Home and Sum Up of our Trip of a Lifetime

At 4.30pm on 5 December 2012, we arrived back at home. On the drive into the Sunshine Coast we noticed a few things different but, in general, not much has changed. It felt good to be home, but also a little sad that our great adventure had come to an end. Hard to sum up the whole experience so I will quote a few statistics;

• we have been gone for 265 nights or 38 weeks
• in that time we have made 95 stops. Excluding the nights on the boat to and from Tassie and the motel we stayed in at Boulia, we have set up and packed up the van 92 times
• average cost of our accommodation was $38 per night
• we have travelled over 35,500 km and drove through every state and territory and every capital city of Australia
• we put 7,567 litres of pertol in the car at an averaged cost of $1.65 per litre. The cheapest was $1.34 in Sydney, the dearest $2.35 in Kings Canyon in central Australia
• minimum temperature we encountered was minus 3 degrees and maximum 43 degrees
• we have been in/on cars, caravans (of course), buses, trains, trucks, planes, boats, submarines, quad bikes, motor bikes, push bikes, cable cars, canoes, sand boards, horses
• we climbed the highest rock in Australia, climbed a 75 metre tree and swam with the world's largest fish
• we've seen numerous national parks, gorges, amazing landscapes, historic sites, big rocks, big fish, huge crocodiles, dinosaur fossils, underground homes, enormous mines, caves, museums, jails, zoos, wineries, markets, pubs, breweries, hot sprinks, farms, famous beaches, famous people
• we've been walking, climbing, bike riding, sandboarding, canoeing, fossicking, noodling, snorkeling, fishing, cruising, swimming, golfing plus lots more.

We haven't seen and done everything - that is simply not possible in the time we had and probably not possible at all, Australia being such a vast country. But what we have done has provided us with an amazing experience and one, I am sure, that will say with the whole family for the rest of our lives.

Toowoomba - 03/12/12 to 05/12/12

From Cania Gorge it was off to Toowoomba to visit grandma and granddad, who we had not seen since 17 March. Boys were very excited to see the grandparents and I am pretty sure the feeling was mutual. We set up on the footpath and then enjoyed the wide open spaces of their home, which, in normal terms is on the smaller side but felt quite large after eight and a half months in the caravan. The boys showed off a few souvenirs, told some stories of their travels and enjoyed some of grandmas cooking.We stayed until granddad's birthday on Wednesday and then, after a birthday lunch, headed off on our final leg of the journey - to home.

Caravan set up on grandma and granddad's footpath

Cheers to a very successful trip

And heading off on the final leg

Crossing the Gateway Bridge, heading for home

Cania Gorge - 28/11/12 to 03/12/12

Cania Gorge was the holiday we had at the end of the holiday. We knew from here we would be heading home (after visiting the grandparents in Toowoomba) so we wanted somewhere to do as little as possible in the way of sightseeing and just take it easy for a few days. Cania Gorge fit the bill nicely and we had heard a lot about it and had wanted to check it out for some time.

Our visit there turned out to be a good choice. It is a fabulous park, well set up for a good family fun filled holiday. The most impressive thing is the water park with three pools, a water slide and a water fun park. Next best thing, as far as the boys were concerned, was the jumping pillow. They had a great time there and were back and forwards from the van to the water park and the jumping pillow about four or five or more times a day. In addition the park has a small golf course, runs movie nights on Wednesdays and Saturdays, has a pizza night on Saturday and does bird feeding every afternoon. You can also do walks in the nearby gorge and go fishing and boating on the dam which is about 2 km up the road. We managed to do all of this with the exception of going boating and fishing on the dam. We did check it out though.

One of the many birds that visited us soon after we set up camp. It would seem they try out all the new arrivals to see what success they can get with being fed.

All lining up for feeding time, which is at 5.00pm every day

Being visited by one of the local kookaburras. We thought this was pretty cool until he came back the next night and pinched some food from under our noses as we were having dinner.

In the pool / water park at the caravan park. Did the boys enjoy this!?

Walking in Cania Gorge

Sharing our morning tea with the local wild life

Pizza Night

A special moment, the final emptying of "the box of wee".  To explain further, I have the cassette from our caravan toilet and this is the last time I have to take it to the dump point and empty it.

Boys in the outdoor studio recording a video cllip. I heard it - not sure that there is any future here. Best they go back to school and study hard.

Sapphire - 26/11/12 to 28/11/12

Sapphire is, as the name suggests, a sapphire mining town and was a short stop over as we started heading for home. The park we checked into would have to be one of the best presented parks we have encountered on our entire travels. Very neat and tidy with exceptional facilities. Again, we would have enjoyed this more if not for the heat.

Checked out the neighbouring town of Rubyvale and sat in their air conditioned pub for a while. But the main thing of the area is fossicking and, despite the heat, we made sure we did this. We got a quick lesson on what was involved and set about finding our fortune. The boys had a great time with this and, while we found some sapphires, no fortune was to come our way. 

We made use of the excellent facilities in the caravan park and used their camp kitchen and bbq area on both nights we were there.

The town of Sapphire is very rustic (I think this is the right word) and you would need to be a special breed of person to live there and take on the life style. But it seems to suit quite a few and those we spoke to loved it.

On the way to Sapphire we passed through Jericho, which is said to have the smallest drive-in theatre in Australia. It holds around 30 cars and still screens movies once a month.

The walk in section

In the camp kitchen at Sapphire Tourist Park. One of, if not the best, camp kitchens we have been in.

Barbeque dinner in the caravan park

Fossicking for sapphires

Getting some further instruction from the reisdent roo

Some of the residences of Sapphire. This is livin'.

And another go at trying to find our fortune. Same result.

A very welcome swin in the caravan park pool

Some of the wild life in the caravan park