Homebound - 18,528 km in 80 days

So we had booked to stay in Boggabilla for the night as it was $50 cheaper than Goondiwindi.  That way we had two 4 hour drives to get home.  Still on the track of painted silos and water towers.  It was going to be quite fun as the roads we were following kept crossing the border between Queensland(QLD) and New South Wales(NSW).  QLD is an hour behind NSW so we decided not to keep changing our clocks until we left Boggabilla tomorrow or it would drive us nuts.  We saw lots of emus and passed through more little towns - one of which didn't even have a petrol station and we warned there wasn't one for over 100 km.

Thallon

We had options to drive here and for once chose not to go on the unsealed road as the cyclone was hitting the north coast and we might get rain so let's be sensible for a change.  We saw the silo as soon as we drove into town but the water tank was another story.  We had a choice of the hotel or the cafe which were opposite each other.  For some reason we chose the cafe even though google maps had said the water tower was next to the hotel.  We met a lovely family who had bought the cafe during COVID as they had been travelling for a year and in COVID you needed an address so they bought the cafe.  We must have stayed chatting to them for well over an hour.  When we told them where we were staying for the night they were shocked and asked us if we had ever been there before.  They told us to be careful as they were always problems there and a lot of "white" people had been attacked for their possessions and cars.  We were grateful for the warning and decided if we didn't like the look of it we would drive on the next town irrelevant of having already paid for the room.

Goondiwindi

One of the funniest signs we saw was at a level crossing.  There were no lights.  It was a stop sign at least but then it said "Look for Trains".  Hopefully the trains go slow so that if one came into view just as you pulled off, you would get across before it got there.

As we left Goondiwindi we had a 30 minutes drive down to Boggadilla.  We were turning right when we saw a policeman up ahead stopping all the cars. (Great photo Karen).

When it got to our turn he asked us where we were headed.  We told him.  He said "Don't stay in Bogadilla.  You seem far to lovely a people to even be going to Bogadilla - don't go there".  Well that was enough for us.  We rang Nat & Rob and told them we would be home that night - it was a 3 hour drive via the Highway, David felt fine, and said "he would prefer to just drive straight home".  Which is what we did.  The cyclone had really hit the mainland and both Georgia and Nat had warned us the night before that tonight the Ipswich area was forecast torrential storms so we knew care might need to be taken.  We got some amazing sky shows as the clouds crossed the sky and the rain started to pour. (Karen missed all the lightingstricks - so no pictures of the storm). 

We arrived safely in Brassall at 7pm (clocks went back).  So ended our two planned touring trips.  We had done 18,528 km in 80 days.  What memories we have to treasure - so lucky to have been able to do this.  Thank you to all those who helped it happen and made it so enjoyable.