‘Pre retirement’ trial

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‘Pre retirement’ trial Traveler
💙 4th month wrap up 💙
March 8 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
SA - VIC - NSW

Another month done 😳

Due to an extreme heat wave affecting SA and Vic we had an unplanned return home for 2 weeks (as a base to work from), which is not counted in the ‘days’
So this wrap up includes the last 5 days from part 2 and the start of part 3 of our trip

We 💙love💙 adventuring with MancHester
Whilst home we removed the existing steel roof rack and replaced it with a rhino rack to lightened the load, and as a result we changed a few things around on the roof to make life just a little bit easier 🥰

💙 New loves -rhino roof racks and position of our bikes 🚲, punctures-less tyres (they have been a godsend recently 🙏🏻)

Not many ‘oops’ moments this month 🙏🏻 just a lost wheel hub cap, but it’s an expensive oops 😳

👍🏻 Highlights - too numerous to list them all but include, exploring the high country, following the Upper Murray River and dipping our toes in its crystal clear waters🏞️, Tom Curtain and the Katherine Outback Experience🐎🐕🐐, Kitty Flannegan, our first rodeo🐂🐎, Nest Cinema 📽️and all the places we have run/walked/hiked/cycled🏃🚶🏼🚴🏻, the people we have met, the fabulous sunsets/sunrises🌅 and clear starry skies🌌…..

👎🏻 Lowlights - pesky bugs 🐜 🪰🦗, starlink overheating 🥵 , lost $ cancelling a booking due to heat wave 💰

😥 Challenges -heat wave with 4 consecutive days of 42-49.6 degrees 🥵, surviving a 47km bike ride 🤪, hunkering down for a few days of persistent rain 🌧️, resisting the temptation to stay too long in one place because there so much to do 🤷🏼‍♀️

🍻Pubs visited - not as many as we expected 😜 but incl Woodshed Brewery- Murtho, the quirky Ettamogah Pub, Bethanga Hotel, Jingellic Pub, The Royal Hotel - Adelong and Caragabal Pub

Next-we have just 1 month left before we return home and back to work so we are going to make the most of our time left 😊
And hope fuel doesn’t become too expensive, or run out 🙏🏻

Stats for trip, to date:
#️⃣ 15025km covered (11253 km towing), including 3585km (2257 km towing) this month
#️⃣ 668km of dirt road (602km towing)

#️⃣ 15.67l/100km average fuel economy (from FuelMap Australia)
💰 $5262.48 for 2569.1l diesel

💰 Highest fuel 2.99l (William Creek & Pink Roadhouse Oodnadatta SA)
💰 Lowest Fuel $157.9l (Glossop SA)

🏃🏼434.6 km run, including 9 parkruns
🏃🏻‍♀️103.1 km hiked
🚴🏻 435 km cycled

💰$70.80 highest camping costs - Kings Canyon Resort (with discount 😳)
💰$0 lowest camping costs
🏠 This month we have mainly split our time between free and low cost camping, with only 7 nights spent at caravan parks (4 for aircon during a heat wave and the remainder due to their location)
Total 116 nights incl 50 caravan parks, 36 free camps, 1 pub camp, 11 donation camps, 18 low cost camps (showground/RV parks etc)
💵 $2586.10 spent on accomodation (inc 2N showground stay for concert)

💵 $3541.30 spent in tourist activities (incl tx for the Outback Experience, Kitty Flanagan and rodeo, replacement fishing rod 🎣, posting wine home 😜and $1540 on flights✈️)

💰$60.80 spent on laundryRead more
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‘Pre retirement’ trial Traveler
Day 26 (120)
Mar 9–10 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
100Km Forbes to Tomingley NSW

Sunny & cloudy ⛅️ high of 30

🏡Home for night
Cross Roads Hotel ⭐️
Free camp at rear
Power available for $15
Access to pub toilets
Flatish sites, limited shade
Optus reception

