All good things must come to an end...

It has been over a week now since we arrived back home in Colac. We left Carol and Allen's on Wednesday the 17th November and got to Bordertown early that afternoon. Spent the night there, much to Laura's disgust as she wanted to keep driving and get home that night. She kept asking "are we really going to get home tomorrow?" over, and over, and over again until we said if she asked it again we were going to turn the bus around and go back the other way!! Poor kids, we have dragged them here, there and everywhere for the last 2 years so they don't really think we will ever take them home. But of course we did, slightly earlier than originally planned but perfect to sneak up on the family. Not surprisingly we were all up and ready to go very early on the morning of Friday the 19th of November. Sent a text message to Nanny and Poppy (who were staying in Portland) that we were not stopping in to visit and would be home in Colac that day instead. Took a small detour in Ararat while the navigator was not reading the map (NOT my fault, the driver told me he knew where we were heading!) and took the scenic route home. Parked the bus and after a quick hello to Donk and Sam we headed into town to surprise Shas. Yep, got her a bewdy! Tans and family came in for tea and Gerard cooked a lovely BBQ. Froze my butt off but wonderful to be home and see everyone. Kids have all grown so much and had a ripper of a time running around the back yard like crazy people.

Anyway as the saying goes "all good things must come to an end" and this trip has sure been a good thing. Would not have changed a minute of it and would do it again in a heartbeat (not that we are going anywhere Shas, not for a long while, I promise!!) We went with the main intention of spending some quality family time together and we got to do that whilst also enjoying the beautiful scenery of our amazing country and the wonderful company of the people we met along the way. I can honestly say it has been one of the best experiences of my life and it's all thanks to my darling husband who drove a 40 foot bus (and trailer) all those thousands of kilometers without complaint (except for those couple of times I almost got us stuck, whoops!) and my beautiful children who trusted us to keep them safe and get them back home and who made great friends of each other (because frankly there was noone else most of the time!), I will always treasure this special time we've had together. Love from Deb (Mum) XXX

And a big thanks to all our friends who have followed our adventures and left comments along the way. Cheers to you all xxx