Wednesday - 23 March 2016

Well, we guess by now you will have noticed the absence of recent daily blogs. 

Please accept our apologies, but there were many issues occupying our minds after recovering the replacement caravan door.  

Our attempts to install it the following day were frustrated by our having to take Diane to hospital in Canberra with extremely bad back pain.  Four hours later we emerged with a script for serious painkillers, instructions to rest and the knowledge that there was nothing life threatening in her injury.  They did an ECG, X-rays and blood tests so they were quite thorough.

The wash up of all the toing and froing of the last few days was that we decided to call off the rest of our planned trip and head for home.  We made it to Sydney first day out, then Armidale and then Brisbane, before taking the final drive back to Twin Waters today.

Noel's back has gone out in sympathy with Diane's.  We must have looked like a couple of old crocs as we hobbled around, moaning and groaning under our breaths and feeling pretty sad with our lot. Mutual sympathy and support were the order of the day.

All is well now.  We are back at home and looking forward to a period of rest and recuperation to obviate the persistent "ouches" that accompany our still uncomfortable movements.

Our visit to Canberra, though curtailed, was great, with the Australian War Memorial and Australia's House of Parliament most memorable.  Canberra is a beautiful city and we did not find it as difficult to find our way around as others have suggested.  The deciduous trees had just begun to show colour and, two weeks from now, it would be spectacular.  Mind you, the Northern Tablelands of NSW were a little more advanced with tree colour change, with Armidale and Glen Innes to the fore.

The south coast of NSW was as beautiful as ever, but we suffered from the presence of a sea mist which spoiled a traveller's view from time to time.

We were oh so close to the Australian Alps, which were on our hit list this time.  But, as Arnie would say, "We'll be back!"

It has been our practice for a last blog to provide a few statistics of the trip.

We were on the road for 23 days, drove 3981km and had the anchor attached for 3066km of those.  The Landcruiser consumed 747 litres of diesel with an average consumption of 18.8 l/100km.  The lowest price we paid for diesel was 92.7c/l at the United service station at Tomerong south of Wollongong.

So endeth the last blog for this trip.