We get up early to begin our long 8-9 hour drive to Bourke. We drive past towns that look like the belong in an Australian version of the wild west, all they need are a few tumble weeds. Some towns are literally a township of 7 people and there are hours between each one. It's crazy and hard to comprehend the distance we're covering is equivalent to the length of the UK and not a lot in between. We drive through a small plague of locus and then stop in Nyngen for some hearty burgers, on the way back we see the front grill of the car is covered in Locust, we scrape them all off, I get a flashback of Bangkok bugs and must admit I felt a wee bit hungry. We continue driving and get to the last two hour stretch, which is a completely straight bit of road it's mental and the scenery - it's like playing the arcade game Burn Out, except no corners! We arrive in Bourke and get a warm welcome from Una and her family, they have a lovely home.

The next morning Chad (Una's husband) cooks us our first BBQ breakfast and it's gooood! We relax in the warm morning sun and then go to the new museum that's opened here. Later we go to an old bridge and see a Preying Mantis in the middle of the road!? Then we have a ride on the paddle boat/Janda. It's a really nice afternoon. Towards the end of the day we sit in their garden whilst the kids play (Ben, Molly and Chloe), get involved in hide and seek, talk plenty and get some good feeding.

The next day Una drives to the national park about 50K out of town. We end up on a dirt road in what feels like the middle of nowhere, or it could be Mars the soil is that red! We then get out and go for a walk with Molly leading the way, we stumble across wild goats! And then look at some 40,000 year old Aboriginal art on the rocks, it's pretty cool, but can't help thinking how did they get all the way out here! We have a nice picnic whilst we're out here, there is no one else around. When we get back we pick up Chloe from school and go for coffee and cake at a local café. We sit up chatting in the evening and are sad to be going back tomorrow.

We have some good breakfast and get ready to say good bye (I hate goodbyes) to our lovely relatives who really do live in the out back. Chloe cry's and nearly gets me going and we get big hugs from Molly and Ben. We say goodbye but have had a great time, it was really worth the trip. Tom starts the long drive home…………still can't believe this two hour straight bit of road. We arrive back in Canberra which is now really feeling like a home from home. Angela has cooked us a yummy roast and apple pie. We're sad to know we have more good byes to say tomorrow.

The next day Tom takes us to the bus station, Karen is really sad to go, we will miss everyone. We have an uneventful bus journey back to Sydney, in the evening we get Hungry Jacks and then go out for drinks with Amy and Jonas. We get put in a room with two very smelly boys, Karen isn't happy so I take one for the team and stay with the smelly boys and Karen goes in the one spare bed in the dorm with Amy and Jonas until the next day when I can move in too.