As John keeps reminding me we still have a few thousand kilometres to drive. However I feel sad that we are on the last leg of our trip and I wish we were just starting, about to do it all over again. That’s how much I’ve loved it.

When we left Wollongong, we drove to Goulburn and spent the night there in a caravan park. Much as we prefer free camping, it was just too cold for us at night now and we wanted to be able to use the heater in the van.

There are two places still on my bucket list – Broken Hill and Coober Pedy, and John is quite happy for us to go that way home. On our previous trip, we saw most of Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia so the trip back to Western Australia won’t be very long.

Canberra was not on either of our to-do lists because we have both been there, although many years ago. However when John mentioned we were only an hour away, we decided it was definitely worth another visit. We first drove to Red Hill Lookout to get our bearings but in the decades since we last visited, the trees have grown and much of the view has been obscured.

Next we sought out the Australian War Memorial. Neither of us had been since it’s renovation. We were so glad we decided to come here, the displays were incredible. I truly believe every Australian should visit at least once in their lifetime as the Memorial covers all the conflicts Australia has been involved in.

Each war has its own section in the museum and each military branch has too. John read information on where his parents were stationed during the Second World War. Both were in the medical corps. He was also able to see on the Honour Roll the names of friends who were killed in Vietnam. (John was fortunate that his birth date was not drawn out of the ballot for young men to go too war. Others weren’t so lucky).

We certainly found the visit to the Australian War Memorial worthwhile and very interesting although it was also a very sobering experience. Entry is free so at the end of our visit, we bought lunch in their cafe. I was interested to see that they even had war photos on the chairs we sat on – photos of men and women in uniform enjoying a cup of tea.

From the War Memorial we decided to have a look at Parliament House and the National Portrait Gallery but we were unable to find a parking spot, especially with the caravan on the back. Instead we had to make our way back to a caravan park nearby. We realised later that it was the first sitting of Parliament – no wonder it was so busy.

The next morning we packed up and set off on the road to nowhere in particular. We were heading in the general direction of Broken Hill. It was a lovely day and a beautiful drive. The canola crops were bright yellow on both sides of the road and we were reminded it was the first day of spring (and John’s sister’s birthday) as we watched the lambs playing in the fields and foals asleep in the sun. We passed silo art and drove over narrow railway bridges.

We saw some lovely old villages and stopped at Temora to have lunch at the side of the road. This town was one that had very clearly marked areas for parking of long vehicles. It makes life for us Grey Nomads so much easier!

After lunch we had a wander around Temora. I had spied a vintage shop on the way in and led John there first. It was one of those quirky shops we love and seem to find in little out of the way towns.

My eye was drawn to paintings of budgies – because our daughter Tayler has three real ones. I thought they were great particularly when I saw they were painted by an eleven year old.

We wandered the main street before continuing on our journey.

We hadn’t planned to stay anywhere in particular but I thought we should have power so that John could watch the first elimination game in AFL and we could use the heater if we needed to. (Our van has solar so watching TV is no problem but I think running the heater might be pushing it). I checked our trusty wikicamps and found a free camp in a little town called Ardlethan. It was run by the Lions Club and the local community; there was a $2 charge for 12 hours of power and a toilet on site.

It is such a great idea for little towns like Ardlethan to provide free camping for Grey Nomads. Right opposite the camping area is a supermarket, newsagent and cafe. I saw several people walking back to their vans carrying shopping. Most little towns we’ve passed through have historical buildings or information on display as well as visitors’ centres, museums or gardens for tourists to enjoy. It gives them a reason to stay and perhaps buy lunch or souvenirs. Ardlethan is an old town with the potential to do this but it needs some TLC. The museum here charges a fee to enter which is a pity. It put us off as we don’t often carry cash and we didn’t know what was on display. We always go into visitors’ centres and museums with free entry and more often than not make a purchase of some kind. Nevertheless, we bought a few items at Foodworks and enjoyed our stay here.

After a good night’s sleep, we continued on our journey. Passing through Barellan. John reminded me we had been in this area before on our previous caravan trip some years ago. I had no recollection of being here but, after checking my last travel blog (www.gonetorecess.wordpress.com), I saw that we had indeed been here although not driving the same route. Barellan is where tennis great, Evonne Goolagong was born, grew up and learned to play tennis. It is a tiny, country town not too far from Griffith in the Riverina.

We continued through Griffith and onto a gravel road which went for a couple of hours. The road is closed in wet weather but there were still lots of puddles and potholes along the way. Despite this, it was a lovely drive and good to be back in the country, away from towns and cities. We saw wallabies and lots of emus. On three occasions we saw emu families – one adult had ten little chicks. Another sign of spring.

We stopped for the night in a little town called Ivanhoe which sits on what was once a well used stock and stagecoach route, now the Cobb Highway, and was named after the book Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. The town was founded in the early 1870s. In the evening, John and I crossed the road to the hotel for a drink and pizza.

Thank goodness we had our heater. We woke to 1°! The wind was icy. We skipped showers and breakfast and headed out of town, heading back in again because we forgot to fill up with fuel in our rush to escape the cold. Our planned route was closed so we continued on the Cobb Highway towards Broken Hill. By the time we reached the small, historic town of Wilcannia we were starving so pulled in to the roadhouse along with a dozen other caravans which were coming in the other direction. We didn’t hang around. We had just 200kms to go until Broken Hill.