Day 62 / 2017 - Preparing for the Journey Home

Back in Walkamin, we have settled into routine. Now we are spending our time preparing for what will become the final stage of 'The Big Lap' journey, utimately returning us home, proberbly in the third or fouth quarter of this year. 

The house in Walkamin was in good shape when we returned especially inside, the outside had grown a little wild. When we arrived home the first task was to turn the fridge back on. It had been turned off to save power, we hoped it would, thankfully it did. Outside while Greg the Lawn Mower guy had been cutting the lawn regularly, there was a build up of grass clippings, dirt and stones all over the back and front verandahs. To stop dirt being tracked in, I ended up sweeping and hosing down both the front and rear verandahs that evening. Looking clean, didn't last long as the next day Greg the lawn mower guy returned again... we had to do it all over again. 

Anne trimmed quite a few of the trees and shrubs, pushing the offcuts into several gardening bags. We sprayed the weeds, which most died, then pulled them out. By the time we had finished, the garden started to look more like its old self again. During the wet months the lawn grows quite quick, watching grass grow here takes on a whole new meaning, the following week we were out once again mowing and pulling fresh weeds. We managed to fill up ours, the neighbour opposite and neigbour next door wheelie bin's.

While in Sydney we had seen some pictures of Baron Falls overflowing due to the amount of rain that had fallen over January. We decided to drive to Kuranda to have a look for ourselves. Unfortunately when we were there the falls had returned to their former trickle. The following Saturday we took a drive to Yungaburra to check out the markets. It wasn't quite as busy as we remembered we guessed due to the tourist off season. Returning back to Walkamin we had not seen the small hamlet of Peermon which is along an alternative route to Malanda. The road took you through scenic rolling hills with house dotted along the way. The road comes out next to the showgrounds in Malanda, yep can tick that road off the list.

We also caught up with Frank and Alice, at our usual Friday Night dinner at the Malanda Hotel, then a movie later that night at the old Majestic. They also had a movie night and card night on different occasions at their home in Barrine. Russell Pocket Road, where they live, is in the process of being widen so only open to local Traffic. We were able to use it during weekends but had to go around via Lloyd Rd during the working hours of the week.  

The weather has been mild, nothing like we expected for a tropical location's wet season. We did experience a few of the tropical downpours and thunderstorms but nothing like past wet seasons, some home owners are already starting to water their gardens. The predicted cyclones, which usually dump 100's of milimetres within a few days have, so far, not materialised. It does get warm during the day, but the nights are cool enough to sleep without to much trouble. We are quite proud of ourselves as we haven't used the airconitioner once, only the ceiling fans to keep cool.

We have started to load the caravan with all our worldly possessions again, stocking up on supplies, finishing off any modifications and testing the appliances such as the water heater, fridge and cooktop. We have established a prefered route which can be viewed on the map page of this website. We plan to keep away from the coast until South Australia, spending more time inland, heading to some of the places we still want to visit but haven't got there as yet. We will head through Winton to take in the Age of Dinosaurs centre, then onto Bourke, Cobar and Broken Hill, as well as Mildura and our capital of Australia, Canberra.