Photos from the East Coast road trip

NELSON BAY

LOOKING OUT FROM THE CAR OVER THE VIEW OF PALM BEACH 'SUMMER BAY'

MIKE AND I AT LANE COVE CAMPING SITE IN SYDNEY

ON TOP OF OUR OLD CAR SHEILA AT LAKE GLENBAUN

AWAKE 5AM AT LAKE GLENBAUN, I WAS SO COLD!!!

East coast road trip to Coffs Harbour

Wednesday 14th – Thursday 15th October Arrived at Bonville, a small place just south of Coffs Harbour, where the blueberry farm and chosen caravan site was. Bonville Caravan Site had a big blue sign out the front saying for 'Over 55's!' Tall and Small would fit right in. The couple running the place seemed nice and it only cost Tall and Small $10 per night for a powered site with tap, shower and toilet facilities (which despite the red plastic toilet seats and the cubicals looking like they were from Alcatraz prison, they were adequate), free swimming pool (which the owner quickly cleaned out the next morning) and free wireless Internet (which although slow at times, was pretty good). Tall and Small were given their allotted space marked as Number 1, but somehow the 1 had been painted back to front, so to see it correctly you would have to view it from a mirror. The other residents seemed a bit odd. Out the back was a 'residents' section which the owner told us to stay clear of. A few old people wondered into view occasionally, and looked rather disheveled and like lost bearded tramps, muttering to themselves. There was also a strange man parked opposite, who despite owning a camperan had pitched his tent on the roof and slept up there with the door open so all could see his bald head poking out as he slept six foot off the ground. On the Thursday Tall and Small checked out the local shops, which consisted off two petrol stations and a fresh fruit and veg shop. They brought a reduced pot of fresh yogurt and mixed berry for $4.50 from the Fresh fruit shop, but when they came to eat it noticed it was 4 days out of date and full of mold. Small one took the pot back and told the dim, lazy young girl behind the counter it was four days out of date. She said 'oh someone should have taken them out ages ago'. Small one said he would take another, then pointed out that all of them were out of date. When leaving the shop with one that was only a day out of date and smelt okay, he reminded the girl again that they were all out of date. She said 'OK', and stayed slumped where she was..... someone should probably have taken them out the fridge as well. Tall and Small then walked down to Bonville Farm where they would be picking blueberry's from Monday 8.30am till 1.30pm for $17-$18 five days a week. It was a half hour walk in the hot sun. Ahead of them down the road was an elderly couple walking their big dog. They let the big dog run free across the road, and a couple of cars had to stop and wait for the thing to move. The dog then ran into a gate by the road and a huge chorus of wild barking from loads of dogs started for about five minutes. When Tall and Small walked past they saw their dog had stirred up a 'Pet Holiday Retreat'.... some retreat, with the noise coming out of that place. They got to the farm and could see a few people working in a white netted field in rows of bushes. They spoke to the older lady who ran the place with her husband (the parents of the couple met in Jenolan). She seemed nice and would see them Monday. Back at the caravan site they tried the pool which took Tall one five minutes to open the gate, which turned out to be a button to push inside the hollow top of the seven foot gate post?? The water was freezing, but Small one managed to swim a length for the first time ever. The owner noisily roared up and down the garden on a lawnmower during this, and continued to do so for the next two hours. Wednesday 14th October Said goodbye to the two German's and made a last stop at the Port Macquaire car registry office to change ownership of the campervan. Small one went inside whilst Tall one waited in the car, as he waited a man with a black eye patch pulled up next to him. Unfortunately Small one had just finished reading Treasure Island and given the book away, otherwise it would have made a nice gift for him. Tall one brought a cassette tape for 50c from a nearby Charity shop to try and see if Tony's radio worked at all. It played an awful sound which was supposed to be Rod Stewart, but sounded more like the radio was channeling the devil. They drove out of Port Macquaire with no music, but with a line of eight cars queuing behind them, as Tony plodded on at his usual 60 km an hour. Arrived at South West Rocks to find the sky full of another dust storm, but not as red as before. Both Tall and Small were knackered and dozed in the car for two hours before driving on to see Smoky Cape Lightouse. The place was full of flies and in the car park a strange man pulled up next to Tony and