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.