VO Tour - Postscript

 17th April, 1995

The edlttng process finnally was achieved, after delays bought on by the business of work and a need to distance myself from the daily rigours of writing.

Reading my entries proved to be more enjoyable than I had at first thought it would be and I stopped regularly to share and reflect on memories from the trip. The entire travelling crew have experienced flashbacks throughout the day, as I have read to them from the journal and then curiosity took hold and they read for themselves.

We have laughed in the retelling and this has proved a timely whetting of the appetite for more of the same corporate memory building. Central Australia looms large in the anticipation of further experiences and how we will react to them as individuals and as a family.

The retrospective that this affords us will provide us with more than memories. It will be vital in the planning of the trip and the identification of improvements that need to be made to gear, routines and facilities - a key aim of the trip.

The highlights of the trip were undoubtedly:
* The Grampians NP, including the rock art, climbing Mt Abrupt and Christmas Day
* Our day boating at Nelson
* the scenery along the Great Ocean Road
* Forest Gump
* Sue's birthday meal at Pizza Hut, Mt Gambier
* the architecture of the buildings at Bendigo and Ballarat
* Sovereign Hill
* Ballarat Fine Art Gallery

The lowlights were:
* the road trip from Sale to Jameison
* the night in Port Campbell
* shopping in Wagga Wagga
* washing in convenience laundries
* constantly fixing the air mattress

This was a great experience, made the more so because of the quality of the time we had together as a family unit. We hope that the memories that we have made will pass onto our grandchildren, in the same way that the family legends we possess have been passed to us ... through the revisiting of the memory by those who were present and the envy felt by those who can only hear the tale retold, without having had the primary source input of being there.