Four riders complete a 3,000km journey from Queensland to Tasmania
A three-month horseback adventure from central-west Queensland to Tasmania has ended with an emotional homecoming.
In July, a married couple from Launceston, a Queensland stockman and a Dutch tourist started a 3,000-kilometre journey on horseback from Longreach to Tasmania.
This morning they arrived on the Spirit of Tasmania with a driver and four dogs in tow.
Terrill Riley-Gibson is happy the 100-day trail ride is finally over.
"Very relieved and delighted to be home," she said.
She spent 60 hours in the saddle alongside her doctor husband Andrew Gibson, her 76-year-old stockman father Harold Riley and Anna Hoogeboom, a Dutch architectural technician.
The four banded together to support the Leukaemia Foundation and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Ms Riley-Gibson said the ride was a celebration of their own survival stories.
Mr Gibson developed leukaemia six years ago and received a lifesaving stem cell transplant two years later.
Around the same time his wife suffered a heart attack.
Veteran stockman vows to stay in the saddle
Meanwhile, Harold felt a debt was owed to the Royal Flying Doctor Service after the service came to his aid following mustering accidents.
"We just felt, as corny as it sounds, very passionate about giving back," Ms Riley-Gibson said.
The group crossed drought-stricken country as well as land in the bloom of spring and raised almost $40,000 long the way.
At night they corralled their horses in a portable electric fence and slept in swags.
Ms Riley-Gibson said the four horses did not put a foot wrong the entire trip, unlike their support vehicle.
"We had six punctures including one totally shredded tyre," she said.
Her father, Harold, also struggled with gastro and back pain.
"One of my cousins said, 'I reckon you're too old to be doing that', but age is only a number, isn't it?" said Harold, who vowed to be back in the saddle as soon as he recovered.
Now familiar comforts beckon.
"Having a bath. Wallowing in a bath," said Mr Gibson.
The elation of making it home is not likely to wash off soon.