Another Sportspower crawl. First into Stawell where we walked right up a lovely mall to find the shop, then on to Ararat for the next photo. We got to Ballarat for morning tea, but the freeway now bypasses the town so we had our cuppa in a truck stop on the outskirts. Reached Bacchus Marsh a bit early for lunch, but had a nice walk around to spot the sports shop. A lovely spring blossom scent wafting around was lovely to come back to.
On to Melton for another photo and lunch in a park that we have used before. With no excuses for stopping left, we headed over the Westgate and through the heavy traffic on the South Eastern Arterial to home, arriving about 2:30. Apart from some long grass, everything was in great shape. Spent the afternoon trying to light the gas hot water and heater while everybody else unpacked.
There was no question as to the choice for tea – McDonald's won hands down. All the baseball on Saturday and Sunday that we had to be home for was cancelled due to rain. We could have stayed an extra two days in Broome!
Some reflections:
- it didn’t seem anywhere near as hot this time. We didn’t use the air conditioning whilst towing. Travelling faster because of the bigger car may have made it feel cooler too.
- the roadside stops all felt very safe.
- the national parks are not always cheaper than caravan parks as they charged by the head, even for children.
In all, we travelled just under 21,000 kms, averaging 1700 kms per week. Petrol averaged 85¢ per litre, the highest being 99.9¢ per litre, and we averaged 13 litres per hundred kilometres fuel consumption. Caravan parks ranged from $10.00 a night through to $28.00 a night We stayed 24 nights in roadside stops, 12 nights in national parks, 43 nights in caravan parks, and three nights with friends.
A wonderful and safe holiday. Now, about the next one…..
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