Off to See the Wizard - The Wash Up

Having now been home for two weeks, it is interesting to reflect on our big trip.  No pictures this time, just a lot of waffle as I think of things.

We were away from home for 84 days.  Exactly twelve weeks, not quite three months as expected, having left home on 8 July and returning on 29 September. The time away was just about right.  We needed that long to travel the distance we did, but we were ready to get home.  As it was, we had forgotten some of what we had seen.

Now for some stats……

We use an app called “Fuel Map” and it is wonderful.   You search a town and it shows where the service stations are, what brand they are and you can enter what fuel type you use and it gives the price.  We try to use premium diesel, and it shows which, if any, stock that fuel, or you can just search for diesel.  Often the cheapest aren’t on the highway, and you can make quite a saving by making a very small detour.  There can be a difference of up to 10 cents per litre within a town.  To keep a record of our fuel usage, I just enter some data every time we fuel up. It tells me that we travelled 18,280kms.  We used 2,933.6 litres of diesel at a cost of $6,683.33.  The average fuel economy was 18.36 litres per 100kms.  Mick was pretty happy with that.  We travelled further than we expected, but had never really worked it out.  Fuel was at its most expensive when we left home, so we were working on the worst case scenario of spending $9,000.00 on fuel, which fortunately didn’t eventuate. Although the fuel economy seems high, it is pretty good for our vehicle towing the van, often into either side or head winds.

The ute didn’t miss a beat all trip.  We did get a service in Geraldton, as it was due.  The caravan went really well too, with just a couple of little things along the way.  Firstly, the 12v in the fridge stopped working, but as we luckily had a replacement electrical board, that was fixed and it didn’t miss a beat afterwards.  One of the cupboard latches played up, but Mick was able to sort that and the ensuite sliding door came off its runner, which Mick was also able to fix.  It’s handy having someone handy.  As Mick says, it really helps to be a bit practical if you have a caravan, as he was asked by a couple of people to help out with little issues.  

Usually, after a trip we come home with some planned “home improvements” for the van, but not this time.  The van setup works really well.  Having said that, we packed far too much, particularly clothes.  It was difficult to know what to take, with there being so many different weather conditions and climates.  We now know to keep it very simple and you can wear the same things for days, as no one sees you each day and you don’t get dirty.  

Now for my stitching.  I took my sewing machine, but didn’t end up using it.  Firstly, because the lighting wasn’t very good and secondly, because I didn’t have a pressing station set up and the blocks I had really needed pressing before the next stage.  I don’t think I’ll take my machine again.  Hand stitching was my go to and I wish I had taken some more stitchery work.  EPP was good, as long as I had good light.  I did a little cross stitch too, but you do need to concentrate on that.  My “sewing basket” drawer under my seat worked brilliantly, as did the little box of tricks I took for my EPP.  Some crochet would have been ideal too, and is something I can consider in the future, as I won’t have my machine taking up space.

We use another app while travelling.  It is “WikiCamps”.  You search a town and it shows on a map all the caravan parks, campgrounds and free camps.  It provides details, including facilities at the site, website link and phone number link.  A section tells the fees, but that is just entered by the patrons, so is only a general guide. The best bit is the Reviews.  They give you a very good indication of what the place is like.  If you just get one or two negative reviews and the rest are positive, the place is generally pretty good.  However, if there are loads of negative reviews, you know to steer clear.  

We are members of the “G’Day” caravan parks group and it was amazing how many parks are with that group.  We are not members of “Big 4” and there weren’t as many Big 4 parks, so it worked out well.  The G’Day membership definitely paid for itself.  Not only did you get accommodation discounts, you also get 4c per litre off fuel at Coles Express service stations.

