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March 22 - 24, 2023
This short trip was primarily taken to check out Springbrook NP and the surrounding area. The Settlement Area campsite, which is the only campsite in the NP, was pre-booked through the QLD Government website and cost $6 per night.
Day 1
Driving towards Springbrook NP campground we stopped at:
- Purling Brook Falls
- Wunburra Lookout Old School and
- Gauriemabah Canyon Lookout .
That was enough adventure for one day before driving to the Settlement camping area for the night.
Day 2
For our second day we visited:
- Twin Falls Circuit Walk
- Goomoolahara Lookout Walk
- Best of All Lookout Walk
- Fudge Shop, Springbrook
Day 3
On the way home we visited Natural Bridge Walk Witches Falls Winery for a yummy wine-tasting and charcuterie lunch.
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April 29 - May 03, 2023
The primary purpose of this trip was to celebrate Liz's birthday with lunch at the Spirit House Thai restaurant in Yandina. We thought we may as well take the opportunity to have a few nights away at the same time.
Day 1
Because it was the Saturday of a long weekend (Labour Day), we left earlier than we normally would, expecting the traffic to be bad on the Bruce Highway, which it was! Despite the hordes on the road we made it to Hidden Valley campground by 11:00 A.M, found our designated spot, set up for two nights, then relaxed while waiting for Liz and Mark to pick us up and take us to the restaurant. Hidden Valley is a beautiful small campground located in a working macadamia farm, surrounded by mature trees full of birdlife, including their resident emu called "Norbert". The cost of $90 for the two night stay, for an unpowered site, we thought was a bit expensive. Lunch at Spirit House was a long drawn out boozy affair with amazing food, which I thought was even better than our previous visit. Arriving back at camp late afternoon we attempted to fight off the food coma unsuccessfully.
Day 2
Today was a chill day as there wasn't anything we could do within walking distance of the camp, apart from a walk around the campsite itself, and we didn't want to have to pack everything up to drive anywhere. On our walk around the campsite we were accompanied part of the way by Norbert, who showed us the highlights.
Day 3
After two nights at Hidden Valley it was time to say goodbye to Norbert and head to Boreen Point for another two-night stay. On the way we stopped off at the Cooroy Showgrounds dump point and at the Pomona IGA for some supplies. As it was still too early to check into the Boreen Point camp, we drove past a little way to the Habitat Noosa Everglades Eco Camp to check it out for a future stay in the area. After checking into the Boreen Point Campground we had lunch, went for a walk along Lake Cootharaba, then chilled for the rest of the day. The cost for our two-night stay on an unpowered site at Boreen Point was $74. As dusk fell we setup our new foldable Winnerwell firepit, got it started and attempted to burn the hardwood we'd bought at the campground reception, which didn't go quite as planned, because the hardwood must've been still a bit green. However, we persevered and managed to have a decent fire for the rest of the night.
Day 4
Our last day away from home was another chill day, enjoying the surroundings and wildlife at Boreen Point campground. We had a beautiful walk along the beach in the morning after breakfast, walking as far as you can go towards the Noosa River and Lake Cooroibah. The rest of the morning was spent doing some chores and relaxing, until lunchtime when we wandered up to the Apollonian Hotel for a yummy lunch, seated outside in their extensive gardens. There was more chill time for the rest of the afternoon, before getting to work on the firepit again, this time with hindsight making it a roaring success.
Day 5
Drove directly home.
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May 15 - 19, 2023
We took this opportunity to have a few days away because there wasn't anything important going on, and no appointments for a change.
Day 1
We left home around 9:00 A.M. and headed north towards Mount Perry, in the North Burnett region, our first night's stop. We ignored the GPS, which wanted us to drive for hundreds of kilometres up the Bruce Highway, and turned off onto the D'Aguilar Highway, towards Blackbutt, where we stopped for brunch at the Blackbutt Bakery. While pottering around in Mata after brunch we heard a lady say "hello" outside and it turned out to be Sandy and Noel Hutchings, #26 TV, who were living temporarily in Blackbutt. We swapped war stories with them for a while before carrying on our journey north. Apart from that stop we only had a brief rest stop in Nanango, where there was also a peanut van selling dozens of different flavours of peanuts. We bought a bag of chilli BBQ nuts that went wonderfully with a beer later in the day, before carrying on to the Mount Perry Campground for the night, which was $22 for an unpowered site, but because it was raining we were put on a powered site hard slab. Once setup for the night we strolled around the town to see what it had to offer. Mount Perry is a quaint little town with these some of the attractions we saw: WW2 Leopard Tank Miner statue Federal Inn General Store Museum. The total drive for the day was 375 km.
