Geraldton, Yalgoo, Menzies, Newman Rock, Eucla, Ceduna, Clare and Home (August 17 – 23)

A fitting morning to be on our way from Shark Bay towards home, with the rain falling lightly, we packed up camp with heavy hearts and sort of dreading the 4000 or so kilometres we need to do before we reach Mt Martha.

Food stops, fuel stops, wee stops, sleep stops and lots of whales.  It is all a blur.  So many long days in the car, clocking up many kilometres across this vast country of ours and all finished off with a 12 hour final day to make it home instead of another overnighter.  The small price to pay for enjoying more time in the West.

The most memorable night of the journey home being a free camp at Newmans Rock, with a little time for building shelters.

Great Australian Bight

Great Australian Bight

Southern Right Whales

 And now we are home being challenged by freezing weather and the busyness of life!

To sum up our adventure I am struggling for the words to truly express our time away. 

We left on the 3^rd May and arrived home on the 23 August.  113 days on the road, approximately 17,000 kilometres and a whole lot of hours and quite a bit of money as well.  But you cannot put a price on the memories we now have and the time we have spent together becoming a much closer family.

What an experience to be able to spend such precious moments with the ones you love.  We are privileged to have been able to see and do so many wonderful things and to give Cadell and Coen and ourselves such cherished memories.

We have seen the boys grow both physically and most of all emotionally.  They have had to pull their weight and we have all had to work as a team in some exciting and trying times.  And I am pleased to say there was a complete absence of handheld screens or TV for the entire trip, except for our Hema maps and internet searching our next location, on the rare occasion we had reception.

We have all risen to the many challenges and pushed ourselves out of our comfort zones along the way with long days in the car, setting up camp in extreme conditions – (i.e. sweltering heat or howling winds and rain), learning bush mechanics and doctoring skills, not to mention jumping off the back of boats in the middle of the Indian Ocean to swim with enormous fish and other sealife that make you realise how small you really are.

We have had the freedom to just make it up as we went along.  We did not book a single thing before we left and we didn’t miss out on anything we wanted to do.

One of the most important things we all learnt on this journey is to slow down, relax, take the time to watch and listen and truly appreciate the wonders this country provides to those able to explore it.

We are privileged to have each other and to have had this four months together.  What an amazing experience!