🚶🏼‍♀️4km hike

👍🏻 Elvis Museum was a nice surprise
👎🏻

This morning we said goodbye to Ken, Bernadette and Max 🐕 as we headed in opposite directions 👋🏻

For us, today was all about the journey

Our first stop was the Henry Parkes Centre in Parkes for the King’s Castle, a tribute to Elvis Presley - $12 entry.
We couldn’t visit Parkes and not acknowledge Elvis 🤷🏼‍♀️
The Elvis Museum contains a collection of memorabilia owned by Greg Page (Yellow Wiggle).
Outside there are even replicas of the Graceland Gates
Attached and included in the entry was the Antique Motor Museum 🚘

And our good deed for the day was handing in a set of keys that were dangling from a padlock on the gate around the museum 🔐

Next the Parkes Observatory to see The Dish, one of the largest single-dish telescopes in the southern hemisphere dedicated to astronomy.
It started operating in 1961 and in July 1969 it was a prime receiving station for the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon
Our brains got a workout with the information presented in the 3D movie and the interactive exhibits

Peak Hill was our next stop for the Gold Mine Experience - free entry.
Gold was discovered at Peak Hill in 1889 and the historic Peak Hill mine operated between 1893 and 1917 producing about 60,000 oz from 500,000 tonnes of rock. The site was re-excavated between 1996 and 2002 retrieving 145,000 ounces gold from 4.9 million tonnes of rock.
There are 2 trails that explore the site and the original diggings with the vertical mines and the 5 modern open cut mines. We did both trails at a total of 4km with 109m elevation.

Our final stop was the Cross Roads Hotel, Tomingley
Camping is behind the pub but we almost drove into the motel car park in error - which would have been funny (not) trying to get out 😳
Anyway disaster averted we set up and headed inside.
We have a ‘rule’ - no drinking on a week day (FYI Friday is part of the weekend) UNLESS we happen to be visiting a pub, distillery, winery, brewery……..
We know today is Monday but we’re staying at a pub and HAD to have a drink as a thank you for letting us camp up for the night 🤷🏼‍♀️Read more
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Day 27 (121)
Mar 10–12 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
161Km Tomingley to Tooraweenah NSW
Sunny ⛅️ high 30

🏡Home for a couple of night
Tooraweenah Caravan Park ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
$35 P&W- bore water
Showers and toilets, laundry, pool, basic camp kitchen, dump point
Flat sights, some shade
Limited Optus reception
No grocery/ fuel station so get what you need before heading in

👍🏻 Great game of darts 🎯
👎🏻 Fuel prices are going up and up and up📈

Wow fuel prices are all over the place today ⛽️- diesel at most stations is now 2.20l but Ampol is $2.49 in Dubbo and $2.37 in Gilgandra 😳

On our journey today we bypassed Dubbo and headed for Tooraweenah at the foothills of the Warrumbungle National Park.
This stop wasn’t in our plans, but we met a couple of travellers who said we would love the hikes in the NP 🚶🏼‍♀️
And on checking the whole NP is closed next week so we thought we would head straight up then back track as we make our way home
And we are so glad we made the detour as the area is beautiful and the caravan park so quaint
There is nothing in the town but the caravan park and the pub, but what else do you need 🤷🏼‍♀️
After setting up, and doing a load of washing, we jumped in the pool to cool down 🏊‍♀️

Then set off to wander around the town taking in its historical past, on our way to the pub, the Mountain View Hotel.
Spotting the dart board we couldn’t resist a game 🎯
And we will likely return tomorrow for a rematch and dinner after a long days hikeRead more
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Day 28 (122)
March 11 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Sunny, cloudy ⛅️ high 33

