As always we spent our last evening summing up the key stats, trip highlights and planning for the next journey. Here goes:

Distance travelled: 7,328 km – 4,454 of those on dirt roads (that’s about 69 hours of teeth chattering corrugations). Shortest distance travelled in a day – 79km, longest – 529km.

Most state borders crossed in a 5 minute interval: three (NSW, SA, QLD)

Days of sunshine: 34/35; Coldest night -2 degrees (only a little below the Melbourne daytime temperature when we arrived home)

The most consecutive days without a shower: 5 (thank goodness for baby wipes)

Winners of the fly-eating competition in order of consumption: Jatz (prize fly-catcher); David (inadvertent swallower); Andrew (snout inhaler)

Funniest moments: There were many but two clear winners. 1) Naomi mistaking a child sqatting in the distance for Jatz having a poo – and calling loudly for Andrew to get a poo bag (gotta love the blind brain assumptions), and 2) Someone who prefers to remain nameless inadvertently locking another poor camper in the shower cubicle (damn those slippery slide bolts) – we did let them out when we heard their cries for help from across the campground.

Most iconic moment: travelling alongside the ruins of the Old Ghan Railway for the full length of the Oodnadatta Track.

Best view; There were many good ones, but by far the best was the Painted Desert.

Best camp site: Bourke & Wills Dig Tree – nothing quite beats sleeping with ghosts. But the isolation of Haddon’s corner made a close second

And of course…..

Best feed (other than our own camp cooking of course): the roast pork dinner and birthday cake at the Beetoota Hotel.

Leaving Quorn felt like heading home for real. We steeled ourselves for the journey with coffee from ‘The Scruffy Fella’’ – a recent addition to Quorn it sells an interesting mix of coffee, snacks and various manscaping products. The absolute best coffee in our whole trip, and perhaps a bit before that.

Inevitably we had to hit the road. At every turn we have resisted the urge to turn around and go back out to the never never.

We plotted a homeward route that aimed to stay ‘north’ for as long as possible -trying to soak up every last bit of warmth we can. So it’s Mildura, Echuca and then home. First sight of the Murray was at Morgan where house boats were in full force

Stopped for a big feed on all our fresh fruit and vegies before crossing the border. No errant oranges this time.

Luck was with us this morning as we had no sooner got Dora into her box than the heavens descended. Complete with thunder and lightning.

Decided that rather than go home with wet canvas we would spend our last night in a motel (a bit of a cop out I know). However it didn’t take long for us to appreciate the finer things in life -that is flushing toilets and a shower.

Home tomorrow – EEEK

Left our little roadside camp around 9.30 this morning heading for Quorn- a relatively short 160km drive.
Quorn is a gorgeous s little historic town – very Maldon-ish complete with historic buildings and an old (still working) steam railway- cutely named Pitchie Richie railway.

Quorn is at the gateway to the Fllinders ranges. It was quite surreal to drive through windy green hills after so many weeks in arrid red-earth flatlands where anything over 150m is called a mountain.

Arrived in Quorn in time for a late last lunch and were set up and doing a mandatory visit to the Flinders Gin Distillery by 3.

We are staying at the Quorn caravan park which is much quieter than the last time David and I were here. I have just had the best shower since Birdsville with shampoo that actually lathers (it’s the simple things in life isn’t it?). We have booked dinner at the Transcontnental pub. Feels very decadent.

Had just settled in for a good nights sleep last night- at our usual embarrassingly early hour (we are such party animals) when gale force winds rolled in. I woke to the sound of our chairs, bucket, washing and ready-lad-out breakfast things heading west (note to self – never leave anything unsecured even if weather is perfect). After waking sleeping beauty and retrieving all of the above we unzipped all our windows to reduce wind resistance and hunkered down under the doona with wind whistling over us, canvas flapping and tent poles clinking. Dora stood up to it well and in the morning fitted nicely back into her box (thank goodness). We woke up a little sleep deprived with hairstyles straight out of the 1980s but otherwise fine. We now see the wisdom on dug out living in these parts.

After pack up we did a quick tour of some of the key sights including visiting one of the four incredible underground churches and the inevitable opal shop before hitting the road.

As we head down the Sturt Highway we are starting to feel the ‘real world’ creep back in. Landscapes are still barren but getting greener and the days of getting excited to see another car are well and truly over.

Tonight we are stealth camped in a treed clearing about 100km north of Port Augusta. We are about 100m from the road but the steady flow of road trains is a stark reminder of how much we rely on these monsters to get food on our plates. Have dusted off the woolly hats, puffa jackets and earplugs for our re-entry to the ‘south’

We camped overnight at a free camp about 60km out of Oodnadatta. We’ve become quite attached to these free camps, most are on dry creek beds with lovely shade trees- mind you, they’d be a different cup of tea in the wet season. We stayed on the banks of Kathleen Creek- very pretty and had some water still that was attracting bird life from all around- even a family of ducks. Not sure what they were diving for but they were spending most of their time with bottoms up- probably yabbies given the amount of mud.

These free camps are just fabulous- so quiet

left there round 9 am to complete the last leg of the Oodnadatta track. This is probably the roughest section of the track – I guess the graders haven’t got this far yet.- but still relatively smooth.
Hit the tarmac (for the first time in 3 weeks) round lunchtime. Pausing only for pictures at the end of the Oodnadatta.

From Marla began our journey south to Coober Pedy. We knew we were getting close when we saw the sea of mining mounds.

A quick trip up to the Big Winch look out before heading to our camp at Riba’s underground campground. Needless to say the ‘underground’ bit is for those in tents and swags- we remain well and truly above ground.

Coward Springs is the sort of place you could stop for days – but with work barking at the door we stuck to the plan and headed west. Again amazing landscapes on every crest.
Our first stop was at Strangeways Springs – on Arabana land and named after Henry Strangeways in the late 1850s who established the first Adelaide to Darwin telegraph. This small village (now in ruins) sits on top of a mound spring – with beautiful wildflowers among the old stone faces.

We stopped for lunch at the William Creek Hotel- yet another quirky outback pub in a tiny town of little else serving all things meat and chips. David had the veggie burger, clearly not their mainstream fare.

After a quick re-fuel (most expensive yet at $3.17/l ) we moved on keen to do a side trip to the Painted Desert (90km off the track just before Oodnadatta). 

The Painted Desert is a series of rocky outcrops rising out of dead flat plains. Not sure of trhir geology but the layers of different rock/sandstone/salt etc give them the appearance of a water colour. Absolutely mesmerising and should be up there on everyone’s bucket list. Like Ularu the rocks have different appearances with different light. We did a sunset viewing and had intended to go back for sunrise, but after a close encounter of the cattle kind (thankfully only enough for an adrenaline rush) we were put off driving back in the dark.

Spent the night on  Arckaringa Station- we had the whole place to ourselves. Gorgeous night around the camp fire (probably our latest bed time yet at 10pm!).

Cows were a bit curious as to who had invaded their territory and came to check us out- nothing like having a massive bovine snuffling through your rubbish bags and sniffing at your underwear on the line!

Arrived in Oodnadatta round lunchtime. Everything is pink down to the petrol bowsers and rubbish bins. We are now set up in the Pink Roadhouse tucking into a huge feast – coffee is great