Motor home diaries - 25th January

ODO reading 1373kms Day 6 Heading for Wallancoota.

Okay, so we had travelled 293 kms yesterday, we really needed to put in the distances.

Ulludulla sounds like a Moslem preacher, but that is not the case. No, it’s a very nice large town on the bay, about 52 kms north of our last stop at Batemans. We called in there to get some info, but we were too early. At 9:40 the Info shop wouldn’t open for another 20 minutes. We’d bought and posted whatever postcards we were going to do that day, it was too early for that coffee, so we went on. We wanted to get to Berry, a market town in the country, to get some nice meat for the barby at our next stop. It was about 83 kms distant.

It was another lovely town, we noticed a few other caravans / motor homes parked up. They must have had the same idea as us.

Another bakery, this time for a savoury pie for me and a heavenly Chocolate Éclair for M. Kim. Two coffees from the same place and back to the van for elevenses! God, it can’t get much better than this. We’re so easy to please!

It was here that we noticed a distinct change on two fronts. It was very humid, first time we’d noticed this in Oz, and the land was getting a lot greener. The hills were even less steep and a lot less of them.

Our next stop was to be Wollongong, about 144 kms away. This is apparently the third largest town in NSW, and we would be on the freeway by-passing it. The idea was to get there, and into the local Info shop. I really wanted to wild camp since it was to be our last full night in the van. To be able to find a place where we could legally achieve this we’d have to find the info in town. There were only 2 turn offs to get from the freeway into the town, but we were not to know this. By the time we realised it was too late, we were on our way to Sydney. In 85 kms we would have completed our journey. After a change of plot we decided to drive straight into Sydney, drive across the iconic bridge, and try to find an info shop. Forty-five kilometres out a sign welcoming us to Sydney, stretched across the freeway. Kinda big city this I mused.

We got over the bridge without to much discomfort, even though the traffic was very heavy, but trying to find the info was proving to be a bridge to far. Pardon the pun. Daisey took us, first to what turned out to be an art gallery, second to Sydney arena, third to a dead end and then we gave up, as did our nerves. It’s kind of traumatic driving in a strange city in an equally strange country, in even more strange heat, the air con was working overtime.

After circumnavigating Sydeys’ CBD a couple of times we decided on a different tactic. We put caravan sites into Daisey and she found several, the nearest one being about 25 kms away. Off we went, tempers settled down, nerves loosened up, anticipation eyeing us hungrily.

Daisey led us up a very pleasant street towards our final destination. Through a recently built estate of a couple of dozen houses. “You have reached your destination” she cheerfully announced. “ My plums” I cheerfully announced. We were at the end of a Cul de sac overlooked by shiny new homes! OMG. I was cracking up. We found a shopping centre with a Post Office. They’ll know I thought. We marched in, told the young Japanese girl of our predicament and waited. “ I not able to help with you, one moment please, I git thee bos”. She disappeared out the back and came back with an……………Indian. “Oh holy flip” I thought. Or something similar. After a bit of explaining in great detail, his eyes lit up and told us we were about 5 minutes from it.
We had to go back onto the freeway, and it was about 1 click up the road.

The site, as was the shopping centre was called Bass Hill.

We drove in, and even though it was the eve of Australia day, there were plenty of spaces on this 1* site. For 35 dollars a sullen ould doll would let us share her block.
A quick recce revealed the showers, toilet, and barby areas were all pretty good, and , indeed clean.

This was to be our last night in the van. We’d have a barby with the meat from up country, some asparagus, salad and a bottle of wine. It was all very nice, even though M found 1 of the sausages a bit spicy.

M started to pack our bags after dinner, it wouldn’t be just as early a start tomorrow, but might as well get that bit out of the way.

We had a few drinks over a conversation about the previous week. It seemed a lot longer.

Stayed up late, without the usual nighttime rite of spraying mossy spray on our bodies. Went to bed about 11:30 and slept soundly until M woke up at 7: 15.Oh well, might as well get up.