Today marks fours years since we started our grand adventure.

Our last post for our big lap – thanks for reading!

So it’s time to finish up what we started. So grab a cuppa and enjoy the last blog of our big lap.

The trip home was quick. It took three years to get to Perth and just a week to get home to avoid the border closures.

We were in Kalgoorlie when we decided to leg it home. At that stage there was talk of border closures but we didn’t know what that meant. All we knew was jobs would be hard to find and that it wouldn’t take long for people, who didn’t understand situations to become fearful of travellers, and no longer welcoming.

We tried to enjoy the trip home as much as possible but put simply, it was an emotional trip. Feeling forced to head home, yet thankful we had a place to call home (unlike many nomads we met on the way), anxious we didn’t have work and worried we would be locked out of states – as we tried to figure out what was going on whenever we were in service. But we are home in Rocky. We are safe. We are working and we are covid free. For now, life doesn’t get any better.


Often after people do the lap, you get an update on the stats etc of how much fuel was consumed, how many KMs were done etc. Let’s just say there were loads. Instead I’m going to recount our highlights and lowlights of the trip.

First up, the top three places – would have to be Cape York, the Kimberley and I’m going to save the last for not a place but rather a time – tomorrow as you never know what top spot you will explore next. So we aren’t done with travelling and exploring just yet!

Worst roads, sorry Qld, but I’ll nominate you for this. Black soil is not a great foundation for a road.

Epic experience – paid I would go with our day trip to the Mitchell Falls, that was epic. Non paid, I loved doing the Karunjie track with Timbo, Ty and Bazza, exploring the Kimberley and the Cape. We had some great times up Cape York.

Clearest swimming holes, the Cape. Epic.

Unexpected accomplishments: well Tim tried his hand at sign writing so if you ever go to Darwin, look up on the main street and you will see some of his work. He also rocked at van repairs. So much so, we still get regular calls about it. Still.

For me, working at tourist info was fab! Not to mention having the spread in the caravan and camping mag was pretty cool, as was taking over the Instagram account for a week for Caravan & Camping Australia.

The hardest part of the trip would be that life goes on. Aside from constant van and car maintenance, some of the life stuff we endured was tough. Life doesn’t stop just cause we are on holiday, but being on a working holiday made it hard when we knew family and friends needed us, or us them.


Interesting person met – without a doubt this would have to go to Martin. The Chezk Republic national who sailed solo around the world. We met him in Mackay and then again up the Cape. He has since finished his trip but it would be great to catch up one day over a cold beer.

Speaking of, the best beer. Tim? Not impressed to be put in the spot but McAllister’s in Cairns had some good beers and Kalgoorlie get a high mention as well. Beer gongs also go to one at Mandurah, Thorny Devil Passionfruit IPA and Matsos Mango IPA – only available on tap at Matsoes in Broome – sorry folks – our loss too.

No wait, there’s more … Wild Hop at Margaret River had some good beers and the truffle and jalepano popcorn was good too!

Best beer service goes to the Iron Bark in the Swan Valley and favourite local would have to be Sporties in Kununurra and WA’s oldest pub – The Rose and Crown in Perth.

Favourite Sunday Sesh goes to the Casino at Darwin overlooking Mindil Beach.

Wow, I asked for a single beer and got the above. It has been a good trip. ๐Ÿ˜€

Surprise spot would be Flora River National Park. It was special but the bull dust getting in and out, not so much.

Places to revisit will include Cape York and the Kimberley. It may surprise you, while we didn’t love living in Darwin, we do like to holiday there. Actually, we will never stop travelling and exploring over our holidaysย  – there is always something to explore and while we may not do it on our big lap, we will go back and re visit many places as well as explore those places we missed out on.

It’s been one hell of an adventure, but for now, we work on having a home base to make it easier for us to explore. To all our mates we met on the road, we are truely blessed to have met you and look forward to catching up with you, again one day. Who knows where but we can be sure it will happen! Chances are it will involve a beer or two. ๐Ÿป

Travel safe! Get out and explore!

