A smooth sailing on the SOT delivered us into Port Melbourne at 630am, so we headed to Middle Park (my old stomping ground) to meet Donette, Toby, Noah and Beau for an early breakfast and catch up. Was so lovely to see them and to spend a couple of hours with them – the children went to an awesome playground (known as the Thomas playground to the Simmons family) and then we said our goodbyes to head off to Beechworth to meet The Ninth Mike winemaker (the wine which both Lord Lachlan and I discovered on Day 2 of our trip).

We intended to stay at Gundagai tonight and then head back to Beecroft early tomorrow, both Lach and I kept asking each other whether we should push through and get home but we both agreed that we didn’t want to drive in the dark having driven for a combined 10 hours today. At lunch the girls asked whether we were going to our ‘real real real home’ or whether we were camping tonight. We offered them the choice of a campsite in 2 hours or 6 hours of driving to home, and they both decided to do a big drive and get home to their real beds and see Dani and the dogs. We worked out we would be home just before it got dark – so agreed to do it.

We had a quick lunch from the Beechworth Bakery – which had the longest queue in the world, but we decided it was still quicker than a cafe. Pies and sausage rolls were delicious – the same bakery we stopped at in the Yarra valley – we knew it was worth the queue.

Luckily there wasn’t much traffic on the roads we had a good run home. Lach drove from Melbourne to Beechworth then we swapped and Lach then drove from Goulburn to Beecroft. (920km and 10h15m). The girls have been amazing sitting in their car seats all day just singing, looking out the window and dancing (as much as the restraints allowed). We expected them to have more of a sleep than the single hour they had following lunch considering they didn’t get to bed until 9pm and woken up with the Ferry speaker at 530am. We love the fact that we have no technology or devices in the car and good old fashioned entertainment. We arrived home at 845pm ad very happy to be home.

I know how everyone loves some statistics – so here are some from our 24 day Tasmanian adventure:

• Visited 27 vineyards
• Purchased from 13 vineyards, 1 distillery and 1 cider house
• Traveled 5150 km
• Stayed in 8 campsites

An amazing trip and whilst talking about this trip we have blocked out 11 weekends in 2019 for ‘camping’

Until then next Beattie GG road trip….