Day 2
Left the campground around 9:00 A.M., headed in the direction of Gin Gin. Our activities for the day included:
- Mount Perry Lookout 1800's Government Powder Magazine
- Boolboonda Tunnel - Mystery Craters
- Jim's Industrial Art Trail outside Gin Gin. Finished up the day at the Wyper Park Scout Camp campground, which is a well-run camp with hot showers and large grassy sites, for only $10 per night.
Day 3
After leaving the great scout camp around 9:00 A.M. we drove to Childers to make use of their RV rest area dump point, and to visit the Military and Memorabilia Museum, which cost only $5 each for entry. We've never seen so much stuff crammed into such a space. There was no room anywhere that you could possibly fit any more exhibits. The displays on the First, Second and Vietnam wars were particularly comprehensive, however it would take several days to do it all justice. After stopping briefly in Biggenden to top up the fresh water, we drove to the Coalstoun Lakes National Park to do the crater lakes walk, after first having lunch. The walk up to the first viewing area for the crater lake is extremely steep and tested our fitness, but it was well worth it for the impressive views of the crater lake and surrounding areas. That was all we had planned for the day, apart from driving to Murgon where we parked up for the night in the Murgon Golf Club free camping area, alongside the course and along a bit from the driving practice area. Nothing to worry about here!
Day 4
Today was going to be a short driving day, travelling less than 50 km, to end up at a winery outside Kingaroy. To kill some time until it was a reasonable time to have lunch we stopped first at the Woodcrafters Workshop in Wondai, then to the information centre and timber museum next door. Next up was a quick stop at the Wooloorin Wetlands to check out the bird life, then up to the Wooloorin Lookout for a view of Kingaroy and surrounding areas. We really enjoyed the flavoured peanuts we'd bought in Nanango, that were now gone, so next up was a stop at the Peanut Van in Kingaroy to restock our peanut supply, and to take a photo of the Big Peanut in the adjacent park. With all the touristing done for the day it was out to the Kingsley Grove Estate winery for wine tasting, lunch and to park up for the night in their large, free camping area. The wine tasting didn't disappoint, and neither did the charcuterie board lunch, washed down with a bottle of their Sangiovese wine. We liked their wines so much we bought a bottle of sparking rose and a bottle of cabernet merlot that had a really smoky flavour, like the smell of a camp fire, which I'm quite partial to! That was enough adventure for one day, so we chilled for the rest of the day working off the food and wine coma, until it was late enough to crank up the firepit.
Day 5
Drove back home, stopping only at Blackbutt for their dump point outside the showgrounds. Over the five days we drove a total of 980 km.
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Sep 04 - 06, 2023
Although we’d visited Girraween NP during a previous trip, the weather was bad and we weren’t able to do some of the bush walks we’d planned, so we took this opportunity to do a short trip there and do those walks. The Castle Rock campsite was pre-booked through the QLD Government website and cost $6.50 per person per night.
Day 1
I drove the first stretch of the journey to get us past the commuter traffic on the Gateway, then onto the M2 towards Boonah, where we stopped to fill up with diesel, before carrying on with Meg driving onto those back roads that we love so much. Not far south of Boonah we left the nicer road and turned off towards Legume, travelling over narrow, winding mountainous roads, sometimes sealed and sometimes gravel, that at times narrowed to not much more than a single lane. Our immediate destination was Killarney for a lunch stop at the Killarney Hotel, where we’d lunched on a previous trip in the area.