🚶🏼‍♀️14km hike

👍🏻 The most amazing hike and fabulous views ⛰️
👎🏻 The aches after the hike 😬

Today was the reason we headed to this area, to hike the Breadknife and Grand High Tops trail in the Warrumbungle National Park 🚶🏼‍♀️🚶🏼.
OMG it was amazing, every turn brought a new fantastic view ⛰️.
The walk to the summit and Lugh’s Throne was just up, up and up at 965m with 1022 steps
We continued on to complete the High Tops Circuit walk at a total of 14km and 749m elevation
During the walk we saw 5 goats 🐐 , 1 snake 🐍 and lots of lizards 🦎

Next stop was the Siding Spring Observatory at 1113m, home to more than 45 telescopes including Australia’s largest optical telescope 🔭
We learnt more about the stars and what is out ‘there’ and then journeyed through the solar system on the worlds largest solar system drive from the observatory taking in Mercury, Venus, Earth 🌏 …..

Returning home we jumped into the pool to cool down and then headed to the pub for a well earned dinner 🍽️Read more
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Day 29 (123)
Mar 12–15 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
119 Km Tooraweenah to Dubbo NSW

Sunny, blue skies ☀️high 29

🏡Home for the next few nights
Dubbo Discovery Park ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
$44.95 pn P&W with gday discount
Secure park, modern toilets/showers, great camp kitchen, laundry, pool and kids play areas

👍🏻 3 nights for price of 2
👎🏻 a VERY narrow site

We chose the caravan park due to its cycling proximity to the zoo 🐘
They were chockers and only had a powered site for 2 nights, but we were able to secure a drive through site and get their current ‘stay 3 pay 2 deal’. The drive through sites are very narrow which is not great, but we’re not expecting rain and the site we selected (89) was shaded and allowed us to position the van to sit out at the front or back - winner 🏆

Not much happening today other than those pesky housekeeping jobs- cleaning 🧽 🧹 washing the bedding 🧺, stocking up on ice 🧊 , grocery shopping 🛒 , topping up the water 💦 and the biggest challenge- trying to find fuel at a reasonable price ⛽️

And a lovely cool down in the pool after all our hard work 😜Read more
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Day 30 (124)
March 13 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
Friday 13th 😳
Sunny, blue skies ☀️high 30

🚴🏼‍♀️18.5km bike ride

👍🏻 Cycling round the zoo
👎🏻 Mossies out in force

The Zoo was the reason we came to Dubbo, so this morning we jumped on our bikes and took the bike path that runs behind our caravan park to the zoo 🚴🏼‍♀️🚴.
We arrived as it opened and felt like we had the place to ourselves for most of our time there 🐒🦍🦏🦬🐃🐘🐨🦘🦛🐐🦓🦒🐢🐪🐅🐆.
The park is so well laid out that you feel you are right next to the animals, and if you don’t want to walk (or cycle) you can hire a buggy or drive around in your own car 😳
Total 18.5km cycled to/from and around the park

The rest of the day was spent relaxing back at camp- well we have to make the most of the down time we have left 😝Read more
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Day 31 (125)
March 14 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Sunny, blue skies ☀️high 30

👍🏻 Great customer service from Anthony
👎🏻 Kids 😝

Today we headed to the visitor experience centre in Dubbo to learn more about the Royal Flying Doctor Service
RFDS was founded in 1927 by John Flynn (we visited the John Flynn's Grave Historical Reserve, the resting place of his ashes, when we were in Alice Springs)

After we popped into JBHiFi to see if we could problem solve the issue with our laptop not charging and, thanks to Anthony’s perseverance with problem solving, the issue was identified and a new cable sourced - now it’s charging again 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Headed into the pool for a cool down but it was so full of noisy kids jumping in and splashing (yes we know that’s what they do) that we didn’t last long 😝Read more
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Day 32 (126)
Mar 15–16 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
213 Km Dubbo to Cowra NSW
Sunny, blue skies ☀️high 30

🏡Home for night
Edgell Park ⭐️
24hr roadside free camp
Toilets, bins, water and dump point available near by
Flatish sites, some shade,
Optus reception
Road noise

