The map above shows our travels before and after retirement. The yellow pins are our trip up north to Karratha/Dampier for our nephews wedding in 2015.  This was two weeks after buying our first caravan. The blue pins cover the time we left WA in July 2016 until now, September 2017.

The green pins in the map above show our plans for 2018. At this stage we plan to leave Tasmania on February 3rd and head west to parts of South Australia. In March/April we will be visiting areas in Victoria and New South Wales and spending Easter in Wagga Wagga for the Grey Nomads Stone the Crows Festival. After exploring Canberra and attending the ABBA Festival in Trundle, NSW in May, we will be heading north to Queensland where we plan to get all the way to the top of Cape York Peninsula and stand on the northern most point of Australia. By July we will be in Alice Springs where we will be caretaking at the National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame and Old Gaol complex. We will be there for 3-4 months. We then head south to Uluru and on into northern South Australia. By that stage it will be around November 2018 and we will then decide whether to head west or east!

Since July 2016 we have……………………………

• Driven approximately 35,000km
• Used approximately 8159 litres of fuel
• Driven across the Nullarbor three times
• Driven across 5 states – WA, SA, Victoria, NSW and Tasmania
• Seen our first platypus, penguin, wombat, echidna and bandicoot in the wild
• Eaten delicacies such as curried scallop pies, cheese kransky pastries, grilled abalone with soya sauce, boiled mutton birds, and whitebait patties
• Melted in 46 degree heat at Penong, South Australia and froze in -4 degrees at the top of Mount Wellington in Hobart, Tasmania
• Sung “On the Road Again” ad infinitum
• Had/having the best time of our lives

It has been nearly two months since our last post – why is that? WINTER, not only Winter but a very cold, wet and windy start to Spring. We could count on one hand the number of dry/windless days.  When it’s raining, when it’s a miserable day, you are initially happy to curl up with a good book, watch the midday movie, drink hot chocolate and eat warming soups and casseroles. But day after day, week after week of this, you begin to get cabin fever and start climbing the walls. I saw a quote the other day that really summed it up:

But you have to look for silver linings in all situations. Where would I rather be….here in cold/wet/windy Tassie or back at work? No competition there at all – Tassie for sure!  Also there have been some amazing rainbows and that can only happen with rainy weather.

Over the past week much of Tasmania has turned white in a Spring cold snap. Here in Smithton we have seen hail and frosty mornings but no snow. The other morning the car had to be scraped before it could be driven. Even the rubbish bins were frozen!