This evening's view through the window of my dining room. Also my bedroom but that's life on the open road for you. It's a peaceful vista, just about 5pm and the sun is starting to set. It's deliciously warm but shortly as dusk falls the temperature will drop. The 36 hours preceding this oasis of calm have not been calm - not at all. A late start yesterday morning caused by T's middle of the night wakefulness set the tone. When we finally arrived in Kingsgrove, Kingsagrovea if you're local, the mom and pop camper rental couple took over an hour to take my money and orient me around the vehicle. Don't use the toilet or the shower he said - I bloody will if I want I thought! Eventually I climbed into the cab and apprehensively pulled away to return to base camp - my sister's place in Darlington (as even the locals call it!) Ninety minutes later and fully loaded I set the satnav destination for Terrigal and ignored all its attempts to take me over the Harbour Bridge. As iconic as it would have been - there's weird toll buckets that don't take money. I was tetchy already and simply wanted to clear the city limits. Sydney sprawls so much I'm not sure we cleared the city limits till we got to Gosford! During the 2 hours it took to get to Terrigal the satnav stopped working and I became very aware of how narrow the lanes are on Australian roads! That said I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the van was to drive and T and I felt very excited. Our friends in Gosford said they'd come and see us for dinner and I felt relieved when we pulled into Terrigal at 5pm. No campsites in Terrigal. Satnav ground to a halt. Sun setting. Sister in cinema. Stressed!!!! So I switched data roaming on on my iPhone, googled and found a site at The Entrance who answered the phone and said they had room. They closed at 6pm - what happened if I arrived late I enquired only to be told - ah well, you'll be a bit buggered then mate!! Data roaming stayed on and I drove the 15km as fast as I dared - we arrived in pitch black with a few minutes to spare! £20 of data used in approx 40 mins! My next challenge was to reverse onto the slab, figure out the loo and the electrics whilst trying not to breathe. Popular with the fishermen around here it is!!! Inside lights on, curtains closed and feeling really rather pleased with myself!! Lack of data on the Telstra phone (grrrrr) meant I could not share this smug status with my FB ohana. However with $1500 of calls to use up a girl at the end of a stressful day can call her mum!!! And so, you'd think the unexpected bonus of dinner with two of the sweetest men I haven't seen since leaving Australia in 2001 would make a lovely end to a fraught day eh?! Well, you'd be right until they couldn't get off the campsite! Having used my pass to get in - it wouldn't let them out!!! Eventually site security freed them and T and I retired to our cute campahome for a solid and comfy sleep. To Be Continued.............
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