Because of the road condition, we had to drive quite slowly at times, which meant we didn’t get into Killarney until around 1:30 P.M., and by that time we were quite ravenous. The lunch and drinks went down a treat and fortified us for the next part of the drive to Girraween, about 90 km further south. Arriving around 3:00 P.M. at the Castle Rock Camping Area, we quickly found a good campsite close to the amenities, got setup for our three-night stay and I immediately went on a firewood gathering expedition. We’d left our firewood supply at home thinking that fires wouldn’t be allowed in the NP because of the potentially catastrophic fire conditions, but when we arrived at the campground many other campers were busy chopping firewood and preparing fires. With the fire all ready to go, and no internet to amuse us, we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Having had a big lunch at Killarney, we skipped dinner and sat outside enjoying the heat of the fire on a cool evening, and being amazed at the display of stars in the clear sky.
Day 2
Today was set aside to do some of the walks we’d missed out on a previous trip. We set out around 9:30 P.M. and walked from our campsite over to the day use area across the road where the northern walks begin. We’d earlier decided to the walks to the north of the park, which included The Pyramid walk, The Granite Arch walk, The Junction walk and the Bald Rock Circuit walk to round out the day. The Pyramid walk looked like being the hardest, and was about 3.5 km, starting partway along the Bald Rock Circuit walk, so we thought it would be best to do it first. Once we left the Bald Rock Circuit walk towards the Pyramid, it was another 2.1 km from that point, pretty much straight up a mountain!
The first part of the walk was easy enough on well-maintained tracks, but that didn’t last for long until we started climbing up the Pyramid. Initially we had steps to climb up for some way, but when they stopped the rest of the climb was on a sheer rock face that had us doubled over to avoid falling backwards, and having to take regular stops to catch our breath. We persevered until we got close to the top, but the climb became steep enough that we were almost on hands and knees, and the wind was blowing a gale forcing us to hold on to our hats, when we needed our hands free to navigate the ultra-steep climb. At that point we decided that discretion was the better part of valour, that we should abandon the rest of the climb and return to a more sensible altitude. After stopping for a quick snack, we did the hard yards back down to the point where we picked up the Bald Rock Circuit again, and deviated off on the short 600 metre Granite Arch circuit walk. The arch was quite spectacular, but we were a little underwhelmed having seen many such features on our recent trips. The next walk was an easier one, 2.5 km to The Junction, where Bald Rock Creek and Ramsey Creek meet. Along the way we were delighted to see many wildflowers in bloom, swarming with native bees, and many other plants and trees coming to life with the advent of spring.
The Junction was a nice, quiet, relaxing spot, with two creeks combining into one, and large rocky areas on both sides of the creeks. We found a shady spot to have our lunch, then wandered around down near the creek for a while before starting the walk back to the Bald Rock Circuit track. From there it was thankfully only another kilometre back to the day use area, where we stopped briefly at the visitor information centre before returning to camp. All up, we walked close to 10 km and we were very exhausted, particularly from the first walk up the Pyramid. Needless to say, relaxation was on the agenda for the rest of the day, apart from another firewood gathering expedition for the night’s fire. We were really tired after our big day walking, and cranked up the fire a bit earlier than normal, because we knew we would be in bed early. We cooked and ate dinner outside with the fire to keep us warm, and once again enjoyed a beautiful, clear star-filled sky.
Day 3
Our mission for today was to do as many of the walks as we could manage in the southern part of the park. After a chilly 8 degree start to the day, we set out about 9:00 A.M. The two main walks in the southern area were the Castle Rock walk and The Sphinx/Turtle Rocks walk. We opted not to even think about attempting the Mount Norman walk. Another factor in our choice making was that we’d read that the Castle Rock walk was very similar to The Pyramid walk we’d attempted the day before, and we weren’t sure that we wanted to tackle another walk of that difficulty. From the start point of the walking tracks, the walk to The Sphinx/Turtle Rocks was 7.4 km return, with the side walk to Castle Rock another 1.1 km return, so a similar distance to the day before. We set out, uphill of course, and walked to where the tracks went either to Castle Rock of Turtle Rock, and decided we’d do the longer walk first to Turtle Rock and see how we felt about tackling Castle Rock on the return journey.