🚶‍♀️5km walk

👍🏻 The history of the World Peace Bell
👎🏻 Probably the noisiest place we have camped this whole trip 🙉

Our journey today took us through Wellington so we stopped off at the Wellington Caves. Unfortunately all the cave tours were fully booked so we just explored the Ancient Landscapes Gallery, walked the Fossil Trail and looked at the Anticline Cave from the surface

We generally only stay in caravan parks for their specific location or if there is no reasonable alternative. And we hate arriving late in the day to a paid site for just one night as it feels like a waste of money to us. So when we arrived at Cowra we set ourselves up at the free overnight parking - not pretty but it’s only for the night 🤷🏼‍♀️

Once set up we went to find the Australian World Peace Bell 🔔, made from coins donated by over 100 UN member countries and awarded to Cowra in 1992.
We then walked up to the Bellevue Hill Lookout for its panoramic views of the town and surrounding countryside, it was a tough walk up in the heat but the views were worth it

Our fuel up in Cowra was $289.9/l, it’s just going up and up 📈Read more
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Day 33 (127)
Mar 16–17 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
142Km Cowra to Bethungra NSW
Sun with clouds ⛅️ high 30

🏡Home for night
Bethungra ⭐️⭐️
Donation roadside stop- box at camp kitchen
Toilets, bins and camp kitchen with BBQ and some appliances (kettle, microwave, fridge)
Flat sites, some shade
Poor Optus reception

🚶‍♀️3km walk

👍🏻 Lunch at Hussy, Young
👎🏻 Need a good nights sleep

Strong coffee was needed this morning after a poor nights sleep due to the traffic noise 🫩

Once suitably refreshed we headed to the Cowra Prisoner of War Camp site.
There is a walk around the site and the ruins that remain providing information about the camp and the ‘Cowra breakout’ when over 1000 Japanese prisoners launched a mass escape at 1:50am on 5th August 1944. It was the largest prisoner of war breakout in modern military history and 231 Japanese prisoners and 5 Australian soldiers lost their lives.

We are now slowly meandering our way home and our journey today took us through the historic gold rush town of Young, also known as the Cherry Capital of Australia 🍒

We are not generally ones to photograph our food and drink but today we just could not resist (sorry, not sorry 😝) We popped into Hussy Speciality Coffee & Kitchen for lunch and WOW, everything was amazing including the coffee art, presentation and customer service 10/10 🏆

Our final destination for the day was another roadside stop- hopefully this one will be a little quieter 🙏🏻
Nothing fancy, but top marks to Bethungra for providing such a well equiped camp kitchen on the side of the road 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

We found ourselves on the edge of a belt of rain traveling across the state, thankfully we only got a few drops but the temp dipped enough for Johnny to reach for his hoody declaring it too cold- god help him when we reach Melbourne 😳Read more
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Day 34 (128)
Mar 17–19 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
67Km Bethungra to Coolamon NSW
Overcast and drizzling on and off over the day, worse in the evening 🌧️ , high 25

🏡Home for couple of nights
Coolamon Caravan Park ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
$30 P&W
Shower, toilets, laundry, camp kitchen, dump point
Grass sites, fairly level
Optus Reception

🚴14-20km MTB ride

👍🏻 The history
👎🏻 Rain 🌧️

We drove past Coolamon earlier in our trip and thought it looked an interesting town, so decided to check it out on our journey home

And so glad we did.
We are camped on soft green grass- luxury 🥰

Once set up we went for a walk and found so much history in this small and beautiful town 🚶‍♀️

Our first stop was the Coolamon Railway Station, a heritage listed site, and we were fortunate to see the restored Southern Aurora 🚂. The overnight passenger train originally operated from 1962 to 1986 between Sydney and Melbourne but is now used by Vintage Rail Journeys for adventures through regional NSW

