Day 77. 20th July 2024. Ocean Grove. Home, sweet heated home.

We set off knowing this 6.5-hour drive was going to be the longest of the tour, being keen to get home. As we head pure south, the tailwinds desert us and a gale force crosswind bashes the car for hours. We look to avoid a particularly unpleasantly bumpy section of road coming into St. Arnaud that brought us undone last time, but other road closures put paid to that. Then Poseidon wanted to make sure he sent his final goodbyes and dumped another ocean on us, one last time.

Without doubt, this last drive was the worst we have had in our close to 3 months on the road. However, when we arrive back in Ocean Grove 8 hours after we started, we are energised by having a heater to our house and a roof over our heads. With some minimal unloading of the van and greetings to Linda’s mum across the road, we settled into our place with our own stuff, our own house and watching the Bulldogs giving the Cats a rare touch up.

Maybe the last drive was a bit of a metaphor for the trip. There were ups and downs, good times and tough times. In the end we got to where we wanted, and glad that we had the opportunity and took it. We wanted to see the Western Australian coast and do the Nullarbor – and those did not disappoint. The other places provided learning experiences that we didn’t expect, and we all should see some of the mining and what it is doing to our country and to our Indigenous population. You know it is going on, crikey, we both worked in the Oil industry for many years, but just did not understand the extent of it. For this we are richer. People ask for the highlights, and last time, I said it was just the experience of the travel as we had not done anything like that before. This time, the highlights are the unexpected things you can’t plan and some of the people we met.

Mark Norval’s gallery in Derby, the fashion show at Pardoo station, the Danish couple we met in Ceduna, the young travellers from Brazil we met in Leasingham, swims in Billabongs, waiting out tropical storms with a stranger and his dog in Wyndham….. these are highlights but not on any tourist brochure. The marketing has all of the “must do” experiences, “once in a lifetime” tours and a lot of other travellers will tell you that you “have” to do this or you “have” to do that. What we think you “have” to do is not always wait for what you want to do. You don’t know if you will be healthy enough to do it when you retire, so a bit of “carpe diem” goes a long way.

Linda and I now have another shared experience, another journey in our close to 30 year marriage. Not sure what is next, but Linda doesn’t like to be bored.

Facilities: Nothing like your own space, your own house and your own bathroom you have built. 11/10

P.S: Anyone want to buy a cute van? Under 35,000 k’s and well road tested. Comes with camp oven, gas bottle, fridge and lots of advice from us. Let me know on bookburn1005@gmail.com.