The going was similar to the day before, with the tracks probably being grade 3/4, well-formed for the most part, but a lot of climbing and descending, large rocky areas and obstacles everywhere that we had to be careful to avoid for fear of tripping, falling or twisting an ankle. We were also treated to another wonderful display of wildflowers lining the track, for the most part the same varieties we’d seen the day before. After 3 kilometres of fairly hard slog, we came to the rock formation dubbed The Sphinx for obvious reasons. It was partially hidden behind some trees so that we couldn’t get a good look at it or a good photo. In front of the formation an arrow was painted on a rock pointing towards The Sphinx, up a steep rock face. We didn’t fancy climbing up that so carried on
to the end of the track where Turtle Rock was located. We didn’t think that the rock looked much like a turtle (maybe we hadn’t been taking the right drugs!), but took some photos, had a rest and a snack, before starting the return journey. Some people arrived while were sitting there and when we mentioned about The Sphinx, they said to go around the left of it to get a better look. Heading back, we stopped at the Sphinx again and doing as suggested we got around behind The Sphinx, where we had a much better look and photo opportunity. It took another hour or so to walk back to the turnoff to Castle Rock, where we walked a short way up the track, found a shady spot to sit, and had our lunch. We had decided by then that we didn’t have the energy to tackle another radical rock climb so, once lunch was finished, we walked the last 2 kilometres back to camp. Needless to say, we were running very low on energy after walking another 7.5 km, often in difficult conditions, so the afternoon was spent relaxing to recuperate. After our previous firewood gathering expeditions, we’d built up enough stocks for another fire for the evening, and as for the previous night, it was started early in anticipation of another early night.
Day 4
After packing up we left camp around 9:30 A.M., headed for home. We’d hoped to stop off at Heavenly Chocolate, a short drive away from the campground on the way to the New England Highway, but it is only open Friday – Sunday, and because today was a Thursday, we were disappointed. Apart from a stop in Stanthorpe to visit a dump point, the only other stop we had was to the Royal Hotel in Harrisville for lunch. After a leisurely drive we arrived home about 2:30 P.M.
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October 30 - November 10, 2023
The initial motivation for this trip was to attend the Explorer Motorhome Rally in Wauchope, NSW, from the 1 - 4 November. The secondary purpose of the trip was to catch up with Meg's family in Newcastle, Sydney and Gunnedah.
Day 1
We left home around 9:00 A.M., with an initial destination of a winery near Wallangarra for lunch. The first part of the trip is always the most boring, travelling on the same major roads as many previous trips, the Gateway Motorway, through the tunnels and onto the Cunningham Highway, past Ipswich, through Warwick and Stanthorpe etc. While that part of the journey was mostly without incident, while driving at 100 km/h past Ipswich I noticed that the steering wheel was shaking disturbingly and pulling to the right. We stopped at a nearby servo to check out the wheels but couldn't see anything obvious, and decided that it was safe to carry on. We arrived at the Balancing Heart Winery before 1:00 P.M., which was nice and quiet being a Monday. The Mezze Plate was an easy choice for lunch, and we went for the complimentary wine tasting while we were waiting for that to arrive. The Mezze Plate was amazing, as was the Rose we chose to have with it. That wine, and a Blanc de Blanc we'd tasted, were so nice we bought a bottle of each to take with us. It was a short drive from there to the Deepwater Pub, which has a free camp out the back of the pub. We were the only ones there so got to choose the best spot to park up for the night. Unfortunately the pub was closed for the day due to the owners being at an awards night in Sydney, and a lack of available staff to keep the place running, so we had to fend for ourselves for the rest of the day.
Day 2
Our main mission for today was to get to a tyre repair place to check out the shaking steering wheels. We decided that Armidale would be the nearest town that would provide such services, and it was only about 150 km away. Our first stop in Armidale was Tyrepower, who said they could help us but not until after lunch, so we went for a drive up to the lookout, then to the railway station museum exhibits to kill some time. Back at Tyrepower at 1:00 P.M. we had to wait a bit longer before they could deal with us, but eventually they got Mata fixed up and we were back on the road, headed for a free camp at Thora. The free camp was close to the road, so a bit noisy, and we had read that there was a noisy rooster that started squawking at 4:00 A.M., so we didn't have much hope of a good sleep, but you get what you pay for, and when you pay nothing you can't complain. It turned out to be not as bad as we'd expected and we both slept well.
