D9 Departure ...

Two weeks after arriving home from our Big Loop road-trip, we listed our D9 camper trailer for sale.  It sold just over a week later - and we couldn't have picked a better new owner, who works as a "regrowth engineer" and spends a lot of time in the bush.

He was keen to take it away then and there, so we were dropped in some paperwork the next day - and admired his tinnie (aka boat) addition.  How good does it look - as if it's been there all along. 

We were so pleased to have a smooth, easy sale - and really enjoyed chatting about gold, opals and fossicking.  

Of course, we're now looking forward to seeing pics of the D9 being used - and chatting about rocks over a cup of tea or coffee soon.

Big Loop road-trip stats ...

We travelled from Thurgoona to the NSW south-coast and had a wonderful mini holiday there as a Family of Five. It was awesome!

We'd planned our final week of road-tripping to be a coast trip with a couple of stops to enable longer catch-ups with family and friends. We really enjoyed seeing so many favourite people - and revisiting places along the way.

We had to be home for several medical reviews so made the most of the time we had - going as far as we could and trying to see as many friends/family as possible en route.

Heavy rain impacted our travel home but we got back on time - and the "kids" survived admirably without us, in spite of our suburb flooding, there being SES boats at the driveway, being cut-off for several days and without power for five.  We were very proud of them and their improvisations! 

Big Loop statistics:  we covered 5,000ish kilometres over 23 days. Queensland to New South Wales, then South Australia and Victoria before looping back through New South Wales to home. We stayed at Moree. Nyngan. Wilcannia. Menindee Lakes. Broken Hill (and Silverton). Peterborough. Adelaide. Bannockburn. Toorak (Melbourne). Wodonga. Erowal Bay. Blacksmiths (Lake Macquarie/Newcastle) and finally, Nambucca Heads. 

We spent just under $2,000.00 on fuel, with most of our travel accomplished before fuel prices rose significantly.  (Three weeks after returning home, petrol is $2.12/litre at our most local servo).  Our accommodation varied a fair bit but averaged $145.00 per night. Although we self-catered most breakfasts, we dined out a lot more than usual but that was part of this adventure and we didn't begrudge ourselves the splurge.  

Gonna see a giant goanna!

In November 2020 I received a message (via the Nik Hamby Facebook page), from an artist seeking permission to use my infamous goanna image as reference for a large mural on her local community centre.  

Given how many times my goanna has been used without permission, I was delighted when Tracie contacted me - and very happy to provide better resolution images.  She finished her excellent work in March 2021 and it was nearly a year later that we managed to visit the Thurgoona Community Centre (our first mission after checking out from Wodonga).  I'm just sorry I didn't think to message her before we were on-site, cos we may have been able to say hello in person.  

Benalla street art ...

We were a bit later leaving Melbourne than planned - that was Nick and I chatting!  It was definitely lunchtime when we reached Benalla and we were pleased of a break from the road.  

Nick and I had lunched in Benalla when returning from Melbourne in 2019 but we'd detoured to see local-ish silos, so hadn't viewed the street art.

We had a wander along Benalla's main street after lunch and enjoyed seeing some murals on buildings - and there were opshop stops.

Wodonga was our overnight stop, in a poolside villa - well, the pool was just across from us.  And yes, we had a very quick dip!  It was a quiet night.  Scrabble after a sausage sizzle dinner.  Lovely!

Melbourne mini silos ...

Federation Square had an exhibition of mini silos, so we showed Nissa those as part of playing Melbourne tourists for the day.  (We just posed with replicas of those that we had visited in real life).

We had never been to the ACMI during our Victorian era, so had a great time there playing with the many exhibits.

We saw a few other favourite places, bought salt samples (no stock from Pink Lake but we found others to try) from an upmarket spice shop in The Block arcade and generally strolled about till our legs got tired - then ubered to Toorak.

Nissa came back to our room and later we all dined at Romeo's, which was an excellent finale.  

Nissa was set to road-trip with us for the next week, which was a wonderful bonus to our holiday.  Nick re-packed some of our larger gear when in Broken Hill and had further refined organisation since, to ensure space for Nissa and her bag.

Melbourne meandering ...

Our Melbourne time was centred around visiting friends and family and we had some lovely, long catch-ups.  

We stayed with friends on our first night and then at the Toorak Manor for our next two.  

As we entered the building we both laughed, cos it was called Graeme's - but absolutely nothing like Graham's at Wilcannia!  (Our hostess had also stayed at Graham's, so we chatted of our experiences)! 

We were invited to view the available rooms and make our choice.  Nick went upstairs and chose 17, which had a private balcony.  It was a beautiful space and our luggage looked just right!

For whatever reason we found it hard to make a restaurant booking for Saturday night, so finally ordered takeaway and used our picnic gear to set up for private, balcony dining - which was very pleasant.

Nick spent some time with music friends on Saturday, while I toured the Herring Island Sculpture Park with Nissa and her partner.  I invited them back to our room afterward and they were also impressed with how nice it was.  

Pink Lake - again!

When Nick spoke of driving to Melbourne in one day, my focus had been on the 700km distance - and sitting for such a long time on my very uncomfortable seat!  

I hadn't thought much of what we might see along the way, so the silo art was a bonus as was the realisation that we'd re-visit Pink Lake!  

We'd enjoyed our first visit so much that I'd sourced pink lake salt from a retail supplier and included samples in our Christmas mailout that year (and we used the remainder for quite some time, also).

The site had been developed further since our last visit.  There was some signage in the picnic shelter and a small laminated sheet to advise a coffee van visited at particular times (salt could be purchased as well as coffee).

We walked down to the lake first, as the only sheltered picnic table was occupied.  I hadn't intended to be colour co-ordinated with the salt but was very pleased of my kikoy sun protection.  (My kikoy was purchased in 1985 during my time in Kenya).