The end of this story...some final photos and words

Adam playing guitar in a lovely setting at Lake St Clair, Tassie

Me, cycling through the rainforest to Tasmania's highest waterfall

And finally...


This photo seems fitting for the final chapter of our Aussie Wanderings blog...us at Dad's place on the afternoon we arrived back in Port Macquarie...we were greeted by a welcome sign and balloons...

And now for a final update:


We have been busy since returning home, searching for a place to buy and settling back in to life in Port Macquarie, catching up with friends etc. A time of endings and beginnings as we transition into the next phase of our life together.



We have thought of a few more random trip stats (it is, after all, a time for reflection):

Longest drive in one day, towing the caravan: 950 kms, while crossing the Nullarbor

Favourite Cities: Lovely Hobart, then Darwin and Perth

Favourite small touristy town: Handorf- little German town just outside Adelaide

Best windsurf for Adam: Exmouth (graveyards), WA

Best windsurf for Emma : Safety Bay, south of Perth

Best surf for Adam: Angourie, NSW

Best Surf for Emma: Red Bluff, WA

Best hike for Emma : Cradle Mountain summit, Tassie

Best hike for Adam : Mt Eliza, south west national park, Tassie

Best dinner out: on the harbour, Darwin
**********



We had a wonderful time travelling around our great country and it's been great to be able to record our adventures and experiences here, to share them with others and also have them as a permanent record of our trip. Thanks to all of you who logged on and read our blog and left comments for us along the way...it was always a pleasure to read a comment!

We spent so long planning for our trip and saving for it, it's still hard to believe it's now behind us! But there are many future trips still to be enjoyed. :-)

Till our next wanderings...

Love and hugs and happy travels!

Emma & Adam xx

Another trip photo...

Valentine's Day dinner which Adam cooked up for us in our little cabin in the mountains in Tassie...

More photos soon...internet is a bit slow

Around Australia Trip Stats

AROUND AUSTRALIA TRIP STATS

Total distance travelled: 43, 330 kilometres!

Total time away: 10 months
Places seen: HEAPS
Good times had: countless

Favourite spots-

TOP DOZEN

Emma:

Karijini NP, WA
Cape Leveque, WA
Green Pools, near Denmark, WA
Tasman, South West & Cradle Mountain National Parks, Tassie
Litchfield National Park, NT
El Questro Station, WA
Esperance, WA
Yamba/Angourie, NSW
Red Bluff Station, WA
Bungle Bungles, WA
Margaret River Region, bays and beaches, WA
Mosman Gorge and rainforest, nth QLD


Adam:

Karijini NP, WA
El Questro Station, WA
Yamba/Angourie, NSW
Warroora Station, WA
Red Bluff Station, WA
Litchfield National Park, NT
Exmouth Peninsula (graveyards windsurfing spot), WA
Mossman Gorge, Northern Qld
Kinka Beach (access to Keppel Island), Qld
South and western Tasmania
Bungle Bungles, WA
Red Centre, NT

Most Overrated places-
Adam: Broome, WA (nice spot, but doesn’t live up to marketing hype), The Sunshine Coast & Cairns, QLD
Emma: Broome, WA (nice spot, but doesn’t live up to marketing hype) & The Sunshine Coast, QLD

Domestic Fights: many (cabin fever)


That’s it for now…slowly adjusting to being back in one place- I keep on wanting to pick up the travel books and start planning out our day…then I remember- we’re HOME now! Was great to sleep in a proper bed and I had a bath last night- heaven.

Love A&E xx

Cradle Mountain pics...

Lovely Dove Lake with the Cradle Mountain peaks in the distance on what turned out to be a lovely clear afternoon... The highest part of the peak is where the hike goes

This is the shot I took on self timer when I finally finished the steep boulder climb and reached the Cradle Mountain Summit, with sensational views...it was a top feeling...and very cold!

Home Sweet Home....

Yes, we are indeed back home in Port Macquarie- an amazing, quite strange feeling it was, to drive back into town today, about 10 months after we set off- we have seen and done so so much inbetween!

We arrived home about 4pm and spent most of the afternoon unpacking the car and caravan- a huge amount of stuff! It was great to see mum and dad again- mum drove in and had a bbq dinner, with apple pie, with us here at Dad's house. We'll be staying here until we can find a place of our own to buy. Mum and Dad have already been searching for us and we even drove around and looked at a couple of possibles this evening after dinner.

After a long, slow drive, with several traffic jams, we arrived in Sydney, at North Ryde caravan park, at about 6pm yesterday, both tired and a bit frazzled. We quickly set up the van and showered, then headed across to Coogee to meet Joanne and Matthew and his little daughter, Marissa, for dinner. It was great to see Jo and meet Matthew and we enjoyed a lovely meal.

