Sigh. Deep Breath …………………………………………………………………..
There is no more delaying. It is time to bite the bullet and write the final post covering the last day and night of life on the road for the Fealy Family Adventure of 2013. Aaaargh, so hard. That means our trip really is over, complete, finished, done. It was so long in the thinking and planning and all over in three very short, but amazingly good months. It feels like a dream now.
Ok, on with it.
We packed up very, very slowly from the caravan park in Normanton. We were all grumpy despite having a restful and relaxing last couple of days, we all knew our trip was pretty much over. However, once we got on the road, a wildlife spotting of an emu and her chicks crossing in front of us cheered us up a little.
Then we started seeing highway signs with some familiar town names on them and the excitement started to creep in, knowing we would see our families soon and be starting a whole new life! We stopped in the little town of Croydon for a bite of morning tea and had a wander through the visitor centre there. It was really well done, lots of interesting mining history and other bits and pieces to look at.
The next stop was Georgetown for lunch and we really knew we were getting close to home when we could buy Ravenshoe Bakery bread (the BEST bread in Australia!) from the shop in town!
Ravenshoe Bread for lunch!
Georgetown is the home of ‘Terrestrial’, the Ted Elliot Mineral Collection and for an aspiring ‘rock hound’ kid like Jack, it was a must see! It was totally worth the gold coin donation to get in and the over 4,500 mineral specimens (gold, quartz, agate, amethyst – there was everything!) from all over the world was just amazing! We were really blown away on our trip by how great the information centres in so many of the small towns were!
From Georgetown we decided to pull up stumps for the night at Mt Surprise, despite only being about an hour and a half from Mum and Dad’s place in Ravenshoe. We wanted just one last night on the road. We stayed at the Bedrock Village Caravan Park and it was probably the nicest caravan park of the whole trip! Super easy drive through sites, all quite private and shady, a pool, a great campfire area, awesome camp kitchen, lovely people and super clean amenities with the best showers ever!
Mt Surprise
Our last campsite of the trip.
We had hamburgers for tea to use up the last of our supplies and an early night. The next day we were still in no rush so spent the morning wandering around Mt Surprise. The town is only tiny but there were quite a few little rock shops (Mt Surprise is in the middle of gem hunting territory!) and other quirky bits and pieces to check out.
We decided to give Peter Prado a bit of a ‘dust off’ at the underbody wash thing just outside town and then we pointed him towards ‘home’!
We washed some of the dirt and dust off our road warrior in Mt Surprise!
And that is it! In no time at all we were re-united with Jerry at Grammy & Grunda’s in Ravenshoe (you can pick up our posts from this point starting here).
So happy to see Jerry again!
And it is all over!
That brings us to the end of the Fealy Family Adventure of 2013. The rest, as they say, is history.
Thank you to everyone who has followed along (you’ve done well to put up with all our ravings!) and offered us valuable advice, support and encouragement over the last twelve months. Our trip was definitely the best time of our lives, yes – there were some not so great moments too (think Tennant Creek breakdown, kids bedwetting Isisford), but the memories we have made will absolutely last a lifetime!
Here’s hoping we get back out there again one day, after all, we’ve still got our trip time capsule to collect!
Thanks again.
Lots of Love from the Fealy Family xoxoxoxox.
Know exactly how you feel! It’s hard to give the travelling lifestyle up. It’s the next travel goal that keeps us going. Thanks for allowing us to follow your journey, it’s been like a trip down memory lane.
Great post Jenny. My mother lived at Croydon for a little while when she was a child. My Pop was a guard on the trains and my Nan worked as the station mistress for whatever town he was sent to. Croydon was one of them. Such lovely memories for you and your family that will never be forgotten.
Oh Jess! I’m so scared for when I get to this post myself. I am going to go back to the beginning and start re-reading your travel journeys from scratch. xx
I loved your aventure jack
I love that you really slowed done for the last two nights. On previous, short terms trips i tend to just want the last agonies / sadness over with. I will work hard on savouring the the memories instead.
And i have the pleasure of starting at your beginning, as i have arrived only recently at your blog!
Sad it is over but new adventure to come hope all goes well with the baby
Thanks so much for following along Mal!