Driving, driving, driving and not much to see. We had a lovely free camp off the road half way between Wilcannia and Cobar which was a good chance to collect a bit of firewood to replace what we had thrown out before the SA/NSW border – this will go very nicely in the fire pit at home.

We are travelling the Barrier Highway which follows the Barrier Ranges along flat plains which are mainly scrub. Surprisingly the main wildlife we have seen along this strip are the feral goats – we must have seen hundreds and although the ‘kids’ are very cute it is obvious that there is a real problem and an eradication program is required. It’s still raining and rivers are rising with flooding and water over roads so we have to take it easy. One thing that made me laugh as we drove into the town of Warren was the ‘Island’ golf hole we spied on the local golf course. It would certainly make for a challenging round!

The whole of north east of NSW and south east of QLD are in the grip of a very large wet weather system with flooding everywhere and rivers downstream rising. We were hoping to have our last night on the road staying at a nice bush camp off the highway but with rivers rising there literally was nowhere ‘off road’ that was not saturated so we stayed the night at a very small caravan park at Gilgandra. It rained all night but luckily our route home, which had road closures a few days earlier, was now clear so we packed up early and arrived home at 5pm to an immaculate home, a very lush garden (thanks to Kara) and a much grown Binx (kitty).

There is so much to be grateful for living in this beautiful country, being able to travel safely for 7 months, seeing some amazing sights and meeting some interesting people.

These evocative words from the second verse of one of Australia’s most quoted poems. My country (written by a homesick young Australian, Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1963) in about 1904) succinctly sum up the experience.