Three do a Thousand Part Six: Home again home again, jiggedy jig

And that's really the end of it. One of the problems with travelling for mileage is the lack of time to stop too often and for too long.

We did quite well but it was disappointing to drive through Dubbo as fast as we could (we at least saw the sign for the zoo), only stop in Orange for petrol (seems like a very nice place) and blat through the outskirts of Bathurst as the sun started setting.

Because of the road situation through the middle we ended up heading back to Cowra and retracing our morning route (without the detour for the dam) back home. We lost the light just after Cowra so that's when I stopped knitting and we made it back to my driveway at 10:05pm, almost exactly 14 hours after we left but with an extra 1,000 km on the clock.

I'm not even going to mention the amount of op shops we passed along the way. It was harder for me in the morning when they were open but became almost a joke by the afternoon ("Oh! Look! Op shop/ market/ garage sale/ antique shop!") And I worked out a system where if I felt one approaching I'd just stare down at my knitting til it passed.

I still find it very perplexing that the Australian Fringe Benefits Tax system has people randomly driving round in order to not have to pay excess tax. M isn't the first person I've known who's feverishly driven every weekend to "prove to the Tax Office that they're using their car for work" and so not having to pay thousands extra in tax. I don't understand it but I'm happy to tag along and see more of the country. And I tell myself I'm making the trip more green - 1,000 km divided by 2 is 500 km each. With me in the back that's "only" 333 km each.

Next weekend we plan to go camping down the coast. I'm going to suggest we should drive up to Nowra as it rhymes so nicely with Cowra. And Jervis Bay is just down the road from there. It's part of the ACT. I've never been there before...