How circumstances can change.
You plan trips around work, apologise for not attending family events and then you don’t have to work.
We have often considered a visit to the beach during January but had dismissed the idea due to a belief that holiday makers would ensure that there were no vacancies in the caravan parks and even if there were, there would be considerable costs involved and minimum booking periods.
Our circumstances changed and we were left with the opportunity for a weekend away and after making a late decision to book the motor home in for a service, the Big 4 Caravan Park at Narrabeen became a very attractive proposition. They had a vacancy and under the circumstances, the cost was manageable.
We invited our Son and Daughter-in-law to share the weekend with us and this also provide the opportunity for our Grandson to spend his first night away in Blue Snoopy.
Saturday in Sydney started with a continuation of the high temperatures that had been experienced on Friday when the mercury in some part of Sydney rose to 42 degrees Celsius.
We left home mid morning. “He” was driving the motor home, “She” following close behind in our car and the rest of the family following in their car. Fortunately the trip to Narrabeen is relatively short and we checked in just after 1pm.
It took the best part of 5 minutes to setup the motor home and we had a silent laugh to ourselves as we watched several other people erecting tents. This bought back fond memories of camping trips in the past when a good 2 to 3 hours would be spent erecting a tent and everything else that went with it (and another 2 to 3 hours to pack up with fingers crossed that it was dry so the tent would not need airing).
Narrabeen was exceptionally hot during the afternoon but relief arrived mid afternoon when a southerly arrived. Prior to the southerly, we had a walk to the adjacent lake and continued on to the beach where our Grandson saw the ocean for the first time. We had a BBQ for our evening meal and due to rain associated with the southerly, we enjoyed the evening at a table in the camp kitchen area.
We returned to the motor home just before 8pm, watched a little television and eventually prepared both the Luton peak and dinette area for our guests to sleep in. Much to our surprise, our Grandson asked when they were going home but he fortunately accepted the fact that he would be sleeping in Blue Snoopy. Whilst the night was hot, we did gain an understanding of the effect of closing the curtain at the Luton peak and we also explored leaving the air conditioning running in fan mode during the night.
We awoke to a wet Sunday morning. The awning was put out and we shared a delicious meal of bacon and eggs with toast and washed down with orange juice.
Our family left for home mid morning and we headed out to do some shopping. We had intended to purchase fish and chip for our evening meal but found ourselves at a local cafe for lunch.
The cloud that had been associated with the southerly cleared late in the afternoon and it was very pleasant sharing a bottle of wine whilst sitting outside as the sun set. We watched a little television in the evening and headed to bed just before 11pm.
Monday saw us at Sydney RV Centre at 8.30am where we had arranged to have the motor home services. There were some minor warranty items that required attention and we also made a decision to have our television placed on an arm for convenience (this is one of the better decisions we have made as the television now stows in a manner that we have full access to all cupboards and the television can also be positioned so it is clearly visible from any position inside the motor home. It can also be removed from the arm and taken outside and attached at the external antenna point where 12 volt power is also available).