Today we left Jindabyne and headed thru to Lake’s Entrance. We weren’t sure how far we’d get, but it was an easy drive and we made it here by 2pm.

But it was the weirdest feeling…

I think leaving NSW was hard because we loved it so much there that one day we hope to pull up stumps and move there, but making that ‘right turn’ and heading in a westerly direction has left both of us a little deflated. It feels like we are ‘going home’ and we definitely don’t feel ready yet.

Having said that we are 7 weeks away from returning to Butler and as my friend Andrew reminded me today ‘7 weeks’ is a long time… its almost 2 years of annual leave… but from where we sit today it feels like a very short time.

I totally agree with Andrew’s comment on my facebook (‘what I’d give for 7 weeks!’), but here we are today feeling like the adventure is coming to an end. Part of me says ‘aw bugger it – just drive hard and do it in 3 days’ – and another part – the part I am listening to – says ‘now you need to really savour every moment’.

We are on something of a schedule again with a Forge National team meeting on Sept 14th/15th in McCrae on the Mornington Peninsula and then a weekend with friends in Esperance in Oct 2-4. We are also catching up with our good friends and ex co-workers at Lesmurdie Baptist, Garth & Sharron Wootton in Mt Gambier some time after we make the jaunt thru the Great Ocean Road.

But today I sit in a council caravan park in Lake’s Entrance for a single night as we make our way to Melbourne. Danelle wants to take the kids on the ‘Puffing Billy’ up in the Dandenongs, so I guess we will spend at least one day in the city. Cities have not been places we have spent much time over this journey. They are all a bit the same from state to state and not where we find the greatest peace and rejuvenation, but they are still hubs and for that reason we will spend some time in them.

From here the plan is to spend a couple of weeks in Victoria, a day or two in South Australia as we drive thru (I know there are nice parts, but it just doesn’t grab us at all – maybe 2 nights at Cactus if the surf is decent) and then the final month cruising up the coast of WA including Esperance, Bremer Bay, Albany, Denmark, Walpole and Busso before heading back home to Butler.

I wrote earlier that I was getting bored while on holidays, but now I am getting concerned that they are coming to an end. There is lots of ‘self talk’ about how good it will be to be back home… but I’m not convincing myself yet…

Perhaps 7 weeks is long enough to make the difference… we can only hope!