Today we drove the 500kms or so back to Port Macquarie- home.

There's lots we want to do- it's actually a bit of a culture shock being back in a house, and the reality sinking in that we are here to stay for a while now. I almost keep thinking I need to check my caravan book to read about the places on the agenda for tomorrow, or the kilometres we'll need to cover. Then I realise I can lay my trip-planning hat, however reluctantly, to rest for a while. Anyway, in the next week or so before Adam returns to work we plan catching up on a few health and beauty appointments, hopefully surfing or windsurfing and of course hunting for a place to buy and meeting with a bank to confirm how much we can borrow!
I will also let people know I am back and available for any work which may be going in my profession.

We have also updated our "animals seen" list, as we had indeed forgotton some creatures...To the fellow who left a comment regarding the eastern quoll- Adam was lucky enough to see one of those at Mt Field National Park.
Here's the updated list:

ANIMALS WE HAVE SEEN ON OUR TRIP AROUND AUSTRALIA

Kangaroos: Red and Grey
Wallabies (Bennetts, Yellow Footed, Rock, white + others….about 5 in total)
Pademelons
Potteroos
Tree kangaroo
Saltwater crocs
Freshwater crocs
Green ringtail possum
Common ringtail possum
Brushtail possum
Brown and white possum (cant remember official name)
echidna
Emus
Camels
Long-nose bandicoot
Eastern barred bandicoot
Small bandicoot
Melomys (like a small mouse)
White tailed rat
Platypi
Tasmanian devils
Spotted quoll
Eastern quoll
Western quoll
Koalas
Wombats
dingoes
Dugong
Turtles- loggerhead and green
Sharks- black tip, white tip, tiger, lemon
Humpback whale
Dolphins- Indian and bottlenose
Seals
Little penguins
Lots and lots of fish
Manta rays
Sting rays
Eagle rays
Olive pythons
Tiger snakes
Tree snakes
Lots of lizards!
Rabbits
And of course lots and lots of birds, some rare and endangered


Will keep blogging- have plenty of new chapters starting and will also post some more photos from Tassie etc to include here. My Dad has been kindly printing out our blog updates along the way- he has put them together in a folder for us and it's like a little book of our travels, which will sit perfectly with our many, many photo albums from the trip.

Meanwhile, we hope we may see our travelling friends Mick and Sarah in a few weeks when they are travelling through Port Macquarie on their way home.

Love and hugs,
The Returned Travelllers, A&E xx

Animals we have seen on our journey- many and varied!

We've been reflecting on all we've seen and done, and all the wildlife we have been lucky enough to see on the way. Here is a list of the animals we can think of at the moment (there could be others we have left out):

ANIMALS WE HAVE SEEN ON OUR TRIP AROUND AUSTRALIA

Kangaroos: Red and Grey
Wallabies (Bennetts, Yellow Footed, Rock, white + others….about 5 in total)
Pademelons
Potteroos
Tree kangaroo
Saltwater crocs
Freshwater crocs
Green ringtail possum
Common ringtail possum
Brushtail possum
Brown and white possum (cant remember official name)
Emus
Camels
Long-nose bandicoot
Eastern barred bandicoot
Small bandicoot
Melomys (like a small mouse)
White tailed rat
Platypi
Tasmanian devils
Spotted quoll
Eastern quoll
Western quoll
Koalas
Wombats
dingoes
Dugong
Humpback whale
dolphins
Seals
Little penguins
Olive pythons
Tiger snakes
Tree snakes
Lots of lizards!
Rabbits
Many types of fish
eels
And of course lots and lots of birds, some rare and endangered

The trip drawing to a close...

We had a nice relaxing day in Merimbula today, which we really needed- a break from driving and chance to catch up on sleep. I went for a walk and swim this morning, then we both had a haircut, before heading to a nice little cafe for lunch. Wandering along the street, we spied a poster for a Bruce Mathiske concert (he's a well known and excellent guitarist, similar to Tommy Emmanuel). Adam was of course thrilled as he is a big fan. So by sheer luck, we are in the right place at the right time, and tonight off to see Bruce in concert. What a nice way to finish things up.

This afternoon we played tennis on the courts at the caravan park and got a few other bits and pieces done. So a pleasant day. It's actually great in many ways to be back on the east coast, with surf beaches and warmer weather etc. It already feels a lot more like home to us.

Tomorrow we arrive in Sydney and will have the pleasure of dinner out with our good friend Joanne and her partner Matthew - the catchup will be great!!

Am happy and sad. Naturally. Adam is plain happy ;-)

Love and hugs and see many of you very soon,
Emma and Adam
xx