Day 3
Today was the first day of the Explorer Motorhome Rally in Wauchope, which was less than 150 km away. We stopped briefly at the dump point in Bellingen, then again in Macksville to fill up with fresh water, before carrying on to Wauchope, where we arrived around 11:00 A.M. We checked in at the gates to the showground, parked as directed, and got setup for the next three nights. The first order of business was a walk around the showgrounds to see who else was there that we knew, said hello to some people we hadn't met before and caught up with the people we had met many times before and now counted as friends. After lunch we chilled for a bit, caught up with socials and such, and went for another walk around to check out the more recent arrivals. At 4:30 P.M. we all gathered at the bull ring for a Finska competition, which we chose not to participate in this time, and instead chatted with another Explorer owner who was sitting beside us. After an hour or so we were getting cold, so went back to our place to keep warm, have dinner and relax some more.
Day 4
After a leisurely start to the day we wandered the kilometre or so into Wauchope to buy a couple of things, then after returning we went to check out the activities in the pavilion. These were very much the same as the previous year, so we didn't spend too much time there. After lunch it was back to the pavilion for an afternoon of presentations and prize giving. We weren't feeling very sociable after that so we stayed at our place for the rest of the day/night.
Day 5
It was another leisurely start to the day today, with the first 'event' being the longest morning tea, at 10:00 A.M., where we all sat out the front of our motorhomes with morning tea as a ute drove around with a cameraman on the back filming all us. At 11:00 A.M. we wandered over to the bull ring to find out what the 'Dash for Cash' event was all about. Turns out it was mainly a fund-raising event to raise money for the RFDS, which was loosely based on horse racing. I participated in once race, which was a lot of fun despite not winning the race. After lunch it was back over to the pavilion for an afternoon of show and tell, trivia and more prize giving. Unfortunately, we didn't win the trivia this year. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and having dinner before heading back over to the pavilion for the last event of the rally, which was some instruction in line dancing, music from a local band, and lots of shouting to other people to be heard over the music and very bad acoustics in the hall. We tried our hand (or should that be feet!) at line dancing, but I gave up early in the piece because of my general lack of coordination when it comes to dancing. The band was fairly average and had to hear, so after a bit more chatting we left while we still had voices that worked and turned in for the night.
Day 6
That was it for the rally for another year and, after some final goodbyes, we left Wauchope about 9:00 A.M. We drove through some heavy rain and strong winds on the way to Maitland, but thankfully that cleared as we got closer to our destination. It was close to lunchtime by that stage, and we were quite hungry so stopped for a pie in Raymond Terrace, not far from Maitland, before carrying on and arriving at Zac and Hana's place around 12:30 P.M. The rest of the day was spent catching up with them, their new rescue greyhound called Dwight, and with Hana's mum and sister, overeating and over drinking and having lots of fun.
Day 7
Today was pretty much a case of rinse and repeat from the previous day, with the exception that Lilli and Andrew also joined us for lunch, staying for as long as they could before having to return home.
Day 8
We got away from Maitland about our usual leaving time and drove the 290 km to Gunnedah, stopping only briefly at Muswellbrook for a toilet and stretch legs break. We tried to walk around a bit there looking at their Vietnam War memorial installation but the rabid flies drove us back into Mata to continue our journey. After picking up some pies for lunch we went to Meg's mum's (Helen) place, had lunch with her and spent the afternoon chatting, before driving to the campground to set up for the next three nights. At 5:00 P.M. Fran came and picked us up and drove out to the house they had just purchased for a final pre-purchase inspection, taking us so we could check it out too. Back at Fran's place we had a wine to celebrate the new house, then we walked back to the campground along the new bike/footpath that was being built the last time we stayed in Gunnedah.
Day 9
Because we didn't want to have to pack up Mata to go and see Helen again, we broke out the pushbikes, donned helmets, girded loins and hit the road. We stopped off at Eats on Main, a cafe close to the campground, to grab some lunch for the three of us. Helen was out when we got there so we let ourselves in and did a bit of cleaning until she arrived home. After morning tea, some chatting, lunch and more chatting we headed back to the campground for the afternoon, as Helen was going to the Melbourne Cup event at the retirement village soon after that. More relaxing was the order of the afternoon, including showers, so we were well refreshed by the time we headed out for dinner to the Railway Hotel with Fran, Phil and Helen. Unfortunately, there was some kind of event happening at the Railway Hotel, making it too noisy for us to be able to talk easily, so we decided to go to the nearby Thub Thim Thai restaurant. This was one of the better Thai meals we'd had, made better I believe by the entire staff being Thai, and providing authentic meals. We all ordered a dish each and shared all the meals, so we got a good variety of food. After saying goodbye to Fran and Phil, and being dropped off back at the campground by Helen, all we had left to do for the evening was to work off the food coma.
