As most people reading this would already know our year long odyssey around Oz has ended and we are firmly planted back home in Mackay sweltering through a very humid time up north and possibly all of us wishing we were still free to travel this remarkable country as we please. But alas we have been bought back to earth by the big stick of reality, and let me tell you, it hurts! Between living in our van and shed while our house was painted and then moving back in and cleaning up, getting Chels ready for her first day at Prep-school and perhaps an ale or two.... as well as general laziness!?, we have neglected to finish our last couple of blogs. We are both keen to finish them though as we feel it will put the final full stop on our trip as well as complete the story for both the girls when they are old enough to have a crack at reading what has been at times a pretty hard to follow and verbose collection of ramblings. Not in the least also allowing Kylie's Dad, Donald T Oracle Shakespeare Bard of Yabba Creek McNaught, to finish his compilation. We both appreciate the effort he has gone to over the year to share the story with Kylie's Nanna and other members of her family in SEQ. On ya Oracle! With no more waffle I think we were in Broken Hill last we spoke.

Driving towards Broken Hill from Port Hughes was always going to be a tough drive and the pouring rain we drove through for the first couple of hours only made it more depressing. By the time we were ready for lunch the rain had eased to scattered and patchy showers with the occasional heavy burst. We pulled up in Yunta, a small community with two huge truck stops on each side of the highway. With real honest and pleasant service it was not hard to see why there were plenty of trucks willing to break their long haul in this small outback town. We continued on that arvo and reached Broken Hill with plenty of daylight left to get setup.

Broken Hill runs on the SA time zone so we were safe from changing our clocks for another couple of days. Broken Hill is a town that, growing up in Australia, you cannot help but here plenty about. From Burke and Wills to huge mining discoveries and even as a staging point for our earliest exploration and expansion into our continents rugged outback. We had a few things on our list to see while in Broken Hill and the Menindee Lakes was on top of the list. Now we only made a day trip to Menindee but we could have spent longer. A 90km drive got us out to the lakes and with plenty of water around at that time we got to see it in a peak season. We enjoyed our smoko at Copi Hollow, one of the smaller lakes that is used by the local water ski club. The water is a huge shift from some of the crystal clear rivers and oceans we have seen but none the less spectacular. The muddy brown water gives a very real feel to the area. Managed through a series of locks and weirs the lakes are used to control the flow of the Darling River, one of our most famous river systems.

The area is rich in history, from huge record breaking sheep stations, to the last pub stayed in by Burke and Wills before they set off never to return alive. We were glad to have made the trip out but the girls were fast asleep as we drove back into Broken Hill.

The next day we visited the living desert sculptures on the outskirts of town. Once again you get nothing for nothing in NSW national parks and a fee is charged to drive to the top of a hill and look back towards town!? Some of the sculptures are amazing to see, but with no shade or anything else for that matter, it leaves you wondering. Are we really that hard up as a country? Back in town we found Bells Milk Bar and Museum, a small shrine to the early days when milkshakes were milkshakes and blokes wore more hairspray then the sheilas! Full of all sorts of memorabilia it was something different to see. Another mining town and yes another mine lookout, we drove up to the Line of Lode Centre. (insert your own joke here, I did) With some extremely casual service we did not get a real lot out of the place and sad to say the other few people that walked out early with us were of the same opinion. The girls enjoyed the big red chair though. We did spend a bit of time poking through the old equipment and Charli once again kept us busy asking about a thousand questions a minute! Yes she also managed to fall over, but as always bounced back up assuring us she was alright and was definitely not running when it happened!? She was that consistent all year and still is!

Packing up the next day we were hoping to make it to Cobar, a fairly long drive, but with the rain hanging around we were unsure of our exact track home even if we made it there. We had a good run to Cobar mainly due to the beautiful day that we had and the changing scenery. Having come across some pretty barren country from Kalgoorlie to Broken Hill it was a change to start seeing the denser scrub. Pulling in and setting up we quickly headed off to the information centre and yes the obligatory mining town look-out! With flooding around the Moree and border area our plans changed a bit. Settling on a route that would take us pretty much north to Queensland we were hoping we would be above the worst of the flooding before we needed to head east. Having sorted that out, we made a short tour of Cobar. Cobar is a town which also featured heavily in our nations past, with mining and farming providing the backbone for the area. One main street has nearly everything you could need with plenty of pubs for those long hot days. We both left Cobar with a pretty positive impression of the place and both definitely preferred it to Broken Hill as a town.