The Dash Home

The dash home, what a ride. We made South Australia after over 12 hours of driving. It was late and raining when we pulled up to park. I fell in the mud but it was so late and so cold, I was happy to wash off with some baby wipes. ๐Ÿ™‚

The rest of the trip, well, it was simply driving to meet deadlines. We did our best with Cooper who was under three months old at that stage and incredibly active as most Border Collie X Kelpie puppies are, but she did well.

We made each border crossing in the nick of time. Didn’t see much activity at the SA and NSW crossing but it picked up when we got to Qld.

We did need to change out a bearing before the NSW crossing giving us an hour or two to spare.

We finally made it to Qld and stayed just outside of Cunnamulla. It was such a lovely park and the lady advised us that the park will be closed tomorrow. Shame but even though we made the state, we were still about a 16 hour drive home or one free camp away. ๐Ÿ˜Š

One thing that surprised us was how incredibly green Queensland was. Then again, we did have to change our travel plans to ensure we didn’t get stuck on muddy tracks or get caught up with road closures as the western rivers broke their banks.

We were a little worried about going home and potentially bringing covid with us. My folks had that covered. Upon arrival, we nicked up the side of the house, washed our shoes in a bucket of soapy water – put out by our folks, put our clothes straight into the machine and showered. We were then starting our two weeks of self iso and also able to get a hug from mum and dad. We weren’t required to self isolate, but like I said, we didn’t want to bring covid home.

I do want to say a big thanks to those that droped off groceries, fresh bread, milk as well as beer and wine. Honestly, we were pretty spoilt.

And then we were home.

Kalgoorlie

Our way home has just turned into the amazing race….

Waking up at our camp in Southern Cross was amazing – pic up top. We left Southern Cross and headed for Kalgoorlie. It was an enjoyable drive and we stopped off at a few towns. We had lunch in one spot and found a few dog parks to give Cooper a run around. She was only 11 weeks old and we wanted to make the trip enjoyable or at least bearable for her. Having said that, I think Tim had all the fun running around the dog parks with Coop.

After a few days of travelling on our own, we were shocked in Kalgoorlie as some of the houses were huge! And no, we didn’t go see the super pit nor did we make it to the infamous brothel. It was here that Covid 19 really started to get scary, and we decided that travelling a few hours a day was no longer an option for us.

A lot of people were calling to check in on us and to provide updates as to any changes. Again, thank you. Things were changing fast and the one thing that was truely worrying was the talk around locking the borders. This has never happened before so we were unsure exactly what that would mean. Would we be able to cross the border? Would we be made to stay directly after the border? Would we be able to find work and get provisions? So many questions the only solid answer we found was to travel home to Rocky.

We did meet a lovely family in Kalgoorlie, that had just left working overseas with the UN doing crisis management. They were glad to be back in Australia with their children however their 6 month trip of Australia was now in jeopardy and unfortunately for them, they didn’t have an Australian residence as they opted to travel first. Who could blame them? Thankfully the children were still enrolled in an international school and were capable of home schooling even though they were looking forward to being back in a class room. As they had no fixed address, nor knew where they would end up, they couldn’t enrol in a school. We did feel for them as there was also talk of closing caravan parks. These guys were travelling in a camper trailer, so without access to amenities and fresh water, it’s not like they had many options. Just one of the many stories from the Nomad community of Oz. This community is basically a large town with estimates of around 100,000 members.

Tim somehow managed to find a micro brewery while in Kalgoorlie and this place didn’t disappoint. While it was great to be able to introduce Cooper to a craft brewery it was concerning to see the new social distancing orders starting to crop up.

So we had an early night and headed off again the next day.

We were hoping to stop off about 8 hours down the road, still in WA. Plans changed changed quickly when a mate from Kununurra got wind that the WA border may close early. What a bloody big day that turned out to be.

We now have a few covid memories including getting fuel. What a mission that was. We had it down to a fine art. Tim would have his card ready and fill up. I would be in the car armed with baby wipes and home made hand sanitizer. He would make sure he’d clean his card and wallet every single time.

