Just like that, another year gone!

Season's greetings dear readers.

We’ve been remiss about sharing our adventures. This is partly because our route back home after leaving the Sunshine Coast took us through country we’ve already travelled - some as recently as May this year. And, of course, we were accompanied for much of the way by our own personal rain cloud, which seems to follow us wherever we go and dump on us whenever it feels the urge. We’re growing quite used to it and, really, what would a road trip be without a drenching every now and then?

Anyway, for these and other reasons, we didn’t do much in the way of exploring or taking spectacular photos. But we did manage to see some new territory after leaving Maleny, and we were delighted to catch up briefly with our lovely friend, Karen, in a soggy picnic spot en route to Dalby, west of Brisbane.

From there it was on to Stanthorpe, via Warwick where we had to meet a man about a sheep. A long and uninteresting story that we won’t bore you with. Stanthorpe was the stomping ground of the bushranger, Captain Thunderbolt. It’s in Queensland’s Granite Belt, and surrounded by granite outcrops, caves and hills, many of which were used by Thunderbolt to hide from troopers. We enjoyed a couple of warm sunny days in Stanthorpe and managed to see a little of the area.

After that, our route took us through the familiar territory of Armidale, Dubbo, Cowra and finally a lovely Christmas catch-up with friends in Lake Bathurst.

We covered just a touch over 3300 kilometres and settled very nicely into motorhome life. Leaky, draughty Penguins a very distant memory.

And so now here we are, a few days out from Christmas and wondering where on earth 2024 went. Planning has commenced for our Big Lap next year, including the installation of our new branding on Homer’s rear end. Many thanks again to the very talented Nicola Schubert for helping us with the design. #nicola_art21

The Labs were delighted (as you can see by their happy faces) to once more pose in their Christmas decorations and wish each and everyone of you a very happy and safe festive season. Our collective New Year’s resolution will be to regain our blog mojo and we look forward to sharing photos and tales of our Big Lap around the country, and a few other small trips in between.

We hope you enjoy these photos of the second half of our latest trip. Starting with a soggy selfie with our lovely friend Karen; a flooded Dalby; some wall art in Warwick (home of the gun shearer, Jackie Howe); a bit of granite and the beautiful river walk in Stanthorpe; sunrise in Armidale; and finally a stroll around the Japanese Gardens in Cowra, where the Labs took an unhealthy interest in the koi, resulting in a hasty exit to the car park.

Happy Christmas from Juddy, Stanley and Barb. Oh, and Homer too.

We acknowledge and pay our respects to all First Nations peoples, the traditional custodians of the land and waters of our great country.