Stay another day...

---

Day 34 - Happy Birthday Mum Howells! It’s Darryl’s Mum’s birthday today so, Happy Birthday Mum, have a lovely day and we're really glad we managed to catch up with you on the phone! The wind is howling here and the rain is coming down in buckets with hose pipe pressure so we're really pleased to hear that you've had some lovely warm days!!!!
Last night was another night filled with howling wind and lashing rain. NSW really needs it so we can’t complain and most of it seems to come at night, or did I say that too soon! The intention today was to keep the pitch for another night, catch up with a few paperwork things, give the caravan a bit of a spring clean and load up the supplies for the next week or so. Once all that was done we intended to relax in Palm Beach or at Church Point, both further north from our current location but within bus or driving distance.

We headed to reception to book another night, no major agro but we need to move over a couple of pitches as a big party is expected today and they will be parking the bus they use as a camp kitchen in our current spot! No problem, it’s no drama for us to shift sideways. Next we head off to the local shopping mall for supplies. There’s a K-Mart here so we check out the bikes and we’re soon riding round the shop trying them out! That’s the last time we go anywhere with no camera! It was comical as we donned the cycle helmets and everything! We came out of there with bikes, helmets and a battery charger for the car! Then it was off to the supermarket and liquor store for fresh salad, fish and some more beer and wine! We barely fitted it all in the car but managed to get it all back! Darryl built the bikes and fitted the bike rack to PIE and I sorted out the food and gave SWEETIE a bit of a tidy up ready for the move off tomorrow!

And then the heavens opened! Unless we wanted to canoe to Palm Beach or Church Point there was little point of venturing out, it was torrential rain and howling wind! We’d put the awning on the caravan out for the very first time but the wind was so strong we thought we should take it down for fear of it blowing away across the to the beach!

We think we’ve got a route north planned now anyway! We were going to go up the coastal road all the way to Willowbank for the racing but seemingly things are still a bit dodgy around the Kempsey, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour areas. We asked the receptionist to print us off the latest road reports and parts of the Pacific Highway are still closed off due to flooding or landslides so we decided we’ll go up through the middle when we get past Newcastle. This means our route will be North Narabeen to Bretti Reserve (30km north of Gloucester), Bretti Reserve to Glen Innes and then Glen Innes to Willowbank. We should be on the road by 10am tomorrow morning so our first section is about a 4 hour drive. We’ll see how we’re going and it very much depends on the level of traffic, weather and the terrain as to how far we get but we aim to be in Willowbank and at the track for the Winternationals on the 3rd June as the event starts on the 4th. We’re really looking forward to seeing Jeff and the gang there, Kerstyn if she's racing, catching up with Daz & Ariel and getting our fix of quarter mile action!

Hope you are all well, postcards are on their way!
All the best
Dar & Sar

PS A big shout out to really good friends Oz, Ian and Harrison after their car prang last night. We’re really sorry to hear that and we hope that you’re all ok and that we’ll speak to you soon. Lots of love to you all.

---

Comments

[Jan Kettle]

Sweetie
We are very impressed with the internal design and storage areas of Sweetie, not to mention the stack of apples and oranges! Can we have a photo of Sarah on her bike please? Love Mum and Dad K