This is it!

Palm Cove NP - Nick stopped long enough to take a photo

...and even long enough to photograph leeches....

We dropped into Palm Cove NP on the way to Murwillumbah yesterday which was a lovely rainforest, but I’m afraid I didn’t see that much of it as I power walked along the path – it had been raining quite a bit so if you stopped still for more than a few minutes your shoes got covered in leeches. Nick’s not that fussed about them but I’m not a big fan… so the kids and I walked through the forest in double quick time. It was a lovely drive through the hinterland though, great views of mountains covered in mist, and also a lots of farm gates selling fruit – lady finger bananas for $2/kilo!

We crossed our last time zone and had a great night with friends in Murwillumbah, not long enough of course, and headed off again unenthusiastically this morning for another boring driving day. Tomorrow we’ll hit Sydney and three more groups of friends which we’re looking forward to, and then home early next week – so tonight is our last camping night, the trip is over!  We’ve found a nice grassy free campground at Coopernook NP (thanks to Doug’s recommendation), and it even has a flushie!

After 4 nights in houses it actually felt a bit weird setting up the tent again tonight, but I was also feeling a bit sad while cooking dinner that it’s all over with. We’ve had such a good time – or as I keep saying to people, I can’t pretend that I’ve enjoyed absolutely every moment of the 6 months but have never wished I was at home instead, and always looked forward to where we were going next.

We asked the kids what they would miss about camping tonight and there was a stony silence – they’re pretty tired as we got here very late, which might explain why they can’t think of anything, but also after comparing it with staying in someone’s house where there was TV and internet, their two great loves at the moment, it’s hard to compete. Maybe they’ll think of something after we’ve been home for a while.

One thing I know they’ve learnt is how to make a fire all on their own, a great life skill, and they’ve certainly learnt a bit of patience sitting on long car journeys. They’ve finally learnt that sometimes compromising will get you an ice-cream, even if it’s not the exact flavour you wanted, have learnt to recognise the Southern Cross in the sky, and have worked out when they can concentrate best at writing their journals (Conor prefers after dinner, less distractions, whereas Daniel needs to be before dinner). There are lots of other things I know they’ve learnt along the way that might only become apparent later on, and I think on the whole they’ve enjoyed seeing different places, but will be happy to be home.

For those interested in stats, the easiest ones to hand are that we’ve gone about 32,000 kilometres in 6 months, set up and packed up the camper trailer 92 times, visited 43 National/Conservation/Nature Parks including 9 of Australia’s World Heritage Areas (Purnululu, Uluru, Great Barrier Reef, Daintree, Riversleigh Fossil Site, Ningaloo Reef, Fraser Island, Kakadu, Shark Bay). Nearly 30% of the trip cost has been on fuel (I thought it would be more actually), the most expensive paid being $2.63 in Balgo, NT, the cheapest $1.39 in Maryborough, Qld. I don’t know if I’m jinxing us because we’re not actually home yet, but we’ve only had one flat tyre, and lost our annex poles once. I’m still enjoying our trailer, and am even looking forward to getting it out again at Narooma in a couple of weeks. It’s good to have a weekend away to look forward to, as it will probably feel a bit strange to stay put in one place. We’ll just have to start planning our next trip!