HOME  AGAIN!

Well, we've made it back home.  After 7 months of travelling 27,000 kms, we can truely say we've had a great time looking around the Centre and the West.  But it's wonderful to be home. The car and caravan both performed well, despite a couple of hiccups.  We're enjoying catching up with the family, and look forward to seeing our friends again.  Loads of unpacking, washing and reorganising ourselves in the house.....it's certainly more spacious than our van. 



                                                 Thanks for following our travels.
                                                          Merilyn & Geoff

 

 

 

 

YORKE  PENINSULA



Innes Cliffs

We headed down the Yorke Peninsula opposite where Adelaide is located.  We visited several small towns, and had a lovely drive around the coast of the Innes National Park, where we saw several stumpy tailed goannas.  The school holidays had just finished, so there were very few travellers on the road in these parts. 

 

 

The Yorke Peninsula is shaped a bit like a mini-Italy.  We travelled down the west coast, down to the tip, and then up the east coast, along the St. Vincent Gulf.  Across the water we could see the hills near Adelaide on the skyline.  Some of the roads in this area left a bit to be desired - which surprised us, being so close to a large city.

 

While we were at one of the towns, Wallaroo, they were having a festival, and we came across a crowd of people participating in dragon boat races.  It was good fun to watch them, and we could hear the rhythm of the drums beating to keep the paddlers rowing in time.  It looked like a great way to get fit!

 

 

 

THE  LAST  LEG

ADELAIDE

We spent a few days in and around Adelaide, staying at the Marion Caravan Park.  That brought back a few memories of the '80's when we stayed at the same park with our family and friends while we went to church conventions at the Wayville Showgrounds.  It was quite cool and wet, but we did manage a quick look at the city, and a visit with people we had met along the way.

CAPE  JERVIS

At the southern tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula is Cape Jervis.  We are spending a lovely week with friends who are building a large house, on a property overlooking Kangaroo Island.  Geoff is giving a hand with some of the internal framing, while I'm enjoying the fresh air and the view!  

HOME
We are looking forward to the last stretch of highway across the west of Victoria, and will arrive home within the next few days.  It's been an amazing trip, but of course we will be happy to be home again, with family & friends. 

HEADING  EAST

ACROSS  THE  NULLARBOR

We enjoyed our visit to Kalgoolie-Boulder to catch up with friends, and then began the journey east. We encountered hot windy weather which wasn't too much of a problem for us, but created a difficult trip for the cyclists we met at Cocklebiddy.  They were riding from Esperance to Ceduna - mainly to prove that they could!  With the temperature in the high 30's, we were glad to be driving. 

Nullarbor Cliffs

Although we've driven across the Nullarbor several times, this was the first time we had driven off the main road to the Head of the Bight, where we were lucky enough to see several Southern Right whales and their calves.





 Some were quite close to the shore, and we got a fabulous view from the boardwalks constructed on the cliff face.  Unfortunately for us, the whales didn't do much more than swim slowly about in the water, with a puff of air every now and then, which we could also hear.


It's a long way across the Nullarbor, but there's only one stretch which is really treeless.  Much of it has low growing bush, and there are many areas of quite tall trees.

We took three days to reach Ceduna, where we enjoyed a great dinner at the local Hotel, overlooking the sea.  We almost felt like regulars, having eaten there on a couple of previous visits.

On the last stretch to Port Augusta we encountered several oversized vehicles coming in the opposite direction.  One of them stretched half-way across our side of the ride, which made it very tricky to pass.  We had to trust the driver of the support vehicle, who waved us past on a bend. 

Reaching Port Augusta meant we had come full circle.  We had headed north from here just over six months ago.  What a lot we've seen and experienced in that time.  To date we've covered 25,000kms, with a few more to go.