We are home and have had time to reflect on the journey. I don't think that Elaine really enjoyed the trip, partly because of her first couple of days and because her pain was constant. But she was glad that she came and certainly I was very pleased to have her with me. Anyway I thought that now would be a god time to put the details on paper, or rather on the air.

We left here on the 8th by Virgin, no dramas and a good flight with Elaine sleeping pretty near all the way. Then the Avis desk and drama, after 1/2 hour with discovered that my credit card had international transactions barred and Avis banks in the USA.  Off to the van at Mittagong and a very pleasant handover. Then that night Elaines runs kick in and she has a bad night, along with difficulties getting into the bed. Next day off to Moss Vale to return the car, as per my booking, with Kate (the seller of the van) following......But at Moss Vale they would not accept the car. Another long phone conversation, this time with Avis and we arrange to return the car to Campbelltown which is 54km backwards from Mittagong. Later that day, Friday, I do exactly that and catch the train back to the van and we spend the night at Mittagong.

Saturday dawns and we find that Elaines purse has been left in the car and we drive back to Campbelltown then head off to Wagga Wagga a total journey of 450km. There we stay with friends from a previous trip which is very pleasant then head off the following morning. That night, Sunday, we stay in Hay and I cannot remember where! By then we are both very tired, Elaine is recovering but is still tired, we have also realised that a realistic take off time is 8.30am and decide to call it a day at around 3pm.

Come Monday we are a little more relaxed but cover 512km, plus a couple of side trips looking for a camp, to Waikerie where we finish up camping in the civic centre car park. From there we drive 398km to Iron Knob, which the older of us will remember as the original iron ore mine, and stay in their RV friendly park. Wednesday sees us drive 402km to Ceduna and an CMCA friendly caravan park. All this time the scenery is very nice but Elaine sleeps most of the time in the passenger seat, but sooner or later we will be back for a better look.

We are now starting the Nullabor run which is the main thing that Elaine wanted to see. So we spend Thursday night at the Head of the Bight parking area after a 294km drive. On previous trips we have limited a days drive to a macimum of 200km and mostly covered much shorter distances, with Elaine driving nearly all of the time.  The longer drives mean that we are both tired and are not getting a really good look at the scenery, but that is what we expected and this is, after all, a delivery trip. Friday we continue westward stopping at all 4 of the coastal lookouts to take in the spectacular and pretty bight coastline. After about 400km we stop just past Mundrabilla in 24hr stopping camp which extends well back from the road and is quite nice. From there on Saturday we head past Balladonia stopping after 445km and an hour or so in medium strength rain at another roadside stop.

It is now Sunday and we had hoped to be home for Karen's surprise party, instead of which we drive 430km to Coolgardie where they have van parking at the railway museum. That night we find ourselves, with 2 other vans, in the middle of a major thunderstorm with lots and lots of rain. It is amusing to note that now that we are not pushing we are covering quite reasonable distances. From Coolgardie 295km to Merredin and parking at the Merredin Peak reserve which is quite good and we stayed here on a couple of previous occasions. This time we do not have any company.

So on Tuesday we drive 258km to Barr Street and thus ends our odyssey.

I may flesh this out a bit at a later date , but that is the delivery trip for our new motorhome.


 

Well talk about the best laid plans........etc.

This morning we were both up at 7am, had no hold ups, but did empty the toilet and top up the water. We got going at 8.30am which is hard to understand as we did not do any special jobs or any thing else to delay us, very disappointing. We did stop for breakfast and showers for an hour at about 10am, then for lunch at about 1.30pm and we did get fuel which took about 1/2 hour. So for about 6 hours driving, sitting on 100ks but obviously some traffic hold ups we only covered about 400 kms......also very disappointing. To do this we were pushing and putting in a far bit of effort, so from now on we will relax and not try for high distances every day, maybe even do a bit of sight seeing. We have missed a lot of nice stuff so far but we will get back sooner or later.

Anyway back to madam, she is now feeling a lot better than the first few days, we have been here for 5 days. We have made good just 1500kms which is not bad considering that we lost the first 2 days and had to back track 54kms, an extra 108kms, travel. That is actually better than I thought but we are still 2500kms from home.

The Cohen's are journeying again, yippee.

The first couple of days were a bit stressful, nothing to do with the van. First I spent 30mins at the airport sorting the bank out so our credit card would be accepted by Avis. Then there was a big issue returning the car requiring another long phone cal to Avis. The result being that I had to drive back 54ks then catch the train back to to van, and now Avis have charged me 2 extra amounts. I will have to try to sort that out, and after I got back to the van we discovered that Elaine's purse was left in the car requiring us to drive back that 54ks before starting our journey. Then Elaine got some kind backstairs bug and we both had a bad first night in the van, that is clearing a bit now but madam is still not herself. I topped it off by breaking the galley tap before we took off to get her purse.

However we are now on our way and spent last night on a rural property with friends from our previous travels. The property was his sisters and Ian, the man of the house, restores old motor cars and there was a couple of examples of his very superb work on site. Today we have driven to Hay, where we will spend the night. Just 600 kms along the way but we are both refreshed and should be able to cover the distance. The target is still to be home by the 17th.

Everything is progressing. Elaine is doing relatively well and is quite active, although still fatigued. But at this point in time it is a pleasure to see her on the go, even if she does give me lots of instructions.

Later this week we, that is herself and me, are flying to Sydney to pick up our latest motorhome and drive it home. I am quite excited that Elaine is joining me and it is entirely her decision, I merely suggested that she could come IF she wanted to and that I thought that it would work. The change from her medication pump which needed refilling every day to patches facilitated the opportunity to travel.......yippee. So Elaine decided that she would like another trip across the country, this time from east coast to west coast. It will not be a long trip, about 10 days all up, as it has to fit in between doctors visits for both of us.

We still are very aware that her disease is progressing and continue to do whatever we can can to keep Elaine comfortable and where possible treat the lesions.