There was a marvellous spirit at the 10am and 2pm meetings though, and the 6pm one was really uplifting. Though it was chillier than I had expected at night. I have only brought a couple of light jackets and regret not bringing a really warm coat for the night and early morning meetings.
600 Grey Nomads, all in caravans or mobile homes, campervans or some sort of mobile accommodation, take up a lot of space. The Convention Centre actually has a camping ground, a motel and cabins. There is also a Youth Camp through the bush at the back of the small semi-circle and where the black line is on the diagram below.
The campground is built in a huge semi-circle, or fan-shape, around a smaller semi-circle that is an oval with permanent poles set up for a 7-pole tent for when there is the annual big camp here, for all of the northern NSW area. Although Peter snorts with derision when I say that I packed light this trip, I didn't bring my multifunction printer/scanner, so I had to settle for a photo of the area plan.
I hope you can see from this that radiating out from this smaller semi-circle are the two sets of 4 roads, forming 8 'wedges' with the administration buildings etc running down the centre of the two sets so there are 4 wedges on each side. Each of the 8 roads has 44 sites bordering it, with another 10 sites in a shorter road at the wider end of the wedge between the ends of the roads. Conveniences - toilets and laundries - are located in the centre of each of the 'wedges'. There is a road that goes around the outside of the wedges and more sites on the outside of the right half of this road. Hope that makes sense. The roads are quite wide and the sites are spacious with lots of trees for shade.
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| Looking up our road |
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| That's our car and caravan with the annexe up |
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| Looking across a couple of rows - there are mobile homes, caravans..... |
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| ...behind us is a bus fitted out as a mobile home.... |
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| Our friends Rick and Marilyn are next door to us.
We have met lots of people we have known for years, people we haven't seen for years, and new people as well. There are 'grey nomads' here who have come from every state in Australia - the furthest any of them have travelled to get here is 5,500kms; another was 4,000kms. And we have people from Tasmania as well. When you consider that means bringing the car and caravan over Bass Strait by boat, it is no inconsiderable effort. Plus there are some from New Zealand - or, as someone rudely put it, eastern New South Wales vbg. Poor Kiwis, the banter between them and Aussies never ends.
Blessings,
Sandie
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The camping area looks huge! Well set out though and giving you a good chance for daily exercise too. I love the bush and can almost smell the gum trees if I close my eyes.
ReplyDeleteHugs, Vicki xx
It is large Vicki, because it has to cope with the annual large general 'Big Camp' for all of northern New South Wales, which has several thousand campers. Unfortunately the infrastructure - ie the town water doesn't cope well with that so they have to limit the number of people who can go to 'Big Camp' in order to reduce the demand on the town water supply. But the sites are large and the camp is well set out. And it is good to have the exercise.
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