The Last Entry

It has taken me over a month to write the last entry, final chapter of our blog. I sometimes questioned myself why is it so difficult to just sit and write and even though I pretended not to know the answer, deep inside I knew that a big part of me is still in denial, has our trip really ended? Sometimes I catch myself questioning whether it really happened, it seems so far away and foreign. Well I am actually doing it, the last leg of our trip.

Our last stop in SA was a beautiful free camp just before Renmark, although we were somewhat exposed, as it was by the main road, it was at a park that had the most beautiful green grass. When you travel for so long along over the dirt roads and red earth you really miss the sight of fluffy green grass, kids and dogs were rolling all over it, which was not so great as there were no showers and the kids ended up all itchy.

We left the following morning, passed Mildura and headed to Swan Hill. Although we did not go through Mildura, we were still able to appreciate the vineyards and orchards, Mildura, apart from the heat, seemed like a really nice town.

We stopped in Swan Hill for supplies and headed to a national forest not far called Koondrook where we planned to spend Christmas with our friends whom we met on the Gibb - Shannon, Paula and the mighty Heith.

All that area is just by the border between NSW and Victoria, separated by the Murray of course, so it was quite funny how we kept crossing the river and we were one minute in NSW and the next in Victoria. We finally got there, pristine site just by the river, surrounded by big tall gum trees, when we got there Shannon asked us which side we would like to stay in, Right or Left, we chose Left and set up camp straight away.

Shannon and his family where planning to stay there for a month so Shannon had dug a toilet hole deep enough to last the time of their stay, put four post around it which he later covered with a piece of material for privacy, a plastic seat and it was done. The funny or not so funny story about this was that not long after we set up, I was just standing by our caravan when I heard what sounded like a fire gun, I looked around and and huge limb from a tree had broken off and landed right over the plastic toilet seat that Shannon had prepared, it was a close call as anyone could have been there, nevertheless the jokes about someone pooing their pants if there would have been there kept coming, me on the other hand could not sleep worrying about the dropping limbs but I had to make an effort as the following day was Christmas Day and we were all looking forward to this.

Unlike previous years, or ever, we have always celebrated Christmas eve, we attend mass, go to mums for a yummy feast and open gifts at midnight (Latin American tradition), this time around 24th was very quiet and the kids felt it, they missed family the most so Carlos and I thought it was the perfect time to have a good and memorable chat. We talked about the significance of Christmas, peeling off the Christmas concerts, the tinsel and the gifts, Christmas is really about the birth of Christ, the good in us and to appreciate that our biggest gift is health and a loving family. The kids thought hard about this and to my surprise they agreed and were OK not to receive any gifts this year (we couldn't help ourselves and still got them something small).

Christmas day we had a blast, literally under the hot weather, by the muddy Murray and as a surprise we had extra visitors, Shannon’s family dropped by to visit, we ate, jumped in the river, ate some more and at night played cards.

In the meantime, did I mention another huge limb broke off? Well this time on the right side of where Shannon had set up camp, we had the option to camp there but chose the left side instead…a close call indeed.

It was sad to say goodbye but we had to keep going, however, to our consolation we know we will see Shannon and his family again.

We moved on the next day and went to see other friends whom we met in Derby, Ray and Maureen, they invited us to come over and we were excited to see them. They live in Swan Hill and to this day, that sweltering place has been the hottest place we have visited in all our trip, 45 degrees consecutive days, we could not believe the intensity of the heat, we turned crisp just by walking from the caravan to their house. Apart from the extreme conditions (I now know what hell would be like…in temperature) we had a lovely time getting to know Ray and his wife better, and if that wasn’t good enough, Ray took the boys fishing.

Our skin had a beating in good all Swanny but it was worth it, we will definitely visit again.

We left on the 30th of December and decided to do one last stop in Bendigo, personally, I have been dying to visit this town as so many people talk about it and you know what, it is really pretty, in addition to this there is a hospital, university, so really well established and planned. We took it easy that day, set up as usual and really contemplated the idea that in a couple of days time we would be back home.

