Journeys End in Oz

04/02/2013
  We were right about Southern Cross, we had a look around the town this morning and it doesn’t have a lot going for it. Another 100K’s or so along the main highway then we turned south into the W A wheat belt to visit another Aussie phenomenon, Wave Rock. The wheat belt is an enormous plain again stretching as far as the eye can see. Combine harvesting must be one of the loneliest and most boring jobs here.
 So what is a big lump of granite doing stuck in the middle of it all? The rock has been shaped by years of rain and wind to resemble a big surf type wave standing about 15m high. You can walk under the wave or on top of the wave but as we weren’t wearing the right sort of shoes we stayed underneath mainly. The admission charge is only $7 good value when compared to rip off rock (Ayres Rock) $50 to stand behind a fence with hundreds of other visitors viewing a rock 500m away. Then $50 to look at a hole in the ground called Undarra Lava tubes, another total rip off. Nearly all the Aussie lesser icons are free or a gold coin donation. Having spent 3 of the last 5 years travelling around Australia, these two places, Undarra and Ayres Rock, we would not go back to. I would rather do a week in Tamworth during the country music festival, (then I would cut my wrists!)
 Done wave rock, Freo tomorrow.

 05/02/2013
 More of the same as we travel through the wheat belt and this is just the southern part. As we approach the coast we lose the cornfields and drive into the outskirts of Fremantle and Perth. We are virtually at journeys end, parked up in yet another transit type camp where people in hired motor homes / campers are either starting their trip or finishing it. Fremantle, where we are is south of Perth and KB Campers, who we are selling our van to, is in the suburbs north of Perth so we still have to skirmish with the city at some stage. We have lots to do in the meantime. We have to decide what we are sending back to the U K , what we are taking onwards and what we may be able to sell or just chuck into the nearest skip. It’s all getting a bit scary and we are not looking forward to leaving Australia.

 06/02/2013
 Today we set about our preparations with some good results and some not so good. We pulled everything out of lockers, cupboards and hiding places and made a heap. The heap for sending home fits nicely into a small holdall bag, which fits nicely into a Post office official size box ready for posting,( at some astronomical fee I suppose.) We have our medication to cover us for the rest of the trip, so don’t need to worry about that and did some photocopying of doc’s we need for our journey.  Getting rid of our books is proving difficult. We tried 3 second hand bookshops but nobody is buying just now and the Cash  Converter shop ( a bit like a pawn shop) wasn’t interested in our chattels …..so some good…..some not so!
 We have arranged to meet our man Greg at K B Campers tomorrow, to haggle over the selling of our van, so we thought we had best give it a wash and brush up. Here in WA there is a water shortage and you are not allowed to wash vehicles in caravan parks. We took it to a car wash and had a blazing row because the thing was useless. Jane kept shovelling money into the thing while I operated the power wash. Months of grime don’t come off easily so we gave up and came back to the park and rubbed it down with windolene. It’s still a bit grubby but it’s shiny grubby and that will have to do. I don’t do car washing!

07/02/2013
Quite a successful day as we have achieved everything we set out to do.
We found our way up to Wannaroo, north of Perth where KB Campers are based and with a bit of haggling we managed to sell our van for pretty much what we were asking. The deal is done but we are staying in the van until Monday when we will hand it over in exchange for the loot, then we will spend a night in an airport hotel which we have yet to book.
 After getting knocked back by the ‘posh’ Fremantle cash converter we went to one that seems to be a bit more our level…….rough! They were very interested in our odds and sods so we are going back to them on Saturday to get rid of the stuff, after that we will have to improvise.
The cash converter we are using is about 50ks south of here at Rockingham, a nice seaside resort and a town we haven’t been to before. So come Saturday we will drive down, sell our stuff and have a look around the place.
Not many more jobs to do.