On the move again .....getting ready anyway

Wednesday 11th May.  Well here we are off again to Grey Nomads.  How blessed we are to be able to attend this great camp each year.  I hadn’t planned to blog about it but our lovely neighbour asked me to, so that she and her family could keep track of what we are doing, so here goes just for you Tarnya!  And anyone else who is interested of course J.  I have been doing the posts daily and taking photos but the photos took so long to arrive from my phone to my email on the computer that there's been this delay in posting.  

We started getting the caravan ready last week, with Peter giving it a thorough wash outside.  At home it is parked under a large gum tree which gives it quite good shade but boy does it ever get dirty!  Sunday was Mother’s Day but we began sorting clothes ready for the trip and putting what was ready in the van.  Because it is autumn and the weather can be changeable we take both summer and winter clothing – the one year we didn’t take any winter clothing it was freezing the whole time and we had to go into town and buy things to keep warm, so now we take both.  As a result our cupboards are bulging.  I like to take enough clothes for 10 days for each of the three of us.  That way if we get a spell of wet weather we have a bit of leeway for getting things washed and dry.  After all, in a camp with 600 odd people, there is a big demand on the washing machines and dryers J.  And if the weather is nice, with a bit of luck I only have to wash at the end of camp, for the week we then have at the beach at Broom’s Head.

As we’ve been getting ready and had the caravan open, and things being prepared to pack in the lounge room, our three cats have been very interested and restless.  They’ve repeatedly come into the caravan and investigated every nook and cranny, as well as investigating anything we put out in the lounge room.  Put a pile of jackets ready to go into the car?  Well, I’ll just sit on them Mum, and make sure you know I’ve been here.  Some shoes out ready to go?  Better lie on top of them too.  Or better still, I’ll wrestle with your lambskin slippers and chew on the lining.  Packing some knitting to take?  Let’s see if we can get some of the wool out of there.  What do you mean, it’s not for us to play with?  And every time you sit down we’ll sit on you too, just so you know how much we love you and you’ll feel really guilty about leaving us!

I do miss the three terrors when we are away.  I know they will have company because our nephew who lives at our place is there and he feeds them and makes sure they are locked inside at night.  In fact he keeps them company at night because he’s up playing his x-box all night just as he always is.  And my brother makes a point of coming for a while too, which the furbabies think is wonderful because he lets them sleep with him (daddy doesn’t let them in our bedroom).  Plus our wonderful neighbours keep a good eye on our house and on the cats.  So they are looked after.  But they are my babies and I miss them.

Having made a good start on our preparations, we were still late leaving today – we didn’t leave home until nearly 4pm.  But we were so fortunate with the traffic.  Usually it takes a good hour or more to get to the freeway that takes you north out of Sydney, and even on the freeway it can be really busy.  Today in spite of a detour to get air in the caravan tyres which delayed us even longer, for the first time ever we had free-flowing traffic all the way to the freeway and then a really great run.  We stopped for a meal after the freeway ended, at a service centre and then drove on looking for our usual truck stop near Karuah where we planned to stop for the night.  No electricity or water, but there are toilets there and you feel quite safe because there are others around.  However for some reason we missed it, and the first rest stop after where we usually stop was full with several cars and caravans already parked there for the night so we continued on further and found another rest stop just 30km or so south of Buladelah.  We were the only ones there and there was a sign coming in that said no camping so I was rather nervous about staying the night.  But it was 8pm, we were tired and didn’t want to drive on the further 30km to the free camp on the river where our friends were already camped.  They had arrived around 4pm and said it was already quite crowded.

It didn’t take too long to get settled for the night and by 9.30 we were ready for bed.  The traffic going by on the highway is quite noisy but we were tired – it had been a really full day.

It is always so good to set off with the caravan attached behind and feel the stresses and cares of every day just start to fade away. 

Here's the photo I took the next day.  Sorry it's not a good one.

Blessings
Sandie