Mon 19th – Wed 21st July. Lucky Bay-Kalgoorlie!

Monday 19th July

Watching the morning sunrise before leaving Lucky Bay.  Not a care in the world.

 

 

 

 

Roadside camp for the evening, starting our trip home.

 

 

 

Tuesday 20th July

Heading for the SA/WA border today.

How things can change.  As we neared the end of the longest straight in Australia, we were getting news reports that the whole of South Australia was going into lock down and we were only a couple of hours away from crossing the WA border into SA.  So roadhouse discussion and checking news updates and deciding what options we had.

- Continue into SA and abide by the lock down requirement coming into force later today.  Knowing in all likelihood QLD will label SA a hotspot and thus we would require 14 day hotel quarantine on our return.

- Wait out the 7 day lock down  (hoping it is not extended or that no other problems arise in NSW etc.) in the hope all is good and Queensland drop the “Hotspot” tag soon after otherwise we would need to also still do 14 days of Hotel quarantine.  Not to mention wait to see what conditions NSW put on for SA arrivals into their state.

- Add another 3000kms to our 3800km trip home by travelling up north and leaving WA via the Northern Territory.  (did you know that WA, the largest state in Australia, has only two road access points that are bitumen! – and more than 4000kms apart).

After much debate we opted to head back towards Norseman and reconsider tomorrow. 

 

However we did get to do the longest straight in Australia, back to back.  ie.  290 kms with only a single turn – that being a U-turn at the other end.

 

             

 

Overnighting at Newman Rocks.

 

 

Wednesday 21st July

The risk of Hotel quarantine and further lock downs etc.  seemed too high to wait and travel through SA and NSW so we have opted to minimise them as much as possible and return home via the Northern Territory… so no longer a 3800km trip home it is now 6800kms – without meaning to we will effectively be doing a lap of Australia.  Just missed out on visiting the ACT and Tasmania.

Long days ahead. 

Into Kalgoorlie again! for overnight, prep and setup for the trip home the long way round.