Live Life With Reckless Abandon

What a long and eventful day. We were up at 5.30 a.m. (woken by the neighbours packing up their forty-foot trailer and annexed entertainment area, and seven-point-turning “the beast” out of the campground); followed by a long drive home with several rest stops, clocking off past midnight when we finally reached home.

We spent the morning soaking up Mimosa Rocks for as long as possible, finally trying out our camping shower tent and twelve-volt shower, pumped from a bucket of solar-heated water. Proper professional campers, despite the near-miss calamity when the collapsible bucket collapsed, rectified by finding the one hundred and second use for octopus straps in holding it all together.

Stopped for lunch in Narooma. Beautiful, but priced for tourists. Daph and Ern refused to pay the extortionately priced fifty dollars for a burger and nachos. They chose instead to blatantly make a sandwich in their Kombi, parked on the side of the high street outside the café. They did treat themselves to a fresh cream apple turnover for dessert from the bakery though:

Daph: “I have complete disregard for your facial hair when choosing dessert,

don’t I?”

Ern: *Moustache covered in fresh cream... “Yes.”

Then we stopped in Mogo, which we almost missed as Ern drove straight through, not picking up on Daphne’s hints of, “Ooh, this place looks so cute.” On seeing Daphne’s disappointed face as they drove out of the town, Ern did a U-turn and went back (remembering the Yarragon fiasco). A few hours were spent perusing Mogo. Then back on the road again. Daphne loves Ernest.

Stopped at the Kiama blow hole again on the way back, and this time it was blowing spectacularly. We didn’t want our adventure to end, and it was getting late, so we tried to book somewhere for one more night but to no avail. So, we settled for a pit stop in Kiama for another romantic Italian meal (this time not out of a Heinz can) before ploughing on.

Every time Daph and Ern order Italian, Daph tries the lasagne. Daph loves lasagne. But no one’s lasagne is as good as Daphne’s homemade slow-cooked lasagne. Still, Daphne always orders the lasagne and is met by some sloppy, over-cheesed excuse for lasagne that disappoints her, causing her to state she will never order lasagne again.

Daphne ordered lasagne.

Daphne was disappointed with the lasagne.

Daphne will never order lasagne again.

Then back on the road for the long, tiring last leg, interspersed with endless, pointless restricted-speed-limit areas for roadworks, which appeared to be nothing but flashing lights and men with flashing sticks but no actual roadworks.

Massive shout-out to Ern. Not only did he drive for eight hours today, but he did all three thousand kilometres of driving on this trip because Daph can’t reach the pedals in the Kombi (booster seat required and yet to be purchased). Ern is an absolute trooper. Daphne loves Ernest very much. Daphne wants to spend forever cooped up in the Kombi with Ernest. He’s the best.

We will do this again. Our plan is to do this again and again. Recent events have cemented our view that life is too short. To quote the Dalai Lama (and Ernest): “Live life with reckless abandon.” We plan to. The next two years are going to be a massive change for Daph and Ern, full of exciting adventures and making dreams come true. Stay tuned.

Daph and Ern over and out. Until next time.