We then wandered up the Main Street, stopping for an awesome coffee at GiGi the Gourmet Grocer ☕️

The Coolamon Fire Museum is located at the top of the street and WOW it’s jam packed full of fire fighting memorabilia 🚒🧯, the private collection of Chris Berry carpenter, fireman and engine keeper. We were fortunate to meet Chris and Johnny loved exploring and discussing the changes in fire safety over the years (could our trip now be claimable on tax 🤔)

On the next corner is the Up-To-Date Store, built in 1909 it was a bustling general store where locals could buy everything from its many departments - grocery, drapery, millinery, ironmongery and more. The volunteers share stories and history of the building, those that worked there and the community it served.
From there you progress to the RSL museum for a glimpse of into the military history of the area.

Back at camp we jumped on our bikes and headed to the Kindra State Forest to play on the MTB trails that wind through the bushland and include the ‘Twister’, Flats’ and ‘Bumps’.
Justine spent most of her time mastering the flats and attempting the bumps whilst the Seagull just raced around in his element 🚴🏼‍♀️🚴

Unfortunately the rain increased over the evening and made sitting outside unpleasant so we retreated into the van 🌧️Read more
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Day 35 (129)
March 18 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
Overcast and humid, high 28

🚴22-32km MTB ride

👍🏻 Justine’s confidence is improving on the MTB trails 😊
👎🏻 Legs def feeling those km on the MTB park 😩

Lazy morning with a relaxed start to the day 🥰
We headed into town to the Coolamon Cheese Company to see how they make their cheeses and sample some of their products 🧀- we loved them all and were quite surprised by the Native River Mint - didn’t expect mint and cheese to go but it did 🤔
Treated ourselves to a triple cheese toastie- well we had to didn’t we 🤷🏼‍♀️

Next was the The Station Collective, located at the historic railway station, we had been recommended their Benedict Jaffle so we had to give it a try- it was yum but there were so many other things on the menus that sounded good it would have been hard to pick.
Theresa coconut iced coffee was also good 😊

After all that indulgence we decided to jump on the bikes and the Gilgai trail - a 16km trail to Ganmain. But 6km in we found the trail a little over grown and a just a bit boring 🤷🏼‍♀️, and didn’t fancy completing 32km of the same, so we turned around and headed back to the Kindra MTB Trails instead.
Feeling a bit more confident Justine managed the Twister, the Flats and some of the Bumps track, and the Seagull went off to do it all a ‘little’ faster 😜
Think that might have just burnt off some of those extra calories 😝

We treated ourselves to dinner at the Coolamon Hotel 🍽️, a beautifully refurbished venue in walking distance of camp. Food was great too 🥰Read more
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Day 36 (130)
Mar 19–22 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
215Km Coolamon to Mulwala NSW
Overcast with rain 🌧️, then sunny at camp ⛅️ high 27

🏡Home for next few nights
Lake Mulwala - Kyffins Reserve ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Free camp
No facilities other than bins
Flatish sites, limited shade
Optus reception

👍🏻 We didn’t get caught in the downpour
👎🏻 We are getting closer and closer to home

As we drove today we found ourselves circling a huge band of rain, with dark threatening skies and unmistakable heavy downpours to the side but thankfully missing us
We stopped briefly in Lockhart and was fascinated by the metal sculptures around the town

Our destination today was a place we visited for a one nighter in the first part of our trip and wished we could have spent more time, well now we can.
We plan to chill out and relax for a few days on the shores of Lake Mulwala.
Once set up, we chatted with friends, played games and just enjoyed the peace and quiet 🥰Read more
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Day 37 (131)
March 20 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C
Sunny ☀️ high 27

👍🏻 We love this camp by the lake
👎🏻 Pesky flys and mosquitoes 🦟 🪰

Lazy, relaxed start to the day.