sat in his drivers seat a while glancing over to Tall and Small as they drank tea. He then took his shirt off (and Small also through his trousers) and sat half naked in the car for a bit longer. He then got out topless (which was no a pretty site) and lifted the hood of his car and stared in for five minutes. He then lowered the hood and walked up some steps to the lookout point, turned and walked back without stopping. Came over to Small one and asked if he had the time. Small one showed him his bare wrists and said No. The man said is that so. Got back in his car and gave Small one a strange look and drove away. Small and Tall could not be bothered walking around much and could not find any place cheap enough to camp for the night, so decided to just drive straight up to Coff's Harbour. That was the end of their road trip, for now.... Monday 12th – Tuesday 13th October Spent the next to nights in Port Macquaire sleeping for free in a car park by the Town Beach, hoping no policeman would come and fine us. Small one wanted to park with the rear facing the beach to have a good view as we sat, but managed to park directly opposite the only fence on the shoreline. We were a little more reassured about camping in the carpark as another couple in the car pack were also staying the two nights in a campavan. Small one at first went over to ask if there were staying the night, then came back and said he didn't bother asking as he looked a bit rough and she was Asian. Later that evening the guy came over and asked us if we were staying the night, it turned out he was this barrel chested, blonde German called Sebastian and she was his German girlfriend with not a hint of Asian in her, called Mac. They were a nice couple and we chatted with them both nights and mornings, their campavan was smaller but only cost $2,000. In the middle of the night with no reason the German guy moved his campavan three spaces up from us, then later moved it to the space next to ours. He told us the next morning it was due to all the cockroaches swarming out the drains and onto his car. Unlike the previous stops, Port Macquaire proved to be very hot and sunny and got up to 29 degrees. On the Tuesday Tall and Small took a walk along the 'Breakwall' people's gallery. Which consisted of hand painted rocks along the coastline, decorated by people with their own slogans and names etc etc from the last 10 years or so. Some were interesting, most pretty banal. Walking by us was a big old woman on crutches and her husband with a grey beard, pushing a small child in an empty shopping trolley. The beach car park was full of eccentrics. A tramp kept walking past us with beer bottles and smiling over the three days, which was worrying. Then a bearded man in a van smiled as he drove past, Small one smiled back and he stopped and pulled in. The man then bored Tall one to death by telling him about surrounding towns he should visit without listening to a word Tall one said back. Small one hid cooking at the back of the van (cooking mushy peas, broccoli, potato and steaks and setting fire to a gas cylinder in the process), and the man pointed out that he cooks baked beans with noodles, those ones you just add water, he said that was pretty good we should try it. Eventually he drove off, and we watched the poor lonely bastard leave and were very happy. At 6.00am both mornings we awoke to find the car park full of cars, the beach full of joggers and the sea filled with a regular group of eight elderly, over weight men swimming in the cold water. Unfortunately Tall one went into the beach toilets at that time, only to find all eight of them showering nude in cold water or drying themselves with a towel. It was like walking into a zombie movie. Small one and Tall one had wondered about the town doing some shopping and had wondered why the town clock was an hour fast. Back at the beach the two Germans pointed out that their clock was an hour faster than ours as well. They suggested that we had not noticed the clocks going forward a while ago. We looked up when that had happened, apparently on the 4th of October, nine days previously! For over a week Tall and Small had been wondering why receptions at campsites we either open earlier or closed earlier than stated, and had been living an hour behind without knowing it. It shows how time really didn't matter on the road, thankfully they found out before arranging a meeting for their fruit picking work to start. Spent a lot of day on beach and even swam in the sea, watching children and parents both using their body boards on the waves a lot more successfully. Tall one suggested they did an hours return walk down the coast to the Rainforest Reserve, and may see wild Koalas which Port Macquaire supposedly has a large population. The walk turned out to be a 2 and a half hour walk and they saw