April 25, Day 731 Final entry

Well it's been two years since we started our trip. Although we are not quite home yet, our trip is done. Geoff is enjoying his job, the town is nice, the park is quiet and friendly. Although we are all a little homesick it is important that we do this for Geoff to get experience to be able to work anywhere, especially closer to home.

We've done over 51 000km, spent $9 780 on diesel, $11 264 on accommodation or roughly $15.40 per night. If I exclude the weeks where we were staying in a caravan park for work and only include travelling stays, this figure drops to an average of $3 per night for accommodation, shows how much you can save on accommodation alone if you're planning a holiday. Of the 104 weeks since we left home, Geoff has worked 36 weeks and I have worked about 22, not bad for an extended holiday. We have only needed the credit card once and that was while we were looking for work near Perth. In retrospect, we probably could have found work much faster if we'd used a postal address closer to work prospects instead of closer to our location.

Thankyou for following us and we hope to be reading about your own adventures in the near future.

Bye for now

Shelley, Geoff and Erin

April 20, Day 726 Blayney

Our final week at St Marys was fairly uneventful save for a mouse that decided he wanted my map drawer for a home. There was shredded paper everywhere and little trails of droppings from one end of the car to the other, including the engine bay. Messy little bugger.

I was a little concerned about the ferry crossing as Bass Strait's forecast was for Seas: Up to 3 metres. Swell: Southwesterly 0.5 to 2 metres. 20-30 knot winds. Rain.

It was bucketing down as we lined up at 4.45pm to go onto the ferry and it was still bucketing when we finally made it on board at 6.50pm. This time we were put with the semi trailers on a lower deck and had a bit more space around us. The trip across wasn't as rough as I'd thought but I still felt the boat roll quite a bit. Erin and Geoff slept through it all, but I just couldn't get comfortable. Next time, I think we'll get a cabin, at least we had front row recliners again, so no-one lying in our laps.

The bonus of taking so long to get on board was that we were one of the first off again. We headed straight across the Westgate Bridge for a roadhouse on the Western Ring Road. My cousin Michelle had organised to meet us there as we were in a bit of a hurry to get up to Orange. I hadn't seen Michelle since Erin was 2 yrs old and I hadn't met her kids yet so it was a quite a reunion. We chatted for a couple of ours, took heaps of photos and then hit the road again.

We made it as far as Balmattum, a roadside stop on the Hume Fwy, well back from the road. We caught up on a couple of hours sleep then a fellow traveller set up camp behind us. He had also caught the ferry the night before and visited family that morning.

We still had our furry little friend with us so Geoff set up a peanut butter mouse trap and the following morning we no longer had a stowaway, much to Erin's dismay and horror.

As it was not quite school holidays yet, Erin still had to attend her online lessons while we were trying to hightail it up north. Thankfully some of her lessons had been cancelled while her school was moving locations so that made things a little easier. We also had internet signal most of the way so the lessons were done en route.

Monday night was spent just south of Gundagai at Tumblong rest area and we couldn't not visit the Dog on the Tuckerbox, so we did just that on Tuesday morning, took photos and Erin tossed a coin and made a wish.

I had tried to book into the caravan parks in Orange last month but was told they were busy and call back at the end of the month. I called both of them back but both are fully booked over Easter. I think fate stepped in for me there, I called the caravan park at Blayney, just south of Orange, and he was more than helpful. Even though they were booked out over Easter, he could put us on an unpowered site until the powered sites were cleared. I booked in for the Friday before Geoff was due to start so that we had a bit of time to set up but not too much that it was a waste of money. Thankfully there was a cancellation and we were put straight onto a powered site, the annex is now set up and the TV too, first time since we left Fremantle.

We stayed out at Carcoar Dam, about 10km from Blayney, for 3 nights while Geoff did his medical and we went and checked out Orange and Bathurst. Blayney is lovely, nice quiet town, walking distance from the caravan park. I didn't like Orange and Bathurst at all, too big, too busy, okay for shopping trips every couple of weeks though.

