10 March, 2011 - Belmont Bayview Park, Belmont, NSW

The end of a quiet day.  It has been drizzling for the past hour or so, at least since we were online chatting with India and Jackson. Always good to catch up with the kids even if their pictures were a little distorted; no doubt we were for them.

Despite the weather forecast for patchy rain, we woke to a fine day and sat outside to have breakfast. The camp rabbits were frisking about the grass nearby, the parrots were chasing each other about from one tree to another, the crows crawed, the magpies sang their complicated songs; it was a lovely morning. And we had the whole day ahead of us with no plans at all. What a life!!

Chris in fact decided it was an opportunity to wash both the caravan and the landcruiser, badly in need of such. I fussed about doing bits and pieces of no great consequence, and then we walked the half kilometre to the Belmont shopping centre, by way of the lakeside. The purpose of the expedition was to buy a loaf of bread and a newspaper, however we returned with those and yet another appliance for the caravan: a slow cooker for $20.98. On our return before lunch I prepared the dinner, a pork curry and we left it cooking away all afternoon while we went out for a tiki tour.

We drove across to the sea coast, up a little to Dudley which is high above the cliffs and from where one may look north toward Newcastle. There were six large cargo ships waiting out at sea to enter the port. From there we came back to the Pacific Highway and retraced yesterday’s route to the camping ground.
 
We will most likely leave in the morning however will decide tomorrow. Today has been a restful day and satisfying to have tested successfully another cooking system for when we are in a motor camp.