The scent of home has sent us home....The final entry.

       

“We love this sunburnt country,
The land we’ve motored round,
We’ve seen so many wonders,
and covered so much ground.
At star filled skies we’ve gazed,
At dust and red earth planes,
We have been in awe and wonder,
We’ve had heat and cold and rain.
Our time has not been wasted,
Our education sure,
We’ve learnt so much, and tasted
Fare from every cellar door.
The scent of home is drawing us,
It’s time to turn around,
And head towards our Kith and Kin,
No place like home we’ve found!”

So, here we are in Gloucester, fast approaching the end of our 6 months of travel. We have spent the last week in Shoal Bay, Seal Rocks and Hallidays Point, near Forster. All beautiful places with magnificent beaches. We will be back to reality on Thursday. Of course, it is with mixed feelings. Part of me just wants to keep going. On the other hand, I have missed my church, my daughter and grandkids, my friends and rels and also, my very naughty felines. And I am very much looking forward to seeing them all.

We have had so many highlights, It would be hard to name just one. We have marvelled over the vastness, red dust and silence of the outback, and been delighted by the limestone formations of The Great Ocean Road. We have experienced the excitement of seeing top players live at the Australian Open. And Oh, the beauty of The Grampians and the Flinders Ranges. We have seen what 9 years of drought can do to a region. We have had the whole spectrum of weather, from a searing 44C to a pretty frosty 3C, not to mention hail, dust storms, snow, torrential rain, and sunshine. We have got ourselves into a few tight scrapes, caught up with long lost friends, & escaped by a day, the fires in Port Lincoln,

Our eyes have been open to the infinite variety of God’s awesome creation. There are hundreds of different gum trees, all adapting to their own unique environment. An infinite variety of Australian birds and wildlife, without equal anywhere else, beautiful oceans and rivers, waterfalls, mountains, sunsets etc. The bible says, God has revealed His invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, through what HE HAS CREATED….. So that Man is without excuse for not knowing Him.

Just as an aside, I am thinking of writing a book to be distributed around the caravan parks of Australia, entitled “How to enhance your amenity block by the simple and cheap addition of a shower curtain!” But I digress…..

Marnie and I are thankful to have been so blessed this past 6 months. Our minds have been expanded, we have been challenged by personal issues and hopefully we have grown spiritually. Marnie has discovered her passion for painting and is looking forward to building on that passion and the gift she has been given.

I Have kept the last verse of Dorothy Mackellar’s poem, fittingly for the last entry; I think she says it better than I can.

An opal hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

We look forward to seing you all soon.

Vicki

The beautiful Shoal Bay Beach

More Shoal Bay

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

But wait, theres more!

Lorikeets in the van park

Fingal Bay

They loved our sunflower seeds

Seal rocks

From another angle

Sugarloaf lighthouse, near Seal Rocks.The climb not for the feinthearted

The walk to the lighthouse was lovely

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An interesting building at Sugarloaf beach

Hillarious shop hours at the general stor Seal Rocks

View from a park overlooking Gloucester

Guess who's coming to dinner?

Well, actually is was lunch and the guest was none other than Margarett, who braved the shocking road  down to the Hawksbury River at Mount White riverside caravan park. We had arrived the day before, after failing to find our free camp at Brooklyn, and this option was the nearest we could find. However, there was no indication of how bad the last 5 km down to the park was, otherwise we would never have come. It is a beautiful spot once you arrive. We were almost the only people here (is it any wonder!) but we hear it is always busy at the weekends. Sadly the rain made our stay here a little wet. However, unbeknowns to me, Marnie had phoned Marg about another matter and she decided to surprise me with an unannounced visit, as we are only 40 mins from home. So, there I was, reading in the van when Marnie suggested we ask someone to join us for lunch....Who did you have in mind, I asked, to which Marg (who had just snuck up on us,) replied what about Marg? So, we had a great time chatting over lunch and it made us feel even more like coming home. So we have decided to return some time next week. Meantime we are in Shoal Bay and will go perhaps as far up as Port Maquarie and also Seal Rocks.
Vicki

The view from our spot at Mount White

Marnie and Marg

Me and Marg

Great spot if you can brave the road down

Some local wildlife, looking a little wet.