Headed into Corowa and the Tourist Information where we again received great information and advice.
Then meandered around the town following the history trail and taking in the historic buildings 🏛️

Being so close to the Rutherglen wine region we popped over the border and met with Andrew Buller at his Winery where we had a great chat and he provided us with a tasting of his offerings.
We came away with 2 great Shiraz to celebrate the end of our travels 🍷

Fuel today was not the dearest we have experienced ($286.5)⛽️, but think we were lucky with where we filled up as others in the area were almost $3/l 😳Read more
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Day 38 (132)
March 21 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Sunny ☀️ high 29

🤸Pilates session

👍🏻 Love a camp fire
👎🏻 Damaged tyre preventing any cycling

We would have loved to jump on the bikes to cycle the path around the lake, but a damaged tyre means no cycling until we can get it fixed 😢

So we didn’t move far from camp, just enjoyed a day of rest and relaxation.

Pilates sesh🤸, read📖, fished🎣, played games🎲 and enjoyed the beautiful wine we bought from Rutherglen 🍷by a small camp fire 🔥

Is pre end of holiday blues a thing?
We think it is 🤔

We are so undecided 🤷🏼‍♀️
We don’t want the trip to ever end
But as the end is near we think we might as well head home and get back to ‘normality’

We have so much stuff to do once we are home
And the sooner we are back the sooner we are earning and topping up the savings

Decisions decisions ……
Should we stay or should we go 🤷🏼‍♀️Read more
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Day 39 (133)
Mar 22–23 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
146Km Mulwala NSW to Lockwood Vic
Sunny ☀️ high 30

🏡Home for night
Lockwood Recreation Reserve ⭐️⭐️
Donation camp- EFT details available or cash donation box in toilets
Toilets, picnic table
Flatish sites, some shade
Optus reception

👍🏻 Great last pub of our trip
👎🏻 Being abused

Our journey today took us across the border into Victoria, and closer to home
First stop being the Farmers Market in Yarrawonga

There’s a narrow bridge to cross into Vic and it was crossing this that resulted in us being abused by a local 🤷🏼‍♀️
He felt it his right to tell us we were in the wrong - check out the vid and let us know what you think 🤔

Unperturbed we continued our journey, stopping for lunch at the Botanic Gardens in Benalla.
Here we topped up with the most expensive fuel so far (this trip) $294.5/l⛽️
We had an interesting conversation at the servo where we were advised not to buy fuel in the mornings- the servo reduces its prices over the course of the day if people aren’t buying, and it had gone down x4 already today 😳

Our final stop was Longwood Rec reserve. And with the White Hart Hotel just a short walk from camp we had to pop in for a cold one- after all we are celebrating/commiserating our last night on the road 😝Read more
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Day 40 (134)
March 23 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
216Km Longwood to Home
Sunny ☀️ high 30

🏡Home for night
Home ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Large bed 🛌 and shower with unlimited water 🚿

👍🏻 Longish shower (still careful of water use) 🚿
👎🏻 No sunrise from the bedroom window

Heading home brings feeling of sadness that the trip has ended and excitement to be seeing our family 🤦🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️🙍🏼‍♀️🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈

And whilst we are less excited at the thoughts of returning to work and normality, we are looking forward to the changes we have planned for the house, car, van…….

But we are definitely NOT looking forward to navigating Melbourne traffic again 🤦🏼‍♂️
Midday and we are still in traffic jams 🚗🚙🚕🚓
We have missed a few things but traffic was NOT one of them ❌

Now to ‘depersonalise’ the van, get the car, van and bikes cleaned 🧽 and serviced🔧, the washing done🧺, the garden tamed 🪏 and reconnect with our family and friends 🥰Read more
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💙 5th month wrap up 💙
March 28 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
(With our early return home this covers 17 days )
NSW - VIC

We 💙love💙 adventuring with MancHester
We have learnt so much about ourselves and how we like to travel

Not many ‘oops’ moments this month 🙏🏻 just a punctured bike tyre, out of gel so unable ride until we get it fixed 😢

👍🏻 Highlights - too numerous to list them all but include, Elvis Museum, Peak Hill Gold Mine Experience ⛏️, cycling Dubbo Zoo🐘, historic town of Coolamon, camping at lakes Forbes and Lake Mulwala 🏕️,
camp fire 🔥 and all the places we have run/walked/hiked/cycled🏃🚶🏼🚴🏻, the people we have met, the fabulous sunsets/sunrises🌅 and clear starry skies🌌…..

