Brooms Head to New Brighton!

Ann and Delilah - the cheeky butcher bird, being fed some of the morning bacon.

Sad to see - recent erosion of New Brighton beach.

Are there gremlins around, or is 2013 just a REALLY bad year?

After Ray's short post a few days ago, we have discovered a couple of delaying problems, so are once again camping in Ann and Ross' front yard at New Brighton - if we're here any longer they'll be demanding camping fees!

We left Broom's Head for Ballina early on Friday morning to see if we could find a replacement for our leaking hot water system.  Luckily there's a large caravan repair place in West Ballina, but of course they have to get the part from somewhere else so asked us to come back Monday when they will fit it for us.  At the same time the toilet canister started leaking (not that you want to know that) so we had to shell out $170 for a new one - problem fixed.  We shan't talk about the cost of the new water system but, as with boats, it's "bring out another thousand"!  Apart from those two things, the rest of the van is behaving like a new one and we have found nooks and crannies for the myriad extras we threw in - Ray is quite proud of himself, but we have had to make a detailed plan of each cupboard and container.  No point pulling everything out when only a screwdriver is needed - but where did we put it?  The system is still to be put to the test but I'm sure it'll work - "he's an Engineer, you know".

We did think perhaps we were doomed, like Donald Crowhurst, to travel back and forwards forever from New Brighton to Brooms Head, all the time writing bright little articles about the various outback towns we were passing through, but really going nowhere at all!   For those of you who like a good read, and who would like to know more about Donald Crowhurst, there's a fascinating book, written about him by Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall, called "The Strange Last Voyage of  Donald Crowhurst" which is well worth reading.  Crowhurst was an entrant in the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe race around the world in a Piver-designed 12 metre trimaran, named Teignmouth Electron who, because of various time and money problems, set sail in an ill-prepared boat and who fabricated his log, seeming to travel around the world but actually just slinking around the south Atlantic.  He would never have been found out but for the fact that others dropped out (or sank) and it appeared he would come first - therefore bringing his log and his trip under intense scrutiny.  I won't tell you the outcome though; that would spoil the book.

So, from here to Ballina tomorrow, hopefully all finished in a day, and we're off west.  I know, I know, the last blog said South, but remember - it's a Simply Letting Go tour.

Had a lovely talk this morning to daughter Katrina and son-in-law Dave who were driving home from a christening and playing with Bluetooth in MY car.  Evidently it isn't MY car any more!  Quite rightly, she has complained that it isn't the sports version Golf, but proudly informed me anyway that it goes really fast!  I know that and Ray and I did indeed have some discussion about which car we needed - he only wanted a "normal" Golf and I would love to have the sports version - probably only because it has a red-outlined grille at the front and besides I haven't yet found anywhere to REALLY let it rip!

We've had some complaints about the length of the last blog - apparently size matters so Ray is no longer allowed to blog!

Love to all,

Sally (and Ray)