Moura to Home (Last entry for this Blog)
Yes, we're finally on our way home so this will be the last entry on this trip. There will be more on our next adventure, so make sure you keep looking at our Blog next time we're away.
Before we left Dawson River Rest Area, a lady decided to pull up right where our grass mat and chairs were not 10 minutes before. We were astounded that she wanted to camp right on top of us! We could see right into her van at her bed. The whole of the Rest Area was pretty much vacant by the time she pulled up. How rude!
Lucky we were leaving that morning
Eidsvold was a funny little town. We went to the pub just across from the showground and besides looking as if it was about to fall down, the locals were very friendly and the food plentiful and good. The owner of the pub gave us a full lesson on raising cattle and completed our education on the Brahman breed and why they are so popular around these parts. It's all to do with their immunity against ticks, and he filled us in while consuming a bottle of Bundy rum.
Camping at the Eidsvold Showground
We decided to again hit the coast, so we headed to Maryborough, a town full of history. There is a small 11 sites Caravan/RV park right of the river at Maryborough. Basically you camp on The Wharf.
On the other side of the camping area and alongside the caravans, is a railway line, which is used very little for commercial trains, but mostly for this funny little tourist steam train at $3 per ride.
Maryborough comes with a Town Crier and canon firing at 1 pm
It's also the birthplace of the author of Mary Poppins, and here's Jayne and Bailey with Mary
We never found out what this thing is, but you can whirl the knobs and turn it!
The Wharf has it's own restaurant, with a view over the river. Unfortunately the food was well short of good
They had a Vintage Festival while we were there
Some really old caravans featured as well
Look at all those Dragsters!
Sunrise over the river complete with mist
We headed down to BushTracker on the Sunshine Coast so they could complete some work on the van. They needed to keep it for 5 days, so we had to arrange accommodation where we could have Bailey. Thankfully Air BnB offered us a few choices and the insurance on the van covered this. We stayed in a 4 bedroom house in Noosaville (180 a night) where we could spread out a bit. It was about 15 minutes into Noosa, but had great walking/cycling tracks around a nearby lake.
Cousin Nerolie drove up from the Gold Coast and joined us for a night and lunch at the Noosa Surf Club
A sand artist built a very cute dragon on the beach right in front of us
Our last day in Noosa was just brilliant so we had to go back to the Surf Club for a yummy Seafood Platter lunch.
We had to kill some time between checkout from the Air BnB house and when we could pick up the BushTracker so we headed to Montville in the Hinterland for lunch.
We finally got out of BushTracker around 4pm and then it was a 243 km drive to Yelgun Rest Area for our overnight stop. We got there about 7pm, just in time to setup the brand new Satellite Dish so we could watch the Sharkies win the footy, and win they did. Off to the grand finals now. Yelgun is a free rest area, and when Jayne walked Bailey in the morning, she counted 68 campers and caravans that spent the night there.
We stopped at Coffs Harbour at the Sapphire Beach Holiday Park for two nights. It rained (I mean what else does it do in Coffs) but we did have some beautiful weather in between the clouds.
At the beach we watched the whales migrating south with the Split Solitary Islands in the background, doing heaps of breaching. So like the whales, we are also heading south.
Today we drive to the Hunter Valley and Cessnock Showground where we'll check out the $20/night camping. We're planning on staying there next month for Jazz in the Vines with Chuck and Sue and our kids.
Summary of our trip:
Here are the stats of this trip, compared with previous trips:-
| 2016 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2005 | |
| Car kms | 23,064 | 17,994 | 15,035 | 25,678 | 19,978 |
| Van kms | 18,192 | 15,750 | 12,807 | 18,852 | |
| Dirt | 1,350 | 1,633 | 3,695 | 1,509 | |
| Days away | 239 | 144 | 89 | 219 | 109 |
| Max time at any one place | 14 | 12 | 17 | 30 | 6 |
| Ningaloo Station | Ningaloo Station | Broome | Broome | Broome | |
| Days in Sydney | 41 | ||||
| Days in NSW | 7 | 9 | 2 | ||
| Days in Qld | 29 | 31 | 23 | ||
| Days in NT | 26 | 39 | 19 | ||
| Days in WA | 127 | 58 | 37 | ||
| Days in SA | 9 | 7 | 8 | ||
| Diesel Used Litres | 4,856 | 3,891 | 3,545 | 4,441 | 3,496 |
| Average Consumption Ltr/100km | 21.33 | 22.52 | 23.58 | 17.3 | 17.1 |
| Average Consumption MPG | 13.39 | 12.54 | 11.98 | 16.33 | 16.52 |
| Max Fuel price paid $/Ltr | $1.769 | $2.250 | $2.800 | $2.090 | $1.529 |
| Lowest Fuel price paid $/Ltr | $1.029 | $1.487 | $1.489 | $1.459 | $0.945 |
| Average Fuel price paid $/Ltr | $1.240 | $1.690 | $1.889 | $1.690 | $1.180 |
| Average speed while towing | 97 | 87 | 95 | 85 | 100 |
| Number of car problems | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Number of car flat tyres | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Number of van flat tyres | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Number of tyres we replaced | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Number of things we hit with the car | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Number of damage to the van | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Max time Jayne and I were apart during the trip | 2 hours | 60 minutes | 30 minutes | 4 hours | 20 minutes |
| Number of disagreements between Jayne & me | 0 | 4 all over our blog! | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Number of nights we free camped | 21 | 14 | 23 | 5 | |
| Number of nights we camped in National Parks | 9 | 0 | 32 | ||
| Total nights without any facilities | 58 | 17 | 83 | ||
| Maximum fee we paid for camping | $59.00 | $43.00 | $49.00 | $42.00 | |
| Minimum fee we paid for camping | $10.00 | $27.00 | $5.70 | $2.00 | |
| Average fee we paid for camping | $33.30 | $35.00 | $25.00 | $18.00 |
It's off to home now. It's freezing us but it has to be done so we can go away for the long weekend with our friends. So only 3 nights at home and we're off again, but just for 3 nights.