As the time was drawing close to when Bert and Fran were to depart for their trip back to Manjimup, we made our way down closer to Brisbane and camped at the showground at Ipswich. We had 5 days here so that we could go into Brisbane, tour around Ipswich and surrounding area and visit the Amberley Air Base. Fran and Bert also needed to finalise preparations for their trip home.

We caught the train and the bus from the showgrounds to Brisbane and had a full day wandering around the city and cruising up the Brisbane River on the ferry which we caught on the south bank. We were amazed at the size of the city and the high rise buildings of all sizes and shapes. It was a great day!

Ipswich is a fascinating town with many churches, cafes and shopping facilities. We were given some tickets to go to the greyhound racing which takes place on the showgrounds. We all had wins and came away not too out of pocket but having had a very entertaining night. Every Sunday there is a market held on the showgrounds and of course it just so happened that we arrived to set up camp in the middle of the market day. None-the-less we put down stumps and headed over to the market before it closed.

The day before we left the showgrounds we headed out to the RAAF base at Amberley and had just the best guided tour of the planes and jets at the Heritage Centre. The Centre has only been open for 3 years but they have an incredible amount of information and artifacts in the hangers. We were there when the Super Hornets were finalising their flight plans for leaving for Iraq and practising taking off and landing. We also encountered the C17 transport planes both at the showground and at the RAAF base. Later on the day we did our tour Tony Abbott visited the base to farewell the troups. We thought we were extremely fortunate to visit the centre given the high level of security in place at the moment.

Fran and Bert left on Friday 19th September for their journey home and it was a sad moment for us all given we have been together for the past five and a half months. It's been a fabulous trip and after I return from my week in Perth with the girls and the grandies Tony and I will be on our second leg of the trip - NSW, New Zealand, Victoria, South Australia and then home.

Stay tuned for the next exciting instalment of our journey.