Our last trip anywhere was back in March 2021 when we travelled to Hill End and then to Mudgee for a caravan club event. Since then, medical issues have had to be addressed and further COVID lockdowns have made sure we had to camp at home. We managed to take the caravan up and down the driveway a couple of months ago and earlier in November, we did a round trip to Penrith of about 110k’s to have the caravan serviced.
We the car packed over a week ago and most of the items in the caravan packed on previous days, we extracted the caravan from our driveway just before 9:00am to start our short trip to Budgewoi, a drive of around 110k’s and a little over 2 hours north of our home.
A disabled truck at North Ryde forced us to reconsider our route and after travelling on the Pacific Highway from Chatswood to Hornsby, it did not take long before we were travelling north at just under 110kph. The trip to Penrith for the caravan service had been worthwhile as it provided the ability to reacquaint with the process of towing, so the trip today was really like old times when we were able to travel frequently.
We arrived at the Budgewoi Holiday Park just after 11:00am. “He” then spend a couple of hours setting up our campsite as for the second time since owning this caravan, we were going to us our annexe. The annexe we use is an inflatable structure and unfortunately after inflating the structure, a valve came loose whilst disconnecting our pump and that resulted in having to start again. We then managed to blow a fuse with the pump but after a considerable amount of time, the annexe was inflated and secured to the ground. The annexe is attached to the caravan via our awning and almost doubles our living space. With rain forecast for most of our stay, we anticipated the annexe would be heavily used.
After completing the setup of our campsite, we shopped purchasing groceries and fruit that we have decided not to bring from Sydney. Our goal is to support local businesses as much as possible. We also made enquiries about purchasing chicken and vegetables on Saturday afternoon and we were assured that the shop would have an abundance of both.
We renewed acquaintances later in the afternoon and then joined everyone for a happy hour. Lights were attached to the roof of the annexe where we had our evening meal before deciding on an early night to bed. Unfortunately, cramps made sure that “He” had a terrible nights sleep.