We probably stayed in more caravan parks than we initially expected.  The main reason was to have power for the air conditioner, as it was so hot, to be centrally located and for security. Most of the caravan parks were great.  Only one springs to mind that had not very good amenities.  You hear lots of stories of people having things stolen from their site and their vans being broken into, but we had no troubles.  On just one night Mick heard something and went outside and another man we out as well and they saw a couple of fellows running from the park. When we did free camp, it was very enjoyable too.  Our favourite would have to be the one at the lookout in the Hammersly Ranges in northern Western Australia.

We had no trouble getting accommodation.  We had been warned that we wouldn’t be able to get into caravan parks, as half the country seemed to be heading north with a caravan.  I must admit it did stress me out a little before we left home, as we weren’t in a position to prebook accommodation, because we never knew where we would be more than a day or so in advance.  As it turned out, I needn’t have worried, because we were arriving at most places about a couple of weeks after the majority of travellers.  We were able to get a powered site at the best caravan parks at Darwin and Broome with only a couple of days notice, which was rather fortunate.

The weather was a mixed bag.  We started with cold and windy, wearing beanies and puffer jackets.  As we headed north it gradually warmed up, being hot enough to go swimming once we reached Daly Waters Pub. Darwin was getting rather muggy by the time we arrived, with the locals saying the build up to the wet season had arrived early.   The temperatures were in the mid 30s C, with high humidity.  Once we got to Broome and down to about Shark Bay the weather was absolutely beautiful.  You can understand why so many southerners head up that way for the winter.  Once we were south of Shark Bay the weather made a drastic change, getting windy and much cooler, being back in beanies and jackets once we reached the Great Australian Bight.  What a wonderful, diverse country we live in.

People ask us what was the highlight of the trip.  We can’t answer it, as there is no one thing that stands out.  It was just the trip over all, seeing all the different landscapes and experiencing so many things.

There are so many facets of a trip like ours.  It was lovely to catch up with our friends in Port Hedland and to finally meet Maria.  It was also fun and a little surreal having people, who know us from home, come up to us on five separate occasions, sometimes not having seen them for many years.  We met some other wonderful travellers, some following vaguely the same route, so we saw them a few times.  It was nice to see a familiar face.   In Alice Springs it was lovely to be invited to join the caravan park owner and his family to go out to dinner.

Early on in the piece, a fellow advised Mick to not try to see everything.  That man said they had tried to and they were “over it”.  We took that on board.  Yes, we saw loads and loads of places and took quite a few tours, but there were a lot of places we didn’t visit and tours we didn’t take.  The perfect example was Litchfield National Park.  There were several different waterholes and waterfalls that you can visit.  Well, the first one we arrived at was really nice, so we just stayed there all afternoon, lazing on our noodles in the water.  So relaxing.  Much nicer than rushing around to see all of them.  We were happy enjoying the one we did visit.

We weren’t sure how many tours we would take on this trip, as we are not really into doing many.  However, we really enjoyed the ones we went on.  They took you to places you wouldn’t otherwise see, you learnt more and Mick could sit back and just enjoy, rather than driving.  The only thing we felt was a bit of a let down was the Broome Pearl Luggers little tour of their museum.  Yes, it was interesting, but was it worth the price? No.  Everything else we did was great.  We are glad we took the flight over the Bungle Bungle Range and Lake Argyle, as it covered so much.  We had considered a flight over Ularu, but feel the one we did was much broader.

Obviously, from all my photos, I like wildflowers, old buildings, country towns and public art.  I recently saw a magazine article saying that rural Australia is turning into a huge outdoor art gallery, which is pretty close to the mark.  I’m not a huge outdoor adventure type and my one regret is that I didn’t do lots of walking in the lead up to our trip so that I could do more bush walking.  Oh well, there’s no use getting too hung up on it.  Just something to consider for future trips.

Now that we are home, we are being asked when we will be heading off on our next big trip.  We don’t have anything planned as yet.  We are enjoying being home for now.  We are heading to New Zealand early next year, but other than that, it is all a big mystery.  We would like to have a good look around South Australia at some stage……..and Victoria…….and more of Queensland…….and…….and…….