Our last days in Ballina

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I'm sitting here eating fake Aldi nutella with a spoon while trying to remember what we have done since the last time I posted. This should be easy, but the reality is that I struggle to even remember what day it is much of the time.

Yesterday we went to visit Ryan's Uncle and Aunty who have a house south of Ballina at Pimlico. It was our first visit there and both agree that it is in a magic spot. We completely understand why they love living there. After grabbing some lunch we followed them down to the beach (we won't mention how many wrong turns his Uncle took) and took the Triton onto the sand for the first time. It was a lovely afternoon out and after letting Noah have a run around on the beach we headed back to Ballina via the beach and caught the ferry from South Ballina across the river.

Oh, we made friends! There was a group of 4 couples staying here during the week and 3 of them were in the dog section with us. We'd said hi a few times and had some conversations, but we hadn't sat down for 'happy hour' which I think is the mark of being welcomed into the caravan park community. So, I used the only weapon I have... Noah! Didn't he just charm the pants off the oldies. It was wonderful having interaction with other people. They all left today, but we had a couple of afternoons hanging out and Ryan even scored a bottle of red.

Noah did break the hose fitting of one of the couples water hose and then he proceeded to step down a pipe that didn't have a cover on it. He's lucky he wasn't moving at pace or we could have been visiting the Ballina hospital ER. I must remember to tell the office when we check out in the morning, as it isn't safe - his whole leg went down it and then we had to use a broom to fish out his thong.

Today we travelled into Lismore to get the toilet fixed... Ryan returned to the car with a part... no fixed toilet... just a part for him to install himself. Ryan is coming down with something and slept for a large part of this afternoon, so I took it upon myself to give the repair a shot. It actually looks as though a part was just left off the open / close mechanism, so I removed that bit from the new part (we got it under warrenty) and put it all back together and now the toilet works! Go girl power!!!

One of the neighbours is coming over in the morning to help Ryan finish re-wiring the batteries in the caravan. He is an electrician, so his free help is a bonus. Ryan moved the battery from the boot to under the seat in the caravan to have a home with the second battery... but it isn't a sealed battery, so it has to go back in the boot 😞

We're packing up tomorrow and heading south. We'll find a free camp somewhere between here and Grafton for tomorrow night. Our aim is Scott's head before Friday.

A rather large storm is about to hit, so time to sign off and go close some windows.

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