It was during one of these stops I came across one of the staff members who was whinging about all the travellers and naturally us caravaners were the worst. ‘Why don’t they just go out bush and sit it out?’ and I couldn’t help but interupt. ‘hi, I can tell you why. See that van out there, well that’s mine. We have three water tanks in the van and one in the car. You would assume that would last ages, but really, if we watch our consumption, that would last us about 5 days – providing it’s cool. Having said that, the toilet needs to be emptied every three days, but we have the biodegradable stuff so that’s better then most. The next issue is food. We don’t have a lot of room. We certainly don’t have room for enough food to cover 2 weeks isolation. That is, two weeks from the last day we are able to get to a shop’. At first I was upset and then, I got to understand their concerns. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, in today’s society we are all over opiniated and under educated. While we have opinions on everything someone does, we don’t really have all the information.

We consider ourselves one of the lucky ones. We are heading home to Queensland to stay with my parents – who are not young but are willing to help us out. I feel for those that sold their home for the dream to travel Australia. Be that the grey nomads, family nomads or any other type of nomads. Up until covid, this was a great life to be had.

While this was only a minor incident, when we went to town’s, we only shopped at those that had signs up asking to support small business. More than happy to help those that were willing to help us. Selfish, but now was not the time to convert the masses.

The Golden Outback – Lake Koorkoordine, Southern Cross

We saw the Southern Cross at Southern Cross!!!

Travelling along and it’s sad to see less people about. So we are doing our bit and stopping off where we can.

For lunch we stopped off at Kellerberrin. Sweet spot with a tasty bakery! Other than that, rather than running our water tanks dry, we are calling in to town’s and topping up – just our way of sharing the love – while keeping social distancing in mind. ๐Ÿ’ž

After this, we headed to see some silo art – with the added bonus of a dog park! My how the trip continues to change. Lucky we are built to handle change!

We spent the night at Lake Koorkoordine and it was spectacular. We took Cooper for a walk, lit a fire (after checking online we could) and simply enjoyed the quiet and the beautiful Milky Way. I must find out how to get a photo of it.

So now as we sit and have a cuppa, we plan the coming day. Thinking of spending the night in Kalgoorlie, do some washing, fill up the tanks and get Cooper a muzzle as from here on in, there are 1080 baits and she is simply too precious to risk going unprotected. It is only now we realise we are still 1100 KMs to the border… Will get there soon enough.

Meckering

What a little gem this place was. While we enjoyed having the campsite to ourselves, we wondered if this was normal or the result of covid 19.

For a small township, Meckering is full of history. Don’t pass by this town, call in and stop for the night, hit up the cafe for breakfast and take the time to enjoy the historic walk trail. Oh and the camp site has a book exchange, so handy for a swap over!

Some interesting facts about Meckering, in 1968 they suffered from an earthquake that reached a magnitude of 6.5. This desimated the town, being Australia’s biggest earthquake. Many family’s left the township after this event.

In 2018, Meckering had a 50 year commerarion of the earthquake. What better way to mark the occasion than with craft beer called Richter Ale!

Mundaring Weir – 21st July

I did mention that I had let the blogging side of the trip slip, but hey, better late than never. ๐Ÿ˜

It was a lovely Saturday morning and we decided to go for a bit of a drive. We had breakfast up in the hills and then ventured east. The rain came and went, but it was dry enough to get out and walk every so often.

The weir itself was educational. We walked around and ended up paying a small amount to go and view the old pumphouse. It was amazing. Tim got to speak to one of the volunteers and he couldn’t give us enough of his time. His knowledge on the weir and the water transfer stations was engaging.

Lovely couple volunteered here as part of National Trust. He was showing Tim the boilers.

So the weir was completed in 1903 and it supplied water to the Kalgoorlie goldfields over 700 kms away. If that isn’t mind blowing enough, it is still the main supply of water to all the farms and communities today!

Even more astounding is that this project, with all the naysayers praying for its failure, delivered on time and within budget!

Naturally we ended the day having tea and cake and the Mundaring Weir Hotel! We may have started with a beer. ๐Ÿ˜‰