👎🏻 Lowlights - pesky bugs 🐜 🪰🦗, fuel prices 📈, poor customer service 😳, abuse on the road 🗣️

😥 Challenges - Managing fuel costs and availability ⚖️, the end of our trip 😢

🍻Pubs visited - not as many as we expected 😜 but incl Crossroads Hotel- Tomingley, Mountain View Hotel- Tooraweenah, Coolamon Hotel and the White Hart - Longwood (our fav this trip)

Next-getting used to being back at home with a return to ‘normal’ life. And with lots of changes to the house, car and van planned we have lots to keep us busy

Stats for trip:
#️⃣ 16715km covered (12687 km towing), including 1690km (1434 km towing) this month
#️⃣ 668km of dirt road (602km towing)

#️⃣ 15.68l/100km average fuel economy (from FuelMap Australia)
💰$5877.40 for 2802.3l diesel

💰 Highest fuel 2.99l (William Creek & Pink Roadhouse Oodnadatta SA)
💰 Lowest Fuel $157.9l (Glossop SA)

🏃🏼434.6 km run, including 9 parkruns
🏃🏻‍♀️121.1 km hiked
🚴🏻 521.5km cycled

💰$70.80 highest camping costs - Kings Canyon Resort (with discount 😳)
💰$0 lowest camping costs

🏠 This month we have mainly split our time between free camping and caravan parks (due to their location)
Total 132 nights incl 57 caravan parks, 42 free camps, 2 pub camp, 13 donation camps, 18 low cost camps (showground/RV parks etc)
💵 $2807 spent on accomodation (inc 2N showground stay for concert)

💵 $3684.06 spent in tourist activities (incl tx for the Outback Experience, Kitty Flanagan and rodeo, museums, zoo, replacement fishing rod 🎣, posting wine home 😜 and $1540 on flights✈️)

💰$74.80 spent on laundryRead more
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‘Pre retirement’ trial Traveler
💙 pre retirement trial stats 💙
April 1 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
🇦🇺VIC - SA - NT - NSW🇦🇺
🗓️ Oct 25-March 26
134 days/20 weeks/5 months

🚙 16715 km (12687 km towing), incl 668 km dirt road
⛽️ 15.68l/100km average fuel economy (from FuelMap Australia)
💰$5877.40 for 2802.3l diesel
📈 Highest fuel $2.99l (William Creek & Pink Roadhouse, Oodnadatta SA -Oct ‘25)
📉 Lowest fuel $157.9l (Glossop, SA -Feb ‘26)

🏠 132 nights accommodation
* 42 free camps,
* 2 pub camps,
* 13 donation camps,
* 18 low cost camps (showground/RV parks etc),
* 57 caravan parks
💰$2807 for accomodation (incl $155.52 for 2N at showground for a concert 😳)
📈 Highest nightly charge $70.80 (Kings Canyon Resort (with discount 😳))

💰 $3684.06 for activities (incl $1540 on flights✈️ and $$ to post wine home 😜)

🧺 $74.80 for laundry

🏃🏼434.6 km run, including 9 parkruns
🏃🏻‍♀️121.1 km hiked
🚴🏻 521.5 km cycled
🚶🏼ALOT km walked

#SOTR
#seagullsontherun
#letsbounce
#seagulllife
#loveforadventure
#SOTRlife
#hester2Read more
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Trip end
April 12, 2026