Now, my first camp site is in the tiny picturesque beach town
of Umina. I chose this place, simply because it was the only one I could find on-line back home. It’s quite nice and quiet with good facilities and the beach
is 29 steps from my camper (I counted). I decided to spend a couple of days on
the down low, just recovering from the jet lag and more importantly, planning
my route around Australia. It’s actually not as boring as it sounds.
The next sentence is going to sound stupid. Bare with me.
Australia is big. I mean, fucking big. I drove for 3 hours
yesterday and I had in fact only travelled about 180km. I looked at the map and
it’s only about three fingers worth of motorway. I’ve worked out, it’s going to
be about 13,000 km for the whole trip. That’s a lot of fuel and a lot of
hours... might need to work on that one... but I suppose three months is a long
time, right?
So. Basically, I’ve now left Sydney (I’ll go back at the end
of my trip) and headed north to a town called Umina. It’s on the beach with a
population of about 12,000 and 5km of sandy beaches. The bay, around which the
town is based, isn’t in fact “open” sea, but it is saltwater and has good
waves. I got up quite early, about 5.30am (sunrise) and had a little walk to
the beach (29 steps) and was shocked to see that I didn’t have it to myself.
Dog walkers and surfers seem to be everywhere. I counted at least 40 within
shouting distance. All of the surfers were sitting on their boards on the
beach, all talking to each other like a group of old women. A big wave broke
and all of a sudden they all got up and jogged into the sea.
This is why I came to Australia.
I must learn to surf. Will do that in Brisbane...
Now, what you must understand is that my body is still on
Greenwich meantime and as a result, at 5.20am, I believed it was 9.20pm the
previous day. Despite me sleeping through the night (and the thunder storms) I
was still tired, but powered through with a coffee and did a little bit of
tidying around the van, got things into the right places and then decided I
needed to shop (I was so hungry, it had been over 24 hours since I’d eaten), so
unplugged the van and headed into the town.
There are three main supermarkets here. There’s no Tesco or
Sainsburys to be seen, instead they have Aldi (same as the British shop and by
far the cheapest), Coles (sort of like Tesco or Morrisons, but not as widely
available as Aldi) and, believe it or not, Woolworths (a subsidiary of our
Woolworths, that was separated from the company many years ago – it is also
incredibly expensive). I have pledged my allegiance to Aldi (never thought I’d
say that) and even bought a trolley token key ring thing, I am well and truly,
in the club.
Wondered around for a while, and decided I could do nothing
without a list, so got some basic provisions (sausages, milk, bread, tomato
sauce, pasta, cheese, oil, cookies and Maltesers). I’ll go back tomorrow to get
more once I’ve made a list. One thing I did notice is the extortionate price of
meat. Three chicken breasts were $14. That’s about £10. Crazy!
So, while I was in Umina, I thought I’d take advantage of
the free parking (I didn’t have to get home to put the shopping away now did
I?) and went on the hunt for a Sat Nav. Tom Tom would of course been my first
choice, followed by Navman, and then by Garmin. It seemed that the Gods were
not looking down on me today, there was only one shop selling GPS units, and
they only stocked Garmin. I talked the shop assistant down from $240 to $130
and then made him give me the traffic cameras update for free. If nothing,
working for my Dad has taught me how to haggle. He even came and plugged it all
in for me...
Umina has a “small town charm” that I’d only seen or heard
about in movies or books. People stopped in the street and talked to each
other, when I asked the man in Aldi where I could get a Sat Nav from, he simply
said “Andy” and then carried on packing my bags, as if I should know who Andy
is, or indeed where his shop is... I didn’t ask him, and pretended to know
where I was going.
So finally, with my new Sat Nav installed, I could happily
drive places without depending on my awful maps... I have decided to call my
GPS Shirley. She sounds like a Shirley. Shirley is very polite, if not a little
pushy. She seems to enjoy telling me that there is a “school speed restricted
area ahead” at least 15 times before I even get there. Once would do... I also
need to think of a name for my van. I’m thinking of sticking to the Australian
theme and going with Matilda. In fact, as I wrote that, I got Goosebumps!
Matilda it is.
So with Matilda and Shirley I stopped (on the way back to
the campsite) at a place called Staples Lookout which was named after Charles
J. Staples who marked out the route from the Pacific Highway to the small down
of Woy Woy in 1923. The views from the top were spectacular. I’ve attached a
picture. You can see all of Umina Bay and the small stone plinth at the summit
shows you the distances to local and not so local points. Wellington, New
Zealand is 2,240km away, Rome 16,345km, Paris 16,949km and London 16,982km. It
nearly seems like no distance at all really. While I was staring out over the
bay, I saw my first cuckoboro. He pissed off before I could take a picture but
he certainly wasn’t sitting in an old gum tree, and he wasn’t having a merry
old life. He looked like he’d been attacked by an eagle, or equally big bird of
prey. He looked at me gone out and then flew away. Shame.
So back at the campsite, I had new neighbours. Had a nice
chat to them. One of them was born in Manchester, but her parents immigrated to
Perth when she was 3. I don’t think Australians really get sarcasm, because my
joke about her being better here than there went right over her head, either
that or she was so offended she didn’t quite know what to say.
4pm and it was about time for the daily thunderstorm. This
time of year, the humidity builds up through the morning and late in the
afternoon, massive thunder clouds darken the skies, which are only lit by the
huge electric sheet lightning which, if harnessed, apparently could light a
city like London for three days... that’s a lot of energy. Also, why do people
say a city “like London”... why not just say London, or Madrid...
Dinner was meatballs (cut up sausages) and pasta with tomato
sauce. Simples. Washed down with Maltesers, which don’t taste like British
Maltesers and then it started raining again.
Don’t think much of this Australian weather.
So, another day coming to an end, while you beautiful people
are just waking up and getting ready for the day. So think of me asleep, or don’t,
because that’s a bit weird isn’t it... Until tomorrow!
Loves x
The girls sound lovely! x
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