Monday 12 August 2013

Just a distant memory

I thought I should finish off the journey, even though no-one will probably read it now.  It'll be there for future reference.  We have been home for about 7 weeks now, and it seems like it was all years ago - just a distant memory. We got it all wrong with the timing as when we were coming home all the grey nomads were heading in the opposite direction!  It was very tempting not to turn around.

The last part of the story was brought to you from a very wet Port Lincoln. From there it was our intention to spend a few days in Clare.  We had passed through there a few years ago and marked it on the list as a place to visit for a few days sometime.

The rain continued as we drove through Tumby Bay (nice little place by the sea), and Port Agusta.  There was some lovely scenery in the Clare Valley, even through the rain. 



We got to Clare at about 4.30 and found the caravan park we had seen previously.  It seemed to be a lot further out of town than we remembered (about 6 kms), the staff were anything but welcoming, it was muddy and everything was wet.  After spending one night there surrounded by wet clothes hanging everywhere in the camper, we decided it was time to go home.  We did have a lovely breakfast in town there before we left for Burra.

I wanted to stop in Burra as I had heard lots of good things about the town. It was only a short drive from Clare and we spent a couple of hours there. The historical aspect of the town is the feature and the buildings are very well cared for.




It was well worth the time to stop there, there were some very nice shops as well and the cornish pasties from the bakery were pretty good too.

Our trip home was coinciding with Shane Crawford's ride from Melbourne to Perth to raise funds and awareness of breast cancer.  We had worked out we would see him just out of Burra as he was to have a stop over there that night.  A little way out of Burra we saw police cars and so we pulled over to wait for him to come along.


I planned to take lots of photos so that I would get one good one out of it. This was the result.



I hadn't expected Shane to stop and talk to us and I got a bit distracted! Well, I guess half a picture is better than none.  He finished up raising 1.3 million dollars, it was an amazing effort.

After that exciting distraction we continued on, crossing the Murray River at Loxton on the ferry.


We planned to spend our last night in a bush camp, but as we passed through Pinarroo we realised that a bush camp would mean no power, which would also mean no heater!  Bit cold for that so we turned back and pulled in to the caravan park.  

Next day was the last leg of our fantastic journey.  Although we didn't really want to head home we were looking forward to seeing family and friends, we knew Millie needed to be liberated from the detention centre and that there would be plenty to catch up on at home.  

The best part of getting back home was knowing that we could go again whenever we wanted to!  Plans are already under way for another expedition next year.  In the meantime hopefully there will be small escapes.

Until the next journey, thanks for travelling with us.

Merrilyn xx