Monday, 29 June 2026
Today it is the final push home after 79 days on the road, our longest road trip to date. It has been a long time living out of the truck. Mind you the truck has been stuffed to the gills with A LOT of gear. We didn’t forget much, but we did add a few bits and pieces along the way. The ones that took us the most room – the pool noddles. Although Bernie discovered that tucking one of those around the end of the car fridge reduced its rattling, so at least one of the noodles turned out to be a useful bit of kit.
We were up (reasonably) early. Not only did we need to get underway, our host needed us to vacate her spare room, as she was having a window replaced in that room today. We worry that we are in danger of our Adelaide accommodation being withdrawn. Last time we visited, there was a flood in her building and this year one of her windows spontaneously shattered. Fortunately only the outside pane of a double glazed window. We joked that if anything happens next time we visit, it will be three strikes, you’re out.
We were on the road by 8.15am with around 730 kilometres to complete to have us back in Melbourne tonight … to sleep in our own bed. Although it was Monday morning peak hour, the traffic heading out of Adelaide wasn’t too heavy and, once we started motoring up into the Adelaide Hills, it was smooth driving along the M1 Motorway.
At Murray Bridge we continued on the A1 towards Tailem Bend, making our first stop just before 10.00am. We drove through to the eastern side of Tailem Bend, to pull in at the Shell Servo located at The Bend Motorsport Park, having decided that that was an easier option than buying fuel in the city. Bernie was pleased to be able to put Shell’s premium diesel into the truck to get her home to Melbourne.
Heading south-east on the Dukes Highway (A8), our next stop was at Coonalpin to photograph the silo art again. We have photographed ‘Hope For the Future’ by Guido van Helton many times before. Completed in 2017, this is one of the earliest silo artworks and we have passed through several times on road trips to Kangaroo Island, the Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas and the south-west ‘corner’ of Western Australia.
While we were at the silo today, there were workers there pumping wheat out of the silo. Which was interesting because we had always assumed that the painted silos were decommissioned silos. But no! I don’t remember seeing it before, but there is actually a sign up promoting Viterra as the ‘Proud supporter for regional communities’. It also has some stats about the silos: Built in 1965, Height 28.5 metres, 10 cells with 16,400 tonne capacity and ‘It receives and stores grain on behalf of local growers every harvest’. Interesting. Has that sign always been there??? At times like this I worry that I am unobservant or forgetful?
After this stop, I climbed into the driver’s seat and drove the 111 kilometres between Coonalpin and Bordertown, where I pulled the truck into the parking lot at Tolmer Park. Once again, a stop that has been made several times before. The Morning Loaf Bakery beside the park can be relied upon for a delicious lunch stop. With the weather cold and gloomy it was definitely a hot pie sort of a day.
When we started this morning our ETA was 4.55pm. After a fuel stop, a leg stretch and a lunch break, our arrival time in Melbourne had blown out to closer to 6.00pm. Ah well, gotta take some breaks along the way. We crossed over into Victoria at about 12.20pm Australian Central Standard Time. Well, we thought it was ACST. Bernie changed the time on the truck’s clock and we thought he changed it from Australian Western Standard Time to the local time in Adelaide this morning BUT … did he proactively change it to EST?? When we passed a tower about 10 Ks before Kaniva our watches and phones flipped to Victorian time and we lost the half an hour that we still had to lose. Instead of it being 12.29pm, in an instant it was 12.59pm. And now the truck’s clock was half an hour behind, ha, ha.
Arriving in Kaniva, now driving on the Western Highway since we crossed the border, we stopped for another quick silo art photograph. The silo in Kaniva is a GrainCorp Silo, situated near the Band Park. The artwork celebrates the nearby Little Desert National Park and features the Australian Hobby bird (small falcon), with the scented sun orchid to its left and the salmon sun orchid to the right. The artwork, by Melbourne-based studio and mural artist David Lee Pereira, was completed in October 2020.
With time getting away from us we continued through Nhill before making a very quick stop at Pink Lake because the water level was higher – and pinker – than any other time we have passed by. Straight through Dimboola and Horsham before heading into the Town Centre of Stawell and parking in front of Waark’s Bakery. Birchip was just a bit too far off our route to make a detour for their award-winning vanilla slices BUT, this bakery is also a past winner, so the plan was to buy vanilla slices, some for now and some for later on. Justified because we haven’t had ice-creams today, ha, ha.
Oh, no, epic fail. It was 3.15pm and they were SOLD OUT. The girl who served us said that they have sold out yesterday and today, which she put down to it being school holidays. Oh, dear, we told Kerry we were bringing vanilla slices for supper. Plan B. We pigged down an apple turnover (me) and an apple slice (Bernie) in store and for supper we purchased a lemon slice for Bernie, a raspberry slice for me and a jelly slice for Kerry. She’s also very keen on jelly slice, so we felt sure she would accept the substitution.
OK, it was just after 4.00pm now and our ETA had slipped again to 6.30pm. No more stops! Besides which it was getting too dark now to stop for photos. It was already a gloomy day, so dusk was descending early. Onwards through Beaufort and, finally, after days (and days and days) of single lane roads, we arrived at the Western Freeway to enjoy not needing to wait for gaps in the oncoming traffic, or passing lanes, to overtake slower vehicles.
Around Ballarat on the by-pass and onwards around Bacchus Marsh. Nearing the city, Syri directed us to veer left to stay on the Western Freeway/Ballarat Road. We then circled north-east on the M80/Western Ring Road (heading towards the M31/Hume Highway) before exiting onto the M79/Calder Freeway which was familiar territory. We took the exit onto Bell Street and 10 kilometres later we were HOME! Although we did stop in quickly at our local Woolies just to collect coleslaw for dinner tonight and fruit for breakfast in the morning, before we do a bigger shop tomorrow when we have had a chance to take stock of what we need.
Kerry arrived with chicken and chips to go with the coleslaw. It was bittersweet seeing Kerry who was only accompanied by Reg. Kerry contacted me a couple of weeks ago to let me know that Skye’s increasing stiffness was more serious than simply getting older. I had hoped to be home to support her when the difficult decision about Skye’s quality of life had to be made, but I didn’t quite make it, with Kerry deciding this morning that, for Skye’s sake, the time had come. Lots of tears shed over the phone on the way home, and again this evening, but at least I am home now to support her in the coming days. Pets! They break your heart every single time.
On our eastbound leg we drove another 3,386 kilometres between Perth and Melbourne. Adding that to our total kilometres travelled, we have driven 19,572 in 79 days to complete the half lap of Australia with a few side trips added in. We kept telling people we had driven up through the centre, west across the Kimberley and then planned to head down the West Coast and east across the Nullarbor, only to have people say – oh, the half lap!
Now we are home for exactly one month, before we drive back to outback South Australia to explore the Simpson Desert on a tag-along 4WD tour. This trip was supposed to integrate seamlessly with our half lap but, unfortunately, Cyclone Narelle delivered too much rain to the Simpson Desert and, in April, it was the Simpson Swamp. We will be driving back to Marree to pick up the tour on the 1st of August. After a quick circuit through the desert, we will be returning from Broken Hill a couple of weeks after that. What’s another couple of thousand kilometres when diesel is at record prices?? C’est la vie.
Steps: 6,298 (4.19kms)
