North Stradbroke Island

We woke up to the sound of more rain. We spent the morning playing Monopoly which went for nearly three hours - Rick cleaned us all out. The rain continued so we decided to go for a drive into Dunwich and get some lunch. We shared some chips at the bakery and found the booking office who were friendly but not so informative. We took Tripod Road a 4WD track which cut through the centre of the island linking back to Tazi Road and back to Dunwich. We stopped briefly at Brown Lake which looked like a great swimming and paddle boarding spot - hopefully later in the week! Back at the campsite the kids watched Harry Potter and we had bacon and eggs for dinner.

The Best Of

As we get closer to home it has been a great time to reflect on what an amazing adventure we have had and how much we have crammed in to the last six months, and all the people we have met. You often get asked what has been your highlight or favourite place when you have done a trip such as this so as I am so bored (driving home) I have decided to compile a list. It is too difficult to compare places because everywhere is so different but these places rate in our top 10 in Australia in no particular order;
Best beaches:
Turquoise Bay (Cape Range NP, WA)
Hellfire Bay (Cape le Grand NP, WA)
Whitehaven Beach (Whitsunday Islands, Qld)
Cable Beach (Broome, WA)
Clarkes Beach (Byron Bay, NSW)

Best Gorges:
El Questro
Karijini NP
Kings Canyon
Orminston Gorge

Best commercial Caravan Park:
Cairns Coconut Resort
1770 Camping Ground
Whitsundays Holiday Resort
Cooinda (Kakadu NP)
Adels Grove, Lawn Hill

Best camping spot:
Shannon NP (Karri forests, WA)
Cape Range NP
Finke River NP

Best Walks:
Handrail pool, Karijini NP
Kings Canyon rim walk

Best Ice-cream:
Elephant Cider, Denmark
Noosa

Best Bakery:
Jabiru (Kakadu NP) a unanimous vote

Best Boat Tour:
Coral Bay snorkelling trip
Karumba fishing charter (only Rick)
Yellow Water, Kakadu NP

Best Lookout:
Ubirr - East Alligator region, Kakadu NP
Pigeon Hole lookout, El Questro Station
Kings Park at night overlooking Perth
Kings Canyon

Best Wildlife Experience:
Rick; swimming with turtle at Cape Range NP
Sharon and Caitlin; Coral Bay snorkelling with manta ray and turtles on beach at Cape Range
Cooper & Caitlin; dolphins at Sea World and green tree frog called Lucky at Kalbarri

Best Swimming Pool / Water Park:
Cairns Coconut Resort
Cooinda (Kakadu NP)

Nearly Home

We had approximately 5 hours of driving to get back home - except we weren't able to get into our house till Thursday so we were going to mum & dads' for a few nights. The kids were desperate to get there - Cooper asked every few minutes ' how long to go?' After a record number of toilets stops and a traffic jam on the Western Ringroad we completed our circuit of Australia around 2.00pm and were greeted with lots of hugs. We had a welcome home BBQ with our families which was a lovely welcome back.

Little Desert National Park

We crossed the boarder into Victoria in the late afternoon. Our last camp site was just out of Dimboola at Little Desert NP. It was a lovely spot near the river amongst the trees - not really like a desert! We had a campfire and cooked some sausages. Caitlin made some damper (which is another thing we we kept saying we were going to do the whole trip) and we cooked it over the coals. The kids were very excited about going home tomorrow and had trouble going off to sleep.

Mt Remarkable National Park

We searched our road maps to find somewhere roughly 500 km away and decided Mount Remarkable sounded like a good stop over. We were still adjusting to the time difference and everyone slept to 8am meaning we didn't get away till 10.30am. It was a cruisey drive passing through a number of small towns and wheat fields. We arrived at Mt Remarkable NP and found a campsite which is set amongst the very majestic river red gums. Rick was adamant he was going to cook scones before getting home so thats what we had for dinner much to Coopers liking!

Streaky Bay

Murphy's Haystacks

After lunch we went for a drive out to Point Labett Conservation Park. On the road in Rick had to give way to quite a few stumpy tail lizards. We stopped to get a closer look at a couple and the kids were very confident holding them. At Point Labett a viewing platform over the cliff allows you to observe the only permanent colony on Australian mainland of Australian sea lions. Although they were a good 50m below us you could watch them lazing about on the rocky shoreline. We continued on via Baird Bay to Murphy's Haystack, wind-worn granite pillars and boulders - a little over rated or maybe we have seen such amazing things we aren't easily impressed anymore! The kids were keen to get back to play.

Streaky Bay

It rained consistently for most of the day which was perfect because we didn't feel guilty about doing absolutely nothing. The kids were kept entertained playing with the other kids in the park - there seemed to be quite a few Victorians on their way home. We couldn't even be bothered cooking so we went to the pub for dinner.