Committed Travellers

The rain started soon after we hit the road about 7am. It was intermittent light rain at first, but then we had several unpleasant episodes of heavy rain with reduced visibility. The sunrise sky offered a weather warning. A couple of idiots overtook us then moved back into our lane too soon and too close to the front of the Toyota. They don't realise the car and caravan weighs around 6 tonnes which doesn't stop quickly in the wet. Soon after we turned onto the Pacific Highway a fault message appeared on the Toyota - Fuel Filter Requires Maintenance. Anita searched through the manual and we learned we had to stop if a more urgent message came on with warning bells. Fortunately that didn't happen and tomorrow we can take the problem to Toyota which is conveniently located around the corner. We passed through a couple of areas that had been burned in the spring bushfires near Port Macquarie and in the Clarence Valley. Today was the first time we have driven acr

Friends called by our van and reminded me about the red protest by the beach. I quickly walked to the surf club and saw a few hundred people had responded to the call to wear red and assemble by the beach at 9am, urging something be done to fix the beach erosion. Their efforts were reported in the ABC TV news. We drove to Lizotte's for a Beccy Cole lunchtime concert. Several Roadie friends were there so we had a good catch up. The food is very good especially considering they serve a lot of meals in a short space of time in a crowded venue. This is a wonderful historic building decorated with lots of quirky musical memorabilia. Beccy sang some songs from her Wild at Heart album and more recent numbers. Libby and Kelly performed with her. After the show they had to drive to Sydney to do another performance this evening in support of a bushfire appeal. The koala was on stage as Beccy had been given it before the show by a woman in the audience who sponsors a re

After a late start we had lunch at the George Washington Hotel at Stockton. The view is good but the food was ordinary. The huge anchors in the nearby park were originally used to secure floating docks. I stopped to buy the papers and saw notices encouraging people to wear red at 9am tomorrow as part of a protest along the seafront about the failure to properly address beach erosion. The writer complained about the caravan park cabins being relocated to "crown land" without a development application. Given the urgency of the situation the council and park management seem to have done a great job preventing the cabins from falling into the ocean. The reserve where the bulk of the cabins are being held is more likely council land. It is a large reserve where dogs are allowed off leash and the cabins occupy a small area. The local community needs tourists, and tourists need accommodation, so hopefully this aspect of the protestt will fade away. I went for an 8.5kms

Today was devoted to rethinking and researching our overseas travel plans. We received emails from Viking ocean cruises letting us know our 3 week trip from Japan to Vancouver via Alaska has been cancelled due to concerns about the corona virus. Cunard has also cancelled Asian cruises through to May. We were scheduled to sail around Japan on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth. Full refunds have been offered. None of this was surprising given recent events. Cunard has moved some ships from Asia to Australia and New Zealand. After cruising around Australasia the Queen Elizabeth will sail from Sydney to Vancouver. Bookings opened this morning but could only be made by phone. The prices have been slashed so I waited on hold for an hour before giving up and going out for lunch. Our original lunch date had been cancelled so Anita suggested we try Scratchley's in Newcastle. When I got directions from Google maps I realised we could simply catch the Stockton ferry across the Hunter River. U

This morning I spent time cleaning and lubricating bits on the car and caravan. We were due at our friends' house for nibbles and dinner at Nord's Wharf at 3pm, about an hour's drive from the caravan park. We did a little sight seeing along the way stopping at Blacksmith Beach. Our friends have a lovely house backing onto Lake Macquarie. Their dog Caddy remembers us from Aussie Road Crew trips. Other friends arrived and we had a lovely time and wonderful food. While the pool looked tempting, it was a cool day.

About 3am we were woken by the caravan door rattling in the wind that preceded a thunderstorm. The wind caused our van to rock because our awning was out. Fortunately everything remained intact but the thunder was so loud we lost sleep until it had passed. This morning we drove to Nelson Bay to buy bread from 2 Bobs Bakery. This artisan bakery makes wonderful bread so we made sure we arrived before it had all been sold. The couple who set up this very successful business previously worked as pastry and sous chefs for Gordon Ramsay. After buying a couple of loaves of bread we had coffee and croissants at The Home Interior which sells homewares in one shop and has a cafe in the adjacent shop. We drove around to Shoal Bay where were were to meet two friends for lunch. I had a  walk along the beach but it was over 30° so didn't go far. The water in Nelson Bay is still brownish and not the usual inviting blue. We ate at the Shoal Bay Country Club which has wo