no Koalas. When they got back to the beach, the two German's said that we had just missed some whales diving out the water as well as a huge eagle. That night we took photos of cockroaches. At least on the walk the contact for the Coff's Harbour Blueberry picking work, met in Jenolan phoned and said we were all go for the following Monday. We were worried that James from Jenolan may have phoned and put in a bad word after we walked out, but seemingly not. As Small one was on the phone with him a strange, very camp man approached Tall one in the dark and said have we not met before? Didn't you stay at the YHA and aren't you Swedish? Tall one answered 'no' to all of this strange man's questions and told Small one that they should run away as soon as he got off the phone. Saturday 10th – Monday 12th October Port Macquaire was the next stop which was a couple of hours drive north up the coast. Supposedly a quaint, seaside town, lined with Palm and Gum trees, populated by one of Australia's biggest wild Koala populations. Arriving there mid afternoon Small one had his heart on finding a new car to replace the temperamental Sheila, and wanted a Camper van. Driving on the road to the campsite was a few cars parked on a field with for sale signs on, sure enough there as a camper van for sale. Closer inspection revealed it was $4800 or nearest offer, a 1988 beige Mitsubishi, decked out with mattress, sink and kitchen table, and a DVD player and flat screen LCD TV. It also had a tasteless Tiger skin interior. After running Sheila through a car wash for $15, Small one arranged to meet the owner by the Camper van, a nice Australian chap with his short wife. Small one asked the best price the man could do on the van, and he dropped $300 down to $4,500. Small explained that they would have to sell Sheila and put up the rest of the money for the Camper van, unless that is he would like to exchange the van for her and say, $3,000? After some pauses, the wife convinced the man to agree to Sheila plus $3,000 cash, as Small one explained he should be able to get $2500-$3,000 for Sheila. Small then pointed out that Tall one had just put $50 of petrol into Sheila so could he do the same for the camper van? To which he agreed, or his wife did. Small then owned up and told him that Sheila's front passenger electric window did not work and Ford had quoted over $200 to fix it. The man said he did not mind. Then when they went to draw cash out and found they could not exceed a limit on their credit accounts or transfer more money from their savings without Internet, they found themselves $200 short of the $3,000. The man said he didn't mind that either, as his wife had told him to look after the Irish, as she had an Irish name. We swapped keys and registrations and left, hoping Sheila would not blow up before they were out of his driveway. As before, Small one had gone for the very first vehicle he had looked at, without the slightest bit of shopping around. They called the Camper van Tony, after the Frosties cereal Tiger because of the tacky interior. Tall and Small paid for two nights in a cheapish caravan site by the beach for two nights, to get the luxury of a decent shower, toilets, electricity and a beach for a few days. That morning they set out into the town to transfer their remaining money to sort out their debts made last night. Tony took five attempts to start and rattled up the hill. He is almost as old as Tall one, and has a broken horn. He's a little slow in the mornings and Small one doubts he'll go above 60km an hour, but they were happy enough after one of the most comfortable nights sleep they have had for a long time (including Jenolan Caves). After a $90 food shop they ate pizza by the beach and the weather was relatively sunny. By the time they were back at the caravan site it was overcast again, but at least it was not raining. They now had another 5-6 days before they had to get to Coff's Harbour. Very few people seemed to be staying at this Port Macquaire caravan site, only one other bizarre family pitched a tent, with the parents seemingly staying with their son and girlfriend. Nobody used the BBQ area and the pool only seemed to be used once by locals walking in off the street. Strange in contrast to every other campsite in the last few weeks which were packed due to school holidays. Thursday 8th – Saturday 10th October Left the wet and miserable Port Stephens midday and headed up to the Myall Lakes National Park, where there would be definite free camping. Stopped in a campsite around 4.00pm called Stewart and Lloyd. Supposedly we were to pay $7 to $18 a night, but only if a ranger came and collected the money. The woods were situated on a thin stretch of land, on one side was the coast, still with big sand dunes, and the otherside was the lake. There were no showers at any of these, so