New years came and we decided to got to the town’s fireworks but before that, we had another family deep and meaningful chat, we spoke about how incredible this past year has been and the blessings we have had as a family. The 2018 year has probably, to this day, been the best year of our lives that will not only stay in us forever but also, made such an impact on how we see life from now on. We expressed gratitude and the kids not only wrote us a letter to say thank you but also expressed it in words, we were completely touched and humbled to know how the boys have recognised the effort that we have put into this trip and appreciated all the experiences. We also wrote in little envelopes our goals for 2019 and with that in the bag we headed to the oval where the fireworks where going to be.

Expecting the place to be packed, we were so surprised that it wasn’t, at all, plenty of space and I wondered maybe fireworks is not a big thing in Bendigo? The fireworks were good, not amazing but good and the kids spent at least an hour running around in the dark until we left back to our caravan. The kids went to sleep and Carlos and I just made it to midnight, shared a kiss, and went to sleep, 2018 had ended.

The following day we packed and left, 3 hours later we were driving through the Bolte bridge heading to the M1 and home, we stayed at my sister’s in Mulgrave while we got our house back and just like that we were back home, funny enough when we did get the house back we did not move in until two weeks later as we got the floorboards varnished, so I am not sure whether I should include our driveway as our last campsite?

A trip of a lifetime, without doubt this will remain in our hearts forever. Here are some off the cuff stats:

Distance travelled: approx. 38 000 kms

Places where we stayed: 114 sites, 36 caravan parks, 8 private properties, 71 free camps

Visits to hospital:1

Visits to vet: 1

Visit to Dentist: 1

Stings: 1 blue bottle in Coral bay.

Flat tyres: 2 (one car, one caravan)

Wind screen chippings: 3

Pies consumed: too many to count (mainly by Carlos)

Snake encounters: 4, yes really!

What we couldn’t have done without: Hoffman (our shovel) and our gas stove/grill

Things we could have done without: dog pen

Friends made: Too many to count, you know who you are

Favourite places: Cape York, Darwin, Arrow Pearl farm and Esperance

Favourite National Park: Karijini, Ningaloo Reef and Cape Le Grand

Scariest experience: no, not the snakes but the climbing of the Diamond Tree and Frenchman’s peak.

Midges bites: how long is a piece of string!

Worst road: debatable between Borroloola (Savannah Way) and the infamous Gibb

International Destinations: 2 - Bali and Thursday Island. The latter did not require passports.

Refer to the WikiCamps link below that depicts all the places where we stayed during our epic journey around Australia.

http://wctrip.co/au/318486/994035801

We met so many people along the way, country people who are very relaxed and cannot wait to get to know you and if you ever need anything, they are there to offer a hand. We feel blessed to have had the opportunity to meet every single one of these people and many of them have become friends for life, in fact, we now feel we can travel anywhere in Australia as we have adopted or being adopted into a bigger “extended” family.

A very special thanks to all the people we met on our journey, in particular, Tracey Stevenson (Canberra), Kathy and Fred (Forbes), Gavin and Adam (scouts at Dubbo), Alfie, Beau and his family and John and Vicky (Lightning Ridge), Pete and Sharon (Toowoomba), Steve and Amy (Lowood), Tadgh and Hiroko (Brisbane), Canungra scouts, Di and Wayne (Sunshine Coast), Nic and Bertie (Townsville), Rohan and Yui (Merriba), Theressa and Paul (Gregory Downs), Elspeth (Bitter Springs), Ken (Darwin), Ruth and Kim (Zebra Rock Mine), Mike and Apples (Derby), Steve and Erin (Beagle Bay), Jocelyn (Tom Price), Colleen (Exmouth), Les and Charmaine (Exmouth), Brick and Lyn (Coral bay), Mario Bonhomme (Perth), Steve and Isha (Mandura), Toni and G (Margaret River), Terri and Jayme (Bridgetown), Ray and Maureen (Swan Hill), Shannon and Paula (Koondrook), Silvia and Spiros (Mulgrave) and of course Mum. You all went that little bit extra, we will be forever grateful.

And so it ends, but with every ending there is a new beginning and we are truly excited to put into practice what we have learnt and follow what life has in store for us. We are a closer family and better people because of this trip and cannot wait for tomorrow.

Enjoy life, appreciate simplicity, help others and thrive to be happy!

Till next time

Adios

Wendy M