We've had a long haul of travelling and are now back in S.A.
We stopped at roadside camps near Balledonia, Eucla, Nundroo and Decres Bay,
To break up the drive we looked in little museums at Balledonia and Penong, and cliff lookouts along the way. We lost Scott at the old Eucla telegraph station. He kept walking all the way to the beach, and Richard had to go and find him. We were blown away by the whale watching at the head of the bight - by the $26 entrance fee (after you've driven 10 kms in), and by the wind coming off the Antarctic ice cap. We saw some whales swimming about including a cow and calf in close to shore, but appreciated the ones we saw for free off W.A. more.
Richard climbed up the scarp from the Roe Plain up to the Hampton Tablelands between Madura and Eucla one morning, and found a old stone tank and well.
On Saturday night we reached Natasha's family farm between Kimba and Cowell where we caught up on washing, hair detangling/cutting, eating, and family talk. Since then we've been visiting family and friends in Whyalla, Pirie and Warooka. We expect to be back at Houghton on Thursday after 10 weeks on the road.
The kids have had a great time, but are missing school and friends. We're lucky to have got around with no major problems to car, van or persons. If we were planning the same thing again, we'd probably spend more time at less places, to avoid the daily packing up and setting up camp routine.
We're glad we took the oportunity to do a long trip while the kids were all in Primary School. It will only get harder to do from now on. It was good to spend a warm Winter up north during SA's cold spell, but of course now there's grass to mow, mail to sort, and work to go back to.
Thanks for all the emails and messages people sent from back home, as well as the encouragement and assistance various people offered us before and along the way. It all made a great trip.