DAYS OF OUR LIVES CONTINUE IN AUSTRALIA

After the long trip to and from Darwin, we were happy to see our garden blooming with red and white roses....   the fruits were also getting bigger while our loquats and strawberries were ready to be eaten....  the vegetables were a bit stunted due the dry weather lately....   later in November 2012, we would be going back to Brunei Darussalam, and planning to come back in Melbourne in late January 2013, hoping that most fruits are ready for harvest then, Insya Allah.... 

From 5 to 8 November 2012, we were having a marathon driving from Darwin to Melbourne in just 4 days...   it was a record for us to cover about 4,000 km, driving at average 100 kph, 12 to 14 hours a day, refuelling at every 300 km, in most cases without a power nap.....   our salute was to our son, Akustiadi and his passenger (Minho), driving the BMW pulling a caravan with full of stamina and will power, single handedly all the way without a co-driver....   on my part, I have my wife to take turns driving the KIA when I was tired.....   our first overnight stay was at the Renner Spring Caravan Park at $40 per night for 4 persons whereby that cost was too much for having a power problem at the beginning and poor facilities....  then we stayed again at Erldunda Caravan Park at $54 with good facilities, and finally at Port Augusta Big4 Caravan Park at $71 with excellent facilities....   near Erldunda we encountered a heavy rain in a dark environment and lots of lightnings, thus slow driving....   at Ararat, we have decided not to stay but to proceed home even in the darknest of the night with showers along the way....   surprisingly, there were many cars travelling bothways that night....   it became worst and very dangerous when the road trains passed or overtook our cars....  with the strong wind, we felt that our cars were sucked into the heavy vehicles....   Alhamdulillah, at last we arrived home at 10.30 pm, tired but overjoyed that we were safe and sound, looking forward to see our garden the next morning....