Rented Horse

Adelaide weather was “disappointing”, but we did get to Jane and Justins’ new abode. Wasn’t much point in doing all the things promised cos it had already been done – not much storage space in a 60 sq mtr house. There wasn’t even enough floor space to spread things out nor enough lights or taps to make a statement. Guess we’ll just

have to wait ’til the extensions are done.

But it was great to see them both in their own first home. Nice to have a Adelaide 5000 address regardless of plot size. We had a couple of dinners/lunches with Justin & Jane and Janes Mum and Dad, Anne & Quentin. Great company and really good to catch up.

By Tuesday night we were ready to leave – our sights were set on home. Six months have passed and we were like the proverbial ‘rented horse’ – at the nadir of our journey, that depressing point closest to the end.

One remaining duty, since we were going to pass the door, was to call on Judes’ brothers Ian and Graeme in Swan Hill and give them an overview of our journey as neither of them have or can work a computer. Set up Graemes’ TV to play photos and his most immediate response was “how’d ya do that”.  Well I didn’t want to bore everyone with 5000 photos, so I picked what I thought might be interesting. But I didn’t pick so well.

Anyway, we finally returned to Lima East on Friday. Quite a change to be in a mansion relative to the Hovel but the back yard isn’t nearly as big.

For those of you who take statistics seriously, we have been away for exactly 6 months and  covered 14924 km in the Hovel and 11404 in the Suzi. The Hovel shows a trip average consumption of 21.9 l/100km and the Suzi a surprisingly high 11.8 l/100 km. The trailer shows more signs of damage than either the Hovel or the Suzi, despite the Hovels brush with a tree. Diesel averaged around $1.65 c/l and petrol was about the same so our total fuel cost was about $7600.00. Servicing of both the Suzi and the Hovel ran up a total of $2o56.00, repairs to the trailer a further $1675.00, repairs to the toilet a staggering$271.00 and the fridge a further $25.00. Jude has yet to do a final tally on the living expenses but I suspect the biggest cost will have been caravan park fees. We “free camped” at every opportunity and enjoyed the Webbers back yard for about 5 weeks in total but when we wanted to offload Suzi and explore we mostly parked up in a caravan park for security. One surprisingly low expense was that of gas with the consumption of just 18 kg(two bottles) over the entire period. Gas was used for all free camping for cooking and water heating as well as running the barbie on occasion. However the variables in the price of gas both bottled and from the pump is amazing – we paid $22.85 for a bottle refill in Perth and $36.99 in Port Augusta. But the pump price for LPG has ranged from 72.9 to 1.44.9 c/l across the country. The highest diesel cost was 203.9 c/l. of course on the Nullarbor. We took advantage of every Woolworths and Coles special offers on fuel but you know that the prices are inflated in the first place and even so the average price remained at 1.65. The discount stations are not always where you want them, nor  can the Hovel fit into some of those that are about.

The Hovels tank holds just 140 litres which provides for a theoretical 636 Km range but we were never close to empty, setting a limit of 500 km between fills. The Suzi on the other hand has a theoretical range of just 466km on its 55 litre tank and it got bloody close to bone dry on a few occasions particularly after chugging through sand.

Apart from some unexpected costs the rig served us well. We were definitely the most comfortable of all our fellow travellers and I suspect saw much more than most. If this is camping please give us more.

Whilst we confined the trip to the south of both SA and WA the weather throughout was pretty good. I think Jude counted just 6 wet days until we hit Port Augusta and Adelaide which added a further 4 days of relatively inclement weather. We spent most of the days in light clothing, only adding jumpers at nights later into winter.

This has been the first of our adventures. I hope you have shared some of it with us. If it induces you to follow suit I have done my job.

This is a fabulous country – its sights, its sounds, its cities, its towns, its barren landscapes, its very complex scenery but most of all its people. We have but tapped perhaps 15% of its allure. The next phase of the journey can’t come soon enough.

Signing off for now, but please keep tuned for the next adventures of the old folk in the Novel Hovel.