The home stretch

Before we knew it we were in Victoria and then back in NSW. Considering how far we have travelled we seemed to get back to our home state quite quickly.

We stopped at the lovely town of Morgan, right on the Murray River. It has many historic buildings and a lovely park by the river where the railway station used to be. Remnants of the old wharf which the paddle steamers used can still be seen.

We drove on from Morgan and could see storms building all around us with lots of rain.

We remained spectators however as the rain fell all around us but not on us. A few big drops fell, the wipers went on and then it just fizzled out!

We made our next stop at a lovely free camp called Plush's Bend right on the river near Renmark. The camping area was quite large and you are allowed to stay for up to 7 days which is quite unusual. We found a great spot under the gum trees. We didn't bother unhitching the van as we were only staying for one night.

Two pelicans came over to say hello when we arrived.

The next day we set off again and made a short stop at Mildura. We then crossed the river and were back in NSW with over 17000 kms on the clock from our trip.  We passed lots of grape vines in this area and then went through more wheat country.

We kept going through Balranald and on to Hay where we stopped for a short break then we made another roadside camp at Goolgowi which is about 110kms to the east. We had the whole rest area to ourselves and we were a good way off the road so the passing trucks didn't bother us. It was quite cold overnight and overcast the next morning but soon it was fine and sunny.

We had planned to stop for our last night in Bathurst, however, we were so close to home we just decided to keep going. It was a long drive.

Toilet sculpture atop a shed in Grenfell.

We had a lovely welcome home. We were surprised and delighted to see this sign at the top of our street

and Erin and Oli were waiting out the front of our house to greet us when we arrived.

The trip meter reached 18,326 kms. We had a great time and saw the most amazing things. Living in the caravan was very easy. Its a great way to travel as you have the freedom to stop where ever you want.

Whenever I go away I always think that things are going to change while I'm gone but mostly things stay the same, which is good. Its lovely to be back with family and friends.

Thanks to all of you who have been following our trip. Its been great fun to share our experiences and photos with you.