation.

As we pulled up at Adam’s he let off the air horn we had left with him to signal the end of our loop. Things may not have gone exactly the way we had envisaged, but we had driven around Australia and arrived back in Brisbane.

Here we go loopty loo

We had driven just under 24000km, and used just over 4000L of fuel. We’d completed the loop faster than we’d expected (we did miss out most of SA/VIC/NSW and all of TAS), and were now left with the question, what next? Should we drive north to try to see a cassowary, or just end it all now and return to real life? These questions would have to wait, as I had some drinking to do.