Final - The List

The magical whisky tour is over. The Geek Wanderlost caravan has driven its last mile. The cheesy words of the old REO Speedwagon song are ringing in my ears:


                   It's time to bring this ship into the shore
                   And throw away the oars, forever


I am back now so there's not a lot more for me to say. I do think it is important however to carry out that most contemporary of activities and give everything a score or ranking. Here's what I liked and here's what I disliked, it's my own personal thumbs up or thumbs down.

Best Places I've Been / Things I've Done

Ayers Rock/Uluru - NT

Horizontal Falls - WA

Swimming With The Whale Sharks - Exmouth WA

Kakadu National Park - NT

Cradle Mountain - TAS

Flinders Ranges - SA

Most Expensive Petrol

$ 2.26.00 King's Canyon NT

Cheapest Petrol

$1.31.90 Adelaide SA

Biggest Dumps

Murray Bridge - SA

Dubbo - NSW

Ceduna - SA
Tennant Creek - NT

Places I Would Like Spend More Time In

Exmouth - WA

Broome - WA

Kununurra - WA

Kakadu - NT

Ayers Rock/Olgas - NT
Kangaroo Island - SA
Flinders Ranges - SA

The Blog


3 Followers 
99 Posts
1794 Page Views


Days On The Road


76

Worst Hangovers (In Order of Pain)

Naracoorte - SA

Canberra - ACT

Lower Blue Mountains - NSW (I just didn't see that one coming)

Perth - WA
Kakadu - NT

Places I Would Like To Visit But Didn't This Time

Gibb River Road (including the Mitchell Falls) - WA

Queensland

The Dandenong Ranges - VIC

Mt Kosciusko - NSW

Simpson Desert - SA, QLD & NT

Strezlecki Track - SA

Oodnadatta Track - SA

Birdsville Track - QLD

Buccaneer Archipelago - WA 

East Coast of Tasmania 
Lake Eyre - SA

Best Value Accommodation

The Pelican Motor Inn - Merimbula - NSW

All The People Who Put Me Up For Free (I'm not game to list them in case I forget one) - Thank You One And All

Dodgiest Meal


The Old Pearler Restaurant - Denham (Shark Bay) - WA


Best Meal


The Royal Exchange Hotel - Broken Hill - NSW
Close second comes The Barn - Mt Gambier - SA


Coldest Temperature


Minus 2 degrees in Peterborough - SA


Hottest Temperature 


32 degrees in Darwin - NT

Most Overrated Destination

Margaret River - WA

Place That Surprised Me The Most

Walhalla - VIC 

Most Pleasing Capital City

Canberra - ACT

Place That Cared The Least

Katherine - NT

Weirdly Satisfying Destination

Hutt River Province - WA

Most Helpful People

Alison from WA Tourist Office in Perth - She took care of my entire North West WA itinerary and it went seamlessly.

Ruben The Mad Crocodile Handler from Kakadu.

Most Uplifting Moment

Ayers Rock - It just affected me on a profound level

Most Sombre Moment

Watching the dead body of a motorist being loaded in to a mortuary van on the way to Kakadu

Most Surreal Moment


Having my car searched by two cops in Katherine carrying shotguns and assault rifles

Most Overpriced/Overrated Accommodation

Crocodile Hotel in Kakadu - NT

Service That Went Above and Beyond


Having the General Manager of the Mecure in Broome do my drying for me (thanks Jeff I appreciate it, your tips on Ayers Rock were also excellent)


Things I Should Have Taken With Me


A good chiropractor
A point and shoot camera (the HTC was excellent but it was stretching it to use at GPS, MP3 player, phone and camera all at the same time)
A beanie
Gloves


Things I Could Have Left Behind


The Suit and Tie


Things That I Never Used But Wouldn't Leave Home Without


Spare Tyre
Oil
Coolant
20 Litres of water

Best Bits of Kit

The Mighty Holden Vectra (its done 24,000 kilometres on this trip and has hardly missed a beat). One flat tyre that I didn't even have to change and a bit of a splutter getting off the ferry in Devonport, Tasmania. What a car.

The HTC One X, its an excellent GPS, sensational MP3 player, has an 8 mega pixel camera, works a treat as a tethering device for my laptop and is a damn fine phone. 

The Amazon Kindle, I love my Kindle. It has been by my bed every night. I may have been too tired or tipsy to read much (or anything) but she was always there when I needed her. I think I only charged her once. How good is that?

The Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC, it's kept this blog in order and let me stay in touch with the world. It's got average battery life and I thought it came with a back lit keyboard (it didn't) but it hasn't let me down.

Conclusion

For those of you who have read this far here is one last absurdity from my trip. I saw so many odd and interesting things and not all of them made it into this blog. This sign really took my fancy and in it's execution summed up everything that is great, committed, whimsical, absurd, laconic, fatalistic and joyous in the Australian way of life. I found it in a place called the Sandfire Roadhouse somewhere between Port Headland and Broome. While it is pretty funny there is a real poignancy to it as the place had been severely damaged by fire in 2009 and had been part of some serious cyclone action in 2010 & 2011. I didn't ask at the time (mainly because I didn't know about its history) but I bet there is a great story about how that sign came about and why it is there. My guess is it is one of the few things that survived all the trauma.

I would like to thank everyone who took the time to read some or even all of this blog. It was a great tool to record my thoughts and no doubt it will bring back many fond memories when I look back on it in the months and years to come. It was cathartic for me to summarise what was happening and it made me think about the experience rather than just react to it on a purely emotional level. Hope I didn't ramble on for too long, make too many spelling or punctuation mistakes and most importantly bore you to tears. 


To those of you who commented another big thanks, it was nice to get some feedback.  Its funny some of the stuff that I thought was my best work barely got a mention and in some cases only one or two people read it. Other times something I shot off in just a few minutes got the biggest response. To those of you who chose not to comment or couldn't work the comment system (my apologies) but your text messages were entertaining and greatly appreciated.

From the snow covered peaks of Mt Field in Tasmania, to the sands of the Kalbarri in WA, to the red dirt of the red centre and the dust of Coober Pedy it's been quite a rush and quite a trip. 


I was thinking as I drove towards home that Sydney Airport is not that far away and my passport is in order. I could be in Asia in 10 hours, North America in 20 hours or Europe in 30 hours so why stop now? I've got my laptop, my phone, my kindle and I bet I could hire a Vectra somewhere. Maybe I should just do it, that really would be Geek Wanderlost.