Camping it up

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I slept like an absolute baby last night after my skinful of beer and lack of sleep the night before. I didn't climb out of my bed until at least 10am and walked through to find Lee already awake and be greeted by Des with a huge smile on her face. Des asked if I wanted breakfast, which I thought was a silly question, and told me to help myself to the cereal in the cupboard. There was a huge choice of cereals in different plastic containers but went for the healthier looking one with pieces of dried fruit and nuts in it. It was a welcome accompaniment to the slight hangover I had as I joined Lee on the sofa. He looked remarkably more chipper than me, but seeing as I had lost my drinking legs I wasn't all that surprised. He told me that we would head to the Hyperdome this morning to pick up a few bits for our camping trip the next day as well as anything I wanted. After breakfast he called Kemton and asked if there was any chance of a lift over, to which he replied 'No worries'. Within half an hour we were in the car with Kemton and Jade, his daughter, and were whisked off to the Hyperdome.

It was only a two minute drive to the Hyperdome and as we thanked Kemton he nodded and with a wry smile on his face said 'Enjoy your shopping trip ladies'. Lee had made the mall out to be huge, containing everything you need, and I suppose to him it was. It was more of a sprawling site that had a mall at it's centre with an array of large outlet shops around the outside but it wasn't as impressive as what I'd seen on my trip till now. Nonetheless we headed in and immediately stumbled onto a camera store. I hadn't been able to find one in Thailand and after the battery running out on me in Siem Reap I wanted a back up.

As it was now almost lunchtime Lee suggested we grab some food as he was desperate to show me Australia healthy version of the kebab. Now as much as I wouldn't normally put the words 'healthy' and 'kebab' in the same sentence he wasn't too far off the mark. The girl behind the counter placed fresh chicken and heaps of salad, as well as the obligatory chilli sauce and mayonnaise, into a tortilla wrap before toasting it in a panini grill. It was phenomenally good with not a drop of grease or fat oozing out of the bottom as I would expect back home.

After lunch we grabbed the few remaining things we needed and went to grab the bus back. The 553 took us as far as the bottom of Tamsey Drive and only cost $1.30 (£0.90). As I looked out of the bus window I noticed that each house we passed was only one storey high. I pondered on the fact that most people lived in what was essentially a bungalow but with the amount of land that they had to play with it sort of made sense - why build up when you can build out? We made the short walk back to their house and were greeted by Lee and Carmen's ever excited dog Olive.

Not long after we'd got back Des said it was time to take the dogs to the kennels. I hadn't even thought about the fact that dogs probably weren't allowed on the beach and by the look on Lee's face he wasn't too happy about it. Olive had only been out of quarantine two days and was having to go into kennels for another seven while we went away for Easter weekend. The hyperactive Jack-Russell was Lee's baby and understandably he loathed the thought of unsettling her after such a short time at home. Sadly it had to be done and we made the long, uncomfortably quiet drive to the kennels. Although Olive seemed unfazed by the situation once we dropped her off, it was clear to both Des and I that Lee wasn't so happy and was adamant that he would be picking her up as soon as we got back.

We drove back via the Hyperdome as Des needed a few things and I was keen to get a sim card so I was contactable in Aus. Lee suggested going to 'Crazy Johns' as that's where he had got his from not two weeks ago. I picked up a pay-as-you-go sim card and proceeded to text my number home so that Mum and Dad had it incase of emergencies. Our final call was to the Boating Camping Fishing warehouse to grab some ridiculously large tent pegs under instructions from Kemton. Inside was packed with everything and anything that you could possibly want or need for any of the pastimes. We wandered through the store for ages looking at everything and thinking that we'd actually found a store worth the value of the goods! We could have spent a fortune but tempered our spending to just the tent pegs.

Once back at Tansey Drive, we hurriedly ate dinner as there was such a lot to be done before tomorrow. I had one priority before I could help and that was Mum's birthday card. I wasn't sure if there would be signal at the camp site and I wanted to male sure it arrived in time, so I set about downloading various pictures of my travels onto a card from moonpig. It took a couple of attempts as Des and Keith's computer kept wagging out on me - but no sooner had I finished I was straight into the thick of loading the trailer and the back of the jeep with box after box of things we needed including the kitchen sink. Now some people may read that and laugh, but there was actually a kitchen sink and a fridge...it was more glamping that camping. Thankfully it didn't take long and I was soon tucked up in bed, ready to get up at 4.15am the next day for a decidedly early start.

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