Tall and Small would be unwashed (Still filled with sand from the Stockton Bight Dunes) until they left Myall Lakes. There was an information board stating walks, campsites and to look out for wild dogs, or Dingos. Also a chemical toilet. Tall and Small ate another hearty meal out of a can and did there washing up in the little shallow sink by the toilet. Too which later on they found out the other campers children were using to was their dirty feet in. Wild Turkeys then stalked about the car picking up Tall and Small's crumbs. It was a dull night at this campsite, with the other campers having a lo of other jeeps turn up, spend an hour with them then leave, making Small one alert with his nose pressed against the glass watching these goings on every time a car pulled in. Friday was hoped to be a sunny day so the sand dunes could be explored properly, it was not. It rained all day and Small and Tall sat in the car reading Treasure Island and David Attenborough's autobiography. It was dismal. In the middle of the morning Tall and Small heard some blood curdling screams coming from the sand dunes, where they had seen the group of four young kids going earlier on their sand boards. They got out the car to investigate, only to see that closer to the dunes than them were the children's parents and another group of adults setting up camp who were completely ignoring the screams. After ten minutes the screaming was not heard again. About an hour later the children all walked back into the camp un-phased and washed their sandy feet in our washing up sink again. Midday Tall and Small moved further up the National Park to Mungo Brush. It was raining there as well, but they wasted ten minutes throwing bread to black swans which completely ignored them. When the rain finally stopped for about an hour they walked up the sand dunes, and fell over a number of times. Back at the car at 4.30pm it was raining again. In the middle of cooking another can of stew two security guards pulled din and came and told them there was a noise curfew at 10pm and if there was any trouble to give them a call. After that they left, and no one had even asked for the camping payments. Saturday morning Tall and Small wanted to get the hell out of Myall Lakes, as it was raining yet again and had quite enough of sitting in the car reading all day. The lack of cleanliness and comfort from sleeping in the car in the woods these few nights was also getting to them, as was the bad weather and food from a can with melted butter on warm bread. They cooked some spaghetti on toast, and while Tall one was doing the washing up a middle aged woman camp traipsing through the wet woods wearing pink slippers, a red dressing gown with purple hair. She went into the toilets past Tall one, and must have only had a wee as she was out within a few minutes. Up the road to leave Myall Lakes they had to use a pointless ferry service to cross a 20 yard wide river across the road. It was $5 per car and the trip took 2 minutes, run by a man with an enormous hat. After a brief stop at the picturesque (but still overcast) beaches at Seal Rocks they left the National Park and stopped at a takeaway food joint where they enjoyed big hamburgers with chips, coffee and milkshakes. A big relief after all that canned shit. Small one told the cashier that the food was amazing and the best he'd ever had, although he had just been living in a car in the woods for three days. The last stop before they headed up to Port Macquaire was to see the supposide Tallest Tree in New South Wales, another big statistic. It was a long un-sealed road to which Sheila struggled. Finally they got to this tree, called the Grandis. It didn't look that big, although it was supposidly 400 years old. Small one had a wee off the viewing platform and they left after five minutes. Theres not really much else to do at the foot of a big tree? Wednesday 7th – Thursday 8th October Arriving in Port Stephens around 5pm and not having anywhere to sleep they drove around following camping signs. Ending up in an expensive luxury Holiday Park overlooking the Port, called Discovery Holiday Park. Where they paid $40 for one night only. The next day there were due to try and find the large sand dunes in the area called Stockton Bight, as well as try and spot the supposed 1600 dolphins that lived in the Port. They cooked a terrible Carbanara from a packet in the grim kitchen / family room, and then had another night in gale force winds. The next day the weather was wet and windy and dismal as before. A brief trip around the town where there was nowhere to park for free. On the outskirts free parking was found and Small one re-arranged Sheila yet again. Tall and Small then went for a walk whilst the weather had settled. They saw big Pelicans but no dolphins. They had tea in a cliff top cafe which on the