A storm was coming through Echuca on Thursday 6th September, so we decided to keep moving south. Stopping at the Holden Museum in Echuca, we enjoyed seeing all the old Holden cars and memorabilia and also found Shane Jacobson's Holden that was in the Charlie & Boots movie.

Morning tea was enjoyed at Rochester, were we came across more silo art. The artist Jimmy DVate has painted murals of a squirrel glider and an azure kingfisher down the sides of the two silos.

On leaving Rochester the rain was coming down quite heavy, we haven't driven in rain like this for ages, and it continued up all the way to Kyneton.

Once we arrived at Kyneton, only Andrew was home, so got to chat to him first, then a storm really hit. It left us both thinking we had done the right thing and get away from the banks of the Murray River and the rivergums.

We spent the next two nights catching up with Lu, Andrew, Jay, Sandy, Hayley and Luke, and yes a couple of games of Skip-bo was played and exploring the shops in Kyneton.

Then it was 'back to where it all began' home sweet home. Our first stop was to catch up with Shaun and Clive and check on progress of the F100 project.

We know that during the next couple of weeks we will enjoy catching up with other family members and friends.

The decision this year to travel to WA rather than north to NT (as we have for the past 4 years) has made us realize that if you want to miss Melbourne's cold winter and be able to swim, wear shorts n singlet's every day, best head north rather than west, having said that, we did travel on approx. 1600k of unsealed, sometimes very rough road. Our plan was to travel on as many roads as possible that we hadn't done before and those outback (for the bus) places became the highlights of our trip. DABUS is full of red dust, has many more rattles than it ever had before, but she held up very well.

We do hope that you have all enjoyed following our 2018 travels.

Here are our stats:

Departure: 16th May 2018

Arrived: 8th September 2018

Away: 4 months & 3 days = 115 days

Distance: 14,726km

L/100km: 14.94L

Fuel: 2183.4 litres

Fuel Cost: $3471.40

Cheapest Fuel: $1.42 Mildura VIC

Dearest Fuel: $1.98 Caiguna WA

Accommodation:

Caravan Parks: $50

National Park: $24

Station Stay: $60

Beach Stays: $92

Donations: $37

Total: $263