This post was written in October 2022, immediately after our trip but is posted 7 months later, just to complete our printed journal.

From Pinnarendi Station we drove south to Hughenden. It has been 12 years since we last did this road and it’s better now. While at Hughenden we took a short 250 km round trip to visit the amazing dinosaur museum at Richmond, called Kronosaurus Korner. The display of fossilised skeletons – large, small, walking, flying, swimming – is fascinating.

We took the narrow, rough, sealed road to Winton, driving through what was once the centre of Queensland’s thriving wool industry but is now home to thousands of beef cattle. This season has been good and the cattle are looking very healthy. After the rain a few weeks ago the country looks green and healthy. During our two-night stay at Winton we visited the very interesting Australian Age of Dinosaurs display; not as good as Lark Quarry, 100 km away but still good.

One of our favourite camp grounds, Lara Station Wetlands, was our next stop, for a couple of nights. The hot pool was nice in the mornings but too hot in the afternoons, with the cool water swimming hole nice all day. Damper was served at the camp kitchen one night and a $30 camp oven dinner the next night, with live music to entertain us.

Unfortunately it was time to head for home. For the first 1200 km all the low lying ground as far as the eye could see was covered in water from recent rains. It looked spectacular and the sheep, cattle and goats will enjoy it for years. The next 2 photos show the green camp ground at Wyandra and the same scene taken 9 weeks earlier. The transformation brought on by 2 significant rain events is phenomenal.

We drove 1900 km over 4 long days to Riverton where we stopped for 2 nights to clean our caravan, only 120 km from home. We arrived home on 30 September, at the end of a wonderful 11-week trip. It has been another great trip, having caught up with friends, met interesting fellow travellers and seen more of our amazing country.

As usual, here are some statistics to conclude the blog (approximate figures). During the 11-week trip we travelled 10,300 km; 8,100 km with the caravan and 2,200 km on side trips. We relocated the caravan 31 times at an average of 260 km each time we moved; 300 km or more on 12 days and less than 100 km on 5 days. We used 2,600L of petrol at an average cost of $1.90, making a total of $5,000, or $65 per day. Average fuel consumption was 25L/100 (10% more than usual because we did fewer side trips without the caravan). Although fuel consumption with the RAM was higher than previous trips with the Land Cruiser, the cost of petrol is 25% less than diesel so we actually spent about $500 less on fuel than we would have with the Land Cruiser.

Epilogue

On the way home we decided to sell the caravan. After 14 years of wonderful annual caravan trips, we will continue travelling but will do it differently.

We have done 128,000 kms with 3 different caravans, being away 960 nights (or 2½ years). Australia is an amazing country and we have seen a lot of it, from city to outback, from desert to sea, from mountains to plains, from flood to drought, on highways, rough roads and sandy tracks and from expensive caravan parks to bush camps.

Seven months later, the van has been sold and we are ready for new adventures.