Lunch at the Yacht Club

No one told us that the clocks went forward last night, fortunately, my phone knew so our alarm went off correctly, but mentally I was still asleep. That situation has remained now for several days. We had, what might possibly be our last shower in a bathroom for many weeks, then walked to Macca’s (McDs) to catch up with Carole. We walked back home with her, loaded Bill up and went off to visit Barbecues Galore to try and find something that would enable us to cook everything we needed while on the road. While Webber BBQs are probably the most well-known, there has been a recent change to BBQ legislation meaning that, if it is to be attached to a boat, camper, motorhome, caravan etc. the device must have an auto-shutoff. Weber has yet to manufacture their BBQs with this device and told us that they will cost $150 to retrofit. Ziggy, a competitor of theirs, produce a similar range with the shutoff installed. The question was, does it fit in Bill’s storage compartment? We spent time looking around the BBQ and I then had to go and fetch Bill from where it was parked. By the time I arrived back at the shop, we had run out of time before going to lunch - oh dear, never mind. We left BBQ-G and went to the yacht club via Carole’s to collect something we’d left. We arrived at the club just as John & Kerry were getting out of their car. However, we then had to get changed before going in for lunch, lucky we’d bought a house with us in which we could get ready.

We hadn’t seen John & Kerry since we left Oz in April 2020. We had used them as a base when COVID started impacting our ability to travel, then selling Bertha etc.

The yacht club was not the austere venue I was expecting, but a relaxed fast-food restaurant on the shores of Lake Wendouree. We had a lovely lunch and caught up on all that had happened over the intervening period. After lunch they came and had a look around Bill, Kerri said all of the right things!

Once they left us, we needed to work out where we were staying that night. We found a McDonald's to jump onto their wifi, but that wasn’t working. The campsites we phoned didn’t pick up or were booked “until the end of the month”. One message just said not to leave a message as “I don’t know how to work them”. In the end, we decided to drive a few miles back towards the farm where there was a rural park with a campsite we were certain we could get in. The cost would be a $10 donation towards its upkeep. It had few facilities, toilets and showers. Unfortunately, a key was needed for the showers and neither of the caretakers answered their phones. Despite that, we had an enjoyable night albeit disturbed by wind and rain, and an introduction to the coming week’s weather.Read more