Compared with recent days, the morning was warm when we opened the caravan door.
We had not unhitched when we arrived at Richmond so other than having to retract our stabilisers and empty the cassette toilet, there was little to do before our departure at 9:00am.
Our decision to stay at Richmond let us avoid the Sydney weekend traffic and parked cars in our street that would have made it difficult to reverse the caravan into our drive. It also allowed us to have a relatively stress free drive home.
We said goodbye to our friends. They had been with us since day one and with the exception of several days in Perth, we had travelled close to them for the entire trip. We had also had the privilege of providing them with transport for the many adventures we undertook after disconnecting from the caravan. It was a sad moment.
We returned our entry tag to the Club at 9:00am and retrieved our deposit. We then managed to stop at ever traffic light between Richmond and Prospect where we joined the M4 Motorway for the final part of the drive.
We were amazed to see how much work had been done on the M4 widening project and even more amazed when we saw how many homes had been levelled in the Concord area. A park not far from where we live had been finished as well as an adjacent car park. The grass everywhere was green. A housing complex that was a deep hole when we left in May was now a four storey complex.
Our street was free of traffic and the only obstacle in being able to safely back the caravan was relocated after we asked the owner.
We returned the caravan to our driveway without any issues, shutdown the engine of the Nissan Navara and reflected on how safe the drive really had been. Other than a few idiots’ hell bent on killing themselves and other innocent people, the trip really had been trouble free. The Nissan never missed a beat, it was safe to drive and it did everything we asked of it. Considering some of the beating we gave the car in the Flinders Ranges, around Coober Pedy and also around Alice Springs, we were amazed that the steering remained true. The tyres we purchased last year (B F Goodrich All Terrain) gave us a solid ride with not a lot of noise. There is no evidence of any wear at this time.
In the coming weeks we will look at the statistics of the trip, how far we actually travelled and the cost. Even now we are certain that we are well under our fuel budget but a little over our accommodation budget. What this space.
And then there will be a book but we won’t sell the movie rights!