Day 10
The only plans we had for today were to spend some more time with Helen, on what would be our last full day in Gunnedah for some time. Once again we jumped on the bikes to get to Oak Tree to see Helen, so we didn't have to pack up Mata to get there. Helen was away socialising again, so we let ourselves in as we had the day before, and it wasn't long before she came back. We had morning tea, lunch and chatted some more on various topics, before we left to bike home so Helen could attend her exercise class. Mid-afternoon we were surprised by a visit to the campground by Helen, who stayed with us for a while, mostly sitting out the storm that had developed during the day. The storm drove us inside for the remainder of the day.
Day 11
Before starting our journey back home, we packed up, filled up with fresh water and headed north towards Texas, our planned stop for the night. We hadn't planned the day at all, thinking only to drive to Texas via Barraba, Bingara, Warialda etc. Setting out from Gunnedah, we took the road to Kelvin, a road we'd never been on before, despite our extensive travelling around that part of NSW.
After driving for a couple of hours we had a rest stop in Barraba, swapped drivers and carried on towards Bingara. I checked out what there was to see along the way and noticed mention of some tall grass trees on a side road that went through Upper Bingara, then went back onto the Bingara road. So we diverted off the road we were on, onto the side road, and a few kilometres along that road, stopped on the side of the road where there was a large number of grass trees of varying shapes, sizes and heights, some over three metres tall. Unfortunately the flies there were numerous and rabid, so we only stopped long enough to take a few photos. Next up was a lunch stop in Bingara, under the old bridge that spans the Gwydir River. We decided then to avoid major roads as much as possible for the rest of the day, and when leaving Bingara headed first for Delungra.
That 44 km stretch of road included about 20 km of gravel that, while in reasonable condition, was bad enough at times that we had to reduce our speed to 30 km for long stretches. We drove through Delungra, then for a few kilometres towards Mount Russell, to the Wyoming Lavender
Estate, where we stopped to take photos of their lavender crop and check out their shop. The owners were really nice telling us about their operation, and we learnt that there are two types of lavender, French and English. We bought a few bits and pieces, then got back on the road in the general direction of Ashford, once again sticking to back roads that were sometimes gravel, sometimes sealed and sometimes driving through farmland, which is exactly the type of driving we like. We had been commenting on the feral animals during the day that seemed to be abundant in the area, having seen signs indicating that 1080 poison had been laid for wild dogs, pigs and foxes, and having seen multiple instances of wild pig roadkill, and also seeing goats roaming around farmland. Unfortunately, when leaving the lavender farm, we also saw a dead Koala in the middle of the road that we had to navigate around. Carrying on we drove through Ashford and Bonshaw, eventually coming out onto the Bruxner Highway where we continued on to our free camp for the night, on the banks of the Dumaresq River. We spent a pleasant afternoon sitting outside and catching up on our socials, enjoying the peaceful, quiet location, on what was to be our last night on the road for this trip.
Day 12
The day dawned hot and sunny, so we were up early, all packed up and on the road by 8:00 A.M. Apart from driving the 400 km back home, our secondary mission was to travel as many back roads as possible on the journey. After stopping briefly at the dump point in Texas, we set out towards Oman Ama, then through Gore, Karora and Leyburn, where we went off-piste onto a minor road, which took us across to Allora. We had a brief rest stop in Allora before continuing on, over some hilly, winding, narrow roads to Gatton. It was getting close to lunchtime by then, so we walked around the town for a bit to kill some time until the Royal Hotel started serving lunch. I normally don't have high expectations of country pub food, usually quantity over quality, but this one surprised us by having really nice meals that weren't too big. Well fed and watered, all that was left to do was to hightail it home, covering the last 130 km of this trip. Just wanting to get home by this stage, we forgot about the back roads and travelled on highways for the remainder of the journey. So, that was it for another adventure of 12 days, covering 2050 km.