Our Final Day

So, the day started like any other, with the exception that it was a travelling day and for some reason everyone slept in!! At least almost everyone slept in, someone and I won’t name names woke early to bring you your daily dose of travel news…

So it was about 9am when I gave up and rustled up the family pointing out we needed to be on the road in an hour… see what the cold weather does? No one wanted to get out of bed into the 12 degree temperature! Lucky for us by the time we hit the road about 10am, the temp had increased to about 25 🙂

Our plan today was simple, we would come in across the top of Victoria, point to home and see what happens… easy right! Well the GPS had a different idea and somewhere along the way it decided we should come down to Gawler and then across. By the time we realised it was too late. As Mark and I discussed it on the CB, Mark finally said “Whatever, lets just go in that way then!” and so we headed south.

As we travelled, we noticed a sign that said the town of Clare was coming up. Having a Clare in the convoy we just had to stop for a photo. Unfortunately we didn’t go through Clare, and it was just by chance that I saw the turn off sign… As Mark was yapping away on the CB, I slammed on the anchors yelling “Stop Stop”!

All Mark saw was me yank on the anchors!!

We pulled up and once he realised what I had done, we dragged poor Clare out of the car for a photo. She seemed a little shell shocked at first, but once she realised there was a sign with her name on it, she was chuffed!

Back on the road, we continued to Gawler where we thought we would stop for lunch and refuel before turning East by-passing Adelaide and pointing to home. Found a lovely park by the river and we had a feast, trying to deplete our stocks before we got home. The kids all had a ball burning off some energy in the park.

After lunch, we headed further into town for fuel, and wouldn’t you believe it, the Coles Express had no Diesel!!! Was the first of many servos I pulled into that didn’t have fuel for me due to the trucking issues. Going to be a fuel shortage across the nation before long… probably a good time to come home!

I still had half a tank, so Mark topped up as we waited. Now here was where we made our second GPS mistake for the day. You see the GPS wanted us to turn East before Gawler, but we had ignored it coming into the town. Now, we could either back track, or follow where the GPS wanted to take us. In the end, we decided to follow the GPS and it would work itself out anyway…

Seems though the GPS really wanted to visit Adelaide! We ended up on the slow busy road into Adelaide itself and then had to drag the vans up out of the Adelaide hills. Anyone who has driven out of Adelaide will know what I’m talking about!

Oh well, cost us a few hours, but we were finally back on the motorway and heading home. At east I managed to find another Coles Express with Diesel!!

Stopped in Bordertown about 6:30pm for fuel, and after a quick family meeting we decided that home was too close to stop, and the thought of sleeping in our own beds too tempting to miss. So, we stopped at a roadhouse for cuppa’s and chips to keep the hungry kids going and hit the road as the sun set in the west behind us. Seemed we were going to finish this trip the same way it started…. in the early hours of the morning!!

Pretty uneventful trip home, the girls fell asleep along the way, poor Jess thinking she was going to school tomorrow (her choice), and Zac pleading not to! I think he forced himself not to sleep so he was “…just too tires to go to school!”

We arrive just after 1am, and I have already told you about the fun we had trying to get into the house!! LOL

So that is it, the trip is over 🙁

We have travelled 11,901 kilometres, burt 2,374 litres of diesel, and it had cost us $4126.52 in fuel alone. Every drop of it worth it!! We have all had an amazing time and will have many fond memories for many years to come. I am so glad the Waldron’s came with us this time (although wouldn’t hurt for Mark to do a blog – Hint Hint) to share this experience. Has made it all the more enjoyable.

From me, that is it, no more daily updates until the next trip. In the meantime I will be spending the next few days cleaning the Car and Van…. oh my god that is a job I am not looking forward to!

Farewell 🙂

PS – It was great to sleep in my own bed last night!