We chose to overnight at Kellerberrin about 50km closer to our home destination tomorrow. This drive-through site in the wheat belt township is actually our 50th caravan park we have stayed in since leaving home nearly 5 months ago.
This time tomorrow we will have covered 19,400 kilometres, bought over 3,500 litres of fuel from 89 service stations and enjoyed every minute of the trip.
We’ve seen spectacular mountain ranges, in a vast array of colours, shapes and sizes. We’ve wondered at the brilliant Australian tree stocks; from those that inspired Namatjira, to the quirky eucalypts that enchanted Heysen. Every morning we awoke to the sounds of birds; screeching pink and grey Galahs, Kookaburras and the ever present Noisy Miner birds that seemed intent on bothering all other bird varieties in their neighbourhood. Black swans, white swans, sulphur crested cockatoos, crested pigeons, shags, blue and red fairy wrens, the striking mailbox red of the King Parrots, wild brush Turkeys and a murder or two of crows—mainly limited to the Adelaide Hills.
We’ve celebrated Isabel’s birthday with a fish and chips lunch on the seafront at Denham— our 48th wedding anniversary with dinner in the balmy resort setting at Katherine in the NT and not forgetting Quinn’s second birthday in the Melbourne CBD.
Sage advice from an experienced R.A. (Round Australia) caravanner suggested we did not need an air-conditioner. We thought about that in Tenterfield NSW when the temperature inside the caravan overnight plunged to minus one degree. As soon as we reached Armidale we hunted high and low for an electric blanket and a small electric heater for dealing with more of the shivering night temperatures. But with summer approaching all the major retailers were offering fans, not heaters. Like, when we looked for a simple fan in the NT there was no supplies, as it was the winter season. Every town in the hot tropics close down and ‘winterise’ their local swimming pool for the season, even though the mercury climbs beyond 34 degrees.
Being nearly five months on the road and living out in the fresh air tends to encourage luxuriant hair growth—suffice it to say it looks a little unruly! Women’s’ hairdressing is always readily available within the caravanning community. Hairdressers are as popular as country and western singers among the neighbourhoods on wheels.
Purchased a couple of new tyres in Toowoomba, drove off downtown afterward and 2 warning lights lit up on the dashboard. The car didn’t have any ABS (brakes) nor ESC (stability control).
Took it back to the tyre place and the kid serving me tells me it is the silicon on the new tyres and it will correct itself once the shiny applicant wears off.
But a local auto electrician stuck a probe under the dashboard and replaced a brake pressure switch. Good thing I didn’t believe in silicon fairies at the bottom of the garden.
And finally after paying for fuel in the town of Tambo I asked the lass how far it is to Roma down the road. “Depends how fast you drive” she responded with a quizzical look.
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