For the first time, our flight from Shanghai to Sydney was remarkably uneventful. Our China Eastern Airlines flight was on time, we had a comfortable and restful flight, the service and food as usual was good, there were no screaming babies, no murmuring monks and thankfully no smelly on-flight feet. Furthermore, there were no Typhoon Khosas to divert our flight and even more incredible, for a change no-one actually died. And our flight arrived in Sydney airport right on time too.

Our Rex Airlines Saab jet flew us safely from Sydney to our nearest airport at Taree where we were met by a rather relieved looking Shirley-the-Ever-Patient-House-Sitter-and-Cat-Mother . And we were relieved too that all our animals were safe and well.

It felt rather strange to be home at our beloved tiny village of Crowdy Head, after six weeks travelling through the far away countries of Turkmenistan, Iran, Pakistan and China. We had, had such a marvellous set of experiences and we hope to this day that we can do our very best to promote the places we visited, even if some were somewhat challenging and at times events became more than stressful - and just a bit too exciting.

And now, farewell to my travelogue which has taken me some five months and some 350+ hours to complete. But Alan and I are very excited about our next trip in June-July 2012. Strangely, I cannot wait to begin my next travel blog on our travels back to China and then on to northern Pakistan and India.

Watch this space!