door stated an apology for their slow service as they only had six staff on.... there wasn't even that many tables for them to keep up with, it was only a little place. Tall and Small had English and Irish Breakfast tea, and were served it in something like Grandma's fine china. Driving on in the grim weather to the Stockton Bight Sand Dunes, advertised as the largest moving sand mass in the southern hemisphere. Mind you, most tourist sights seemed to have some carefully worded tagline to make them the longest river on such an such region or the biggest cutlery handles in any town beginning with H. The sand dunes were very impressive, 23km long and 1km wide, they were used in the Australian, Mel Gibson Mad Max film series. Again the weather was horrendous, gale winds blew sand in Small and Talls faces, the grains blowing so hard they stung the skin on your legs and face. Wet too, so the sand stuck to Tall and Small's hair and clothes. Monday 5th – Wednesday 7th October Leaving Stockton Beach Campsite early they headed out of town stopping at a K-Mart to buy more supplies, a weeks food shop and a Hungry Jack's breakfast. They then headed inland through Hunter Valley, which is full of Vine Yards and Wine Stops, which they past none of from the main highway. Un-sure where to camp for the night they pulled in to Lake Glenbaum off the highway near a place called Scone. It was a huge lake with an entrance, which after the barrier you had free range to drive and camp where you liked. Only one night was paid for at $18, and they stayed two nights as they were dishonest. The tent was first erected overlooking the lake on a remote spot, when they found out soon enough why it was so remote, as there was a rotten Kangaroo by the shore which reeked. Tall one posed for a photo by it before they moved camp. There were thunderstorms that night, followed by a great Sunset. Awaking the next morning to a valley and lake covered with mist and some twenty odd kangaroos feeding around their tent. They had unfortunately pitched there tent on a slope, and so had woken a few times in the night to be both rolled off the edge of the inflatable mattress. The two portaloos at the top of the hill were not luxury, with no water to flush one, and no loo paper in either. Both of which were mysteriously removed during lunch time. Soon two elderly couples nosily appeared and set up caravans next to Tall and Small one. One woman came and introduced herself and made a point of coming over a few times calling “Michael, Michael I have some spare hot water if you want it”. After the portaloo disappeared we saw the same lady traipsing unceremoniously back from the woods carrying a small shovel and a roll of toilet paper. It was not a pretty mental picture. The days spent by the lake were quite lazy days. The sun was very hot and a short walk was taken past Pelicans and a run over rabbit. The rest of the time was spent reading, when Small one finished Alan Alda's Biography, and Tall one had started reading David Attenborough's, which Small one ironically chose to squat ants as they bit his ankles. Wednesday was their last day by the lake, they had thought they would stay to Friday, but were bored and gale force winds were stopping them from doing very much. They used the sites showers before they left, which seemed full of retarded red necks calling to each other in neighboring stalls about how “der warder is very very cold”. When Tall and Small went into the building they found all four showers in use and had to wait for ten minutes. Finally a young lad came out of one shower, fully clothed, bone dry, with no towel or shower gel in his hands. What he was doing in there we did not know. Leaving the campsite at 12pm they headed back past Scone and up the highway towards The Burning Mountain. Which turned out to be more of a hill with some steam coming out. This was due to coal seams heating the hillside and hot steam had been coming out for hundreds of years. A large family of noisy Indians had been following them up the path, but luckily they seemed to gave up as soon as the steps started to go uphill. Leaving the mountain Tall and Small headed back down to the East Coast to Port Stephens. Friday 2nd – Monday 5th October Up at 5.30am and over to see the sunrise of Summer Bay. Found Alf's Surf Shack which was actually still signed as Sumer Bay Surf Club. Drove down the peninsula a way to Avalon where food was brought in Woolworths along with Alan Alda's (aka Hawkeye from M*A*S*H) autobiography and a boogie board for around $5 each. Bumping into those same french people again at the beach, outside the charity shop and outside the toilets. Tall and Small left Avalon before they were forced to socialize with them. They drobe up the highway and headed for their next stop, Newcastle. After their fearful (but free) night's sleep in the