Geoff started his new job on Monday. So far he's enjoying it, he says the guys are great and he likes his boss. It's all good. The mine organises car pooling for their workers that are on similar shifts and living in the same area so that could be an option in the near future, once Geoff gets settled.

I'm a bit nervous about winter, it snows here and there are regular frosts. I was looking at photos of Blayney online and there was quite a snow fall as late in the season as last October. Brrrr.

April 5, Day 711 St Mary's

Well our time in Tasmania is almost up, we are heading back to the mainland this weekend and hoping for a calm crossing. Hope I didn't just jinx us.

For the last few weeks we have done very little as Erin has had end of term exams and assignments due. We did manage to see the carved memorial trees at Legerwood, a very talented chainsaw wielder there. We went cross country from Mathinna to Ringarooma via narrow logging tracks to take a short cut from St Mary's to Scottsdale. Thankfully we didn't take the van with us as we punctured a tyre just short of the bitumen, bugger. We couldn't get the tyre repaired either as the steel belt was damaged, the Sava's we got in Port Hedland just can't handle punctures, we have now upgraded to Yokohama Geolander A/T-S and have already noticed that they are a lot quieter on the road. For obvious reasons, we didn't return via the short cut and returned to camp via St Helens, the long way around. It's all good scenery though.

We had to get out of St Mary's in a bit of a hurry on the 22^nd March as a lot of rain was forecast and possible flooding. We made our way to Conara, south of Launceston and waited the weather out at the free camp there. Nice spot and met a local guy who loves to chat to everyone who stays there while he's out walking his humungous black dog. Nice man, he gave us a big bag of tomatoes fresh from his garden.

We were lucky we left, St Mary's was cut off for about 4 days and where we had been camped had a fair amount of water through it. Even the local high school was closed for a few days. We caught up with the couple who had been camped next to us there and they had decided to tough it out, they had to move to the higher ground near the golf course, still within the campground but that puts you under the gum trees, no thanks.

We spent the following weekend at Myrtle Park, near Targa and day tripped from there to Launceston, Beaconsfield, Georgetown and surrounds. Myrtle Park was really nice, $3 a night and hot showers but absolutely no internet or phone coverage so we had to go out again in search of signal for school. We did manage to stay there 3 nights though. Erin did her online English lesson in the car while we were driving south of Launceston and her teacher thought it was incredible. She asked Erin to take a photo out of the window and put it on the whiteboard during class. Some of the other students thought the landscape looked a little like New Zealand.

While we were in Launceston, we found a book of Dr Harry Cooper's at an op shop, it was even signed by him, and Erin loved it. It also came about from the book that Dr Harry's farm was near our location so we made a detour to drive past it. Erin got a photo of the gate and the sign saying "Visitors strictly by appointment only", the driveway was long and the house was hidden by a hill, still she was pretty chuffed. Geoff got sneaky the following day and put a letter in the mailbox explaining Erin's desire to be a vet and her love of animals. The following day, Geoff got a phone call from a lady who had bought Dr Harry's house and he no longer lives there! She will forward the letter though to where he lives now, somewhere in NSW. Oh dear, so close.

We have thoroughly enjoyed everywhere we've been in Tasmania, though I think 5 months might have been a little too long. We were told a few weeks ago that there are 180 on the waiting list to get a caravan on the ferry before the end of April. Glad we booked ahead but the flexi ticket was a bit pointless if there's no room to bring the departure date forward, easy to extend though. Oh well, at least we had fun.

With our remaining week, we decided to return to St Mary's. Free camp, hot showers, great people, couldn't be better. Oh wait, a little bit of heat instead of 3-5 degree mornings would be better. Our gas heater has been getting a good workout, glad we got that for the trip. Yes, we should be ready for winter in Orange...