Monthly Archives: September 2011

Number of Days Away
54 (7-August-2011 to 29-September-2011)

Number of Different Campsites
33 (SA: 7, NT: 8, WA: 17, VIC: 1)

Total Distance Travelled
Falcon: 15660 km
Commodore: 15712 km
The extra 52 km travelled by the Commodore would be the result of the distance of a return trip between Endeavour Hills and Glen Waverley.

Number of Towing Days
33 (Falcon: 19, Commodore: 14)

Number of Non-Towing Days
21 (of this, 15 involved less than 100 km of non-towing distance travelled – short day trips, etc. The other 6 days involved longer day trips where more than 100 km were travelled)

Distance Towed
Falcon: 8300 km (approx.)
Commodore: 7100 km (approx.)
The remainder of the distance would be non-towing distance (day trips, etc. without the van attached)

Weather
Rainy Days: 7
Some Cloud (But No Rain): 14
Cloudless Days: The rest (including 28 days in a row without a cloud to be seen!!!)

Fuel
Economy – Both cars had approximately the same fuel economy, so here are the Commodore’s figures which can be used as a guide for both cars.

Overall: 10.15 litres per 100 km
Towing: 12.66 litres per 100 km
Non-Towing: 8.41 litres per 100 km

Total fuel used – 1601.54 litres for the Commodore.
Average fuel price (based on total spent divided by total used) – 160.3 cents per litre for the Commodore.

A grand total of 7604 photos and video clips taken over 54 days…
Digital Pictures: 7485
Digital Video Clips: 92
Film Camera (Underwater Disposable): 27

Yes, we must be crazy!
Enough said.

The final instalment of our holiday campsites – along the southern coast from Esperance in WA to home sweet home in VIC.

Port Augusta – we stayed at the same caravan park as the first time here at the end of Day 2 of out trip. I recall taking the photo of the campsite, but it seems to have gotten lost for the moment amongst the thousands of other pictures we have taken.

Our wonderful trip is coming to an end.  Our last night in our bedroom on wheels!!  We have celebrated with a BBQ and a Red.  Just before we we got to those Adelaide Hills, the lightning cut the clouds to show us a little blue sky and the thunder stopped rocking the road for us to glide down the hills with ease.  We are staying in Bordertown for the night before we cross into the beautiful state of Victoria-the state ‘On the Move’.  See you all soon.XXX

Yesterday we passed through the same intersection in Port Augusta that took us north, seven weeks to the day, along the Stuart Highway towards central Australia and beyond. This time, however, we entered the intersection from the West on the Eyre Highway, thus ‘closing the loop’ on our ‘Way Out West’ around Australia holiday.

It’s certainly been an unforgettable adventure, one that has filled our senses with:
- incredible sights (a 40 tonne whale fully breaching less than 100 metres away at Coral Bay; the sheer immensity of Uluru as it fills your entire field of vision; blindingly white sands and turquoise waters around Esperance; a brilliantly bejewelled night sky in the outback;);
- interesting smells and tastes, not all of them good! (the eclectic mix of smells and tastes of Mindil night market in Darwin; sulphuric gases of Mataranka thermal pools; the salty tang of pearl meat; the unmistakeable whiff of a ‘long drop’ bush toilet);
- amazing sounds (the rumble of thunder rolling across the Nullarbor Plain and out to sea in the Great Australia Bight at Eucla; the guttural roar of a 15 foot saltwater croc attacking its prey in Darwin; freight trains at night as they rumble by on their journey from the Pilbara mines at Port Hedland; the crunch underfoot of a dry salt lake in South Australia; the deafening silence of a Karijini night).

And these lists are endless.

Our experiences have also evoked a gamut of feelings and emotions in all of us: enthusiasm; joy; exhilaration; happiness; awe; sadness; wonder; frustration; anger; fear; exhaustion; sympathy; affection; thankfulness; satisfaction.

We’ve also seen some interesting and often thought provoking place names along the way: Iron Knob; Oodnadatta; Turkey Creek; Paraburdoo; Donnybrook; Pygery; Cocklebiddy; Grass Patch;  and let’s not forget to mention the hundreds of names in the southwest of WA that end in ‘up’!

So, as we make our way south from Port Augsuta, skirt around the city of Adelaide, then turn east and make our way along the Western Highway into Victoria, we reflect on the unforgettable time we have shared and the memories we have made and, before we know it, we have arrived at the final destination on our journey, a little place simply called… home.