car they booked three nights at a beach camp site in Stockton (opposite Newcastle) for $32 a night over the long bank holiday weekend. On the way up they stopped and ate plastic cheese and red onion sandwiches in a national park and finally brought Tall one some more hair dye after searching for the right brand for days. It turned out the blonde tart on the front had been changed to a more up market woman with a less slutty look about her. Three boxes where brought for future use. They arrived in Newcastle exhausted at 4.30pm as it started to rain hard and thunderstorm, to which it continued for the rest of their night over their little tent. They fried sausages and the rest of the red onion on the gas stove sitting in the boot of the car. They hoped it would not rain for the next three days there, although it was still better than Jenolan. It did rain for the next three days however. The tent leaked and filled with water on the inside floor, after a quick trip to K-Mart and $50 later a canvas roof was erected, which collapsed in the wind within a few hours. That was abandoned and green canvas sheeting was pegged down over the tent to help water proof further, which worked. It thundered all day and all night until they left. Trying to get a good night's sleep was impossible with the thunder, the neighboring tent playing 'We Are the Champions' at 10pm and then finally at 1am an industrial boat being towed into the harbour let rip it's fog horn. On the last day we ventured across to Newcastle itself on the ferry. It rained all day there as well, but I don't think sun would have made the town any less dismal. Described in the Lonely Planet book as a town created in 1801 to house Australia's worst convicts. Not much has changed, most of them now stay on our campsite and let their children run riot on scooters around the amenities block. Newcastle was dismal and empty. No places seemed to serve any kind of food for a Sunday lunchtime. Eventually a good steak meal was had, but set Tall and Small $60 back between them. After the meal they walked to Nobby's Head, a small hill at the end of a sand spit in Newcastle, not very exciting. Nor was the Queen's Wharf, shaped like a giant erect penis, which you could climb and view the terrible sights of Newcastle from the crown. Waiting for the ferry to cross back over to Stockton, a huge boat came towed into the harbour, and infront of us a man was fishing in the rain wearing sunglasses. Tall and Small were glad to leave and the planned three days sat by the beach had been three days sat inside a leaky tent as it bucketed down outside, they still enjoyed themselves though. Thursday 1st October Packed up and left the camp site heading for Sydney's Taronga Zoo. It was a boiling hot day, and Tall and Small got burnt. At the countet to buy tickets the man said it was $45 entry, but as we were using Mastercard we got 15% off that, he asked if we used Public Transport to arrive, we said no, he said that was a shame as we would have got another 10% off. The zoo was nice, although Tall and Small opted to not pay $20 to have their photo taken standing in front of a koala and not holding it. They fought their way round the zoo through school children groups with teachers giving speeches about Zebras, and then through the Bird Aviary through the barrage of young mothers and their force of children in buggies. After the zoo Tall and Small headed up to Palm Beach, North of Sydney – where Summer Bay in the Australian Soap, Home and Away is filmed. They walked around the beach for about ten minutes only as the parking for $4 for an hour!!? They saw neither Alf nor Sally, but recognized the lighthouse on the hill and the wooden fence posts by the sand. There was no cheap campsite to pay for this night, so they deicded to pull into a lookout point called North Bigola Beach Lookout where they thought no one else would come. At first lots of old women were there looking at whales leaping in the water off shore, without binoculars it was pretty hard to make out, but more impressive than the $65 Whale Watching paid for in Sydney. When it got dark Tall and Small cooked a stew and fended off long nosed rats called Bandecoots. Some strange people visited that lookout in the pitch black. Including a middle aged businessman and a young girl who would not stop talking. When he saw we were camped there, they spent 2 minutes at the lookout and fled away in their car again talking to each other like strangers. Later a young guy pulled up in his big car smoking a joint and was keen to know where we were from and how much our car cost. After he left Tall and Small drove the car back up to Summer Bay where they thought it a safer place to sleep in the car under Alf Stewart's protection. They found another campavan filled with Frenchmen and so stayed by them by Summer Bay. Tuesday 29th