Log Twenty Three – The End or Maybe it’s the Beginning

25 September 2016

So this is it, the last log for this adventure.  We have returned home after 96 days and 13,860 kms (8612 miles) on the road. The last couple of days were wet with lots of rain and cooler temperatures.  It was supposed to be Spring weather when we returned.    To bring this series of logs to a conclusion I thought I would summarise the last 3 months with a series of awards for some of the more memorable observations or events.   They are in no order.

Worst Road for Corrugations

  • Bungle Bungles road or maybe Gunlom Falls road but we turned around on the Gunlom Falls road because it was so bad; maybe it got better.

Best Campground Manager

  • Mission Beach.  She was so engaging with everyone, even offering kids a ride in her buggy when she was driving around the park. She could teach many out there on how to run a business.

Most Random Event

  • Lone yachtsman in Port Douglas – see Log 23

Amazing Scenery

  • Everywhere especially the Bungle Bungles

Emptiest Road

  • Tanami Road with only a couple of road trains and few cars over 1,000 kms (620 miles).

Most Expensive Fuel

  • Billiluna, $2.62 per litre  ($10.48 a gallon) but who was going to complain when in one direction the nearest competitor was 500kms away and the other 200kms distant.

Best Steaks

  • Darwin and generally anywhere up north.

Amazing Forest

  • Bunya National Park, Queensland

Worst Midgees (sandflies)

  • Between Townsville and Mackay. We went inland after Mackay to avoid the blitters.

Best Barman

  • An Irish backpacker at the Kulgera roadhouse,

Biggest Corrugations

  • Tanami Road from Alice Springs to Halls Creek, especially on the WA end of the road.

Worse Coffee

  • A coffee shop in Ingham Queensland

Best Pies

  • Pinnacle, Queensland; outstanding homemade pies.  They make 300 a day, by hand.

Hairiest Trip

  • Skytrain gondola ride over rainforest out of Cairns

Favourite Towns

  • Dry tropics – Kununurra
  • Wet tropics – Cairns

Oldest Rock Art

  • Kakadu – 20,000 year old art work alongside art that is only 100s of years old.

Most Ubiquitous Fauna

  • Termites; we were travelling before the bush flies were around.

Campground Fees

  • From zero to $55 a night

Best Fish and Chips

  • Hiway Inn, Daly Waters NT.

Scariest Sound

  • Stone Curlews at night.  (Check out Stone Curlew call on YouTube.)

Most Amazing Stars

  • The view of the Milky Way on the Tanami Road.

Best Meal

  • Roast dinner cooked by Barb with an excellent red wine in the Tanami Desert.

Bags of Snakes Consumed on Trip

  • Too many to count

Most Frustrating Observation

  • Travel destinations owned by foreign companies that pay no Australian taxes.

Arriving home observations:

Upside to getting home:

  • You suddenly have a wardrobe of clothes to choose from.
  • A WiFi network with almost unlimited downloads.
  • Granddaughters

Downside of getting home:

  • Three months of mail to deal with.
  • Unpacking and cleaning van and car.

One Thing I Will Do Next Time:

  • Slow down and spend more time in special places.

That’s it for now.  We are thinking about when the next trip will happen and where we might head.  In the meantime I have some red dust to clean out of the car and van.

 

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