The caravan park in Cobar was quite well looked after and very presentable. We noticed the owners had a baby goat ("Kid" for the fanatics!) in the front yard. Now this was not the first feral goat we had seen since Broken Hill, or the rest of Australia for that matter, and on our travels towards the border it was definitely not the last! Heading north towards Burke we came across herds of feral goats almost every couple of miles. A very tough and durable animal well suited to the area that was once world renowned for its high quality wool production. One herd, we slowed down to look at, must have had over 100 animals in it! Wondering briefly what a nice set of goat horns would look like mounted on the bulbar, I was bought back to reality by the girls telling me how cute they looked and asking if they could have one as a pet. Ahh, how things change when you have kids. Real ones, not the goat type I mean!?

We stopped in Burke for a quick tour of the information centre and then continued on. We had set ourselves the goal of reaching Cunnamulla that day. Barringun is a one pub dot on the map only a stone's throw south of the QLD/NSW border. We made our lunch and then decided to have a quick beer in the pub. Charli took an immediate liking to the old lady publicans red dog. The movie really had an impact on her. She threw an old toy for it and patted it as if she had known it for years. The dog was lapping it up. We ended up there nearly an hour yarning to the old girl. At 76 years old and having run the pub since 1970 she sure did have some good yarns to tell! The huge reduction in shearers and the fact that truckies have to be zero BAC has reduced her turnover to not much at all these days, but she is still there and open for business. Having also grown up in the Cobar, Burke, area they will probably have to carry her out in a pine box. The way she would want it I reckon.

Pushing in from Barringun we crossed back into QLD for the second and final time of our trip. With the border photo taken we made it into Cunnamulla and set up in the caravan park for a well earned rest. The whole area we had driven through was looking in peak condition with green grass waist high in many places as far as the eye could see, and Cunnamulla was no exception. Our short tour of this iconic outback town also left a positive impression on all of us. Well maintained streets and very presentable amenities as well as the essentials for travelling with caravans such as wide streets and plenty of room around the servo's and points of interest make it a joy to see. Driving through the main street early on the next morning we found the famous "Cunnamulla Fella" statue. A huge bronze figure with incredible detail, really brings him to life for anyone who sees him. Taking the pictures and explaining the story to the girls also bought us one of our classic moments. Now the "Cunnamulla Fella" name has been used in yarns and poems and songs for a lot of years and it is a bit of a tongue twister. Hearing both the girls battle with it was a real laugh for us especially when Charli pronounced she "really liked the Calamari Fairy"!? We both nearly fell over laughing!

With plenty of rain still predicted for the areas we were to pass through we packed up and hit the road from Cunnamulla pretty early headed for our chosen stopover just outside of Toowoomba. Being over 600km we were in for a long day in the car. For most of the first leg to the small town of Bollon we could see the evidence of localised flooding with the water having only just receded from the road and still lying close to the road in any lower places. Pulling up in Bollon for smoko the park we stopped at backed onto the river and it was well and truly running a banker. The girls took the opportunity to ring my mother, Janette, for her birthday and tell her about all the goats and the floods they had seen. Making it to St George for a fuel stop we both felt about an inch shorter and were sure we had rattled all the fillings out of our teeth! The road was that bad!! We all know flooding and wet seasons play havoc with roads but that excuse from the QLD Government is out of mileage with me. The worst roads in OZ with no doubt are in our fine state. Considering the wealth and population of our state it is a bloody disgrace that all levels and sides of government need to take responsibility for. Encouraging people to move out from the SE corner of our state is going to be pretty hard when there is barely a decent road to get them there! We hope they get better before we are ready for our next big trip!

The Westmar hotel and roadhouse was our next rest stop and was a real nice place. Having a couple of strategic stops when driving long distances is a must as most professional drivers will tell you and the fact that there were a few trucks also stopped at Westmar is a testimont to that fact. 600km might not seem a long way but towing a van makes it seem twice that I reckon. Both the girls really enjoy getting out of the car and looking around the places we stop and bush pubs are some of their favourites. The collections of memorabilia and outback artefacts were joined by flags of different countries signed by passers-by and even a few people who had stayed and worked in Westmar.

Our final leg of the day got us right through to Dalby and then about 30km further towards Toowoomba before we made it to the Oakey Creek Reserve, a small free camping area with a playground and basic toilet block. It is a popular free camping area with many travellers. Well looked after and very clean we were glad to pull up that arvo.

Spending the last couple hours of the afternoon having a quite beer and chatting to a couple of fellow travellers we both realised that this was going to be our last night on the road. Given that we were in Toowoomba the next day to catch up with Kylz brother Cameron and family we were basically just on a Christmas holiday style run home from now on in. This fact was a bit depressing but also very fulfilling when we thought back on not all but some of the things we had done over the year 2011. With that thought in mind we headed into our van and enjoyed our last night of true freedom on the road and under the stars. The next day would have us back in familiar territory and with only a run back up the QLD coast between us and home our journey was nearing an end.