Another winter season is now over and we are homeward bound again, this time for several months. After going under the knife last year to rectify the sight blight of cataracts, this year it is to be a knee replacement (or perhaps two) for your scribe.
So, we are booked into the Windsor Gardens Caravan Park as of 10 October. With Stu's wedding scheduled for 25 March and Liz's sister Cath's 50th at the end of the month, we have set a 2017 departure date out of Adelaide for 4 April.
All that now remains is to get 'home'. We have shelved our initial plans to travel back down the coast. With the breaking of the inland drought and the massive rainfall all through outback QLD, we have decided to revisit the channel country in the hope that we'll see it as we never have before....green and blooming.
From KB we are heading down to Townsville, west across the Great Divide to Charters Towers and from there our route will take us through Hughenden, Winton, and then south to Longreach. At this stage, weather permitting we plan to sweep south-west through the tiny outback towns of Stonehenge, Jundah, and Widorah before turning east again through Quilpie en route to Charleville.
From Charleville it will be further east to Mitchell before we again change direction, this time south to another old stamping ground, St George. This will be the jumping off point for a new stretch of highway for us as we head further south through Dirranbandi and thence across the NSW border to Lighting Ridge where we plan to spend at lest four nights, possibly more given all the things we have been told are 'a must' in this black opal town.
The next leg of our homeward jaunt will take us south through Walgett (very quickly through Walgett!) and on down to Nyngan before we turn west along the Barrier Highway to Cobar and thence south along the Kidman Way to a park we have heard much about on the banks of the Lachlan River at Hillston.
From here we intend to pick up the Sturt Highway at Hay and travel this well worn route back to SA with stops at Balranald and Moorook, the tiny SA river town near Loxton which is home to 'Kloe', the house boat on which we had so many wonderful trips on the Murray before we bought our first 'landship'.
As I always say, that's Plan A. At this stage we cannot foresee any potential impediments, but we have long ago learnt to never say never! And interestingly enough, much as we love Kurrimine Beach and despite the grand time we have enjoyed over the past two months, our feet are again itching badly.....it is time to go. We are both becoming more and more convinced that we must have 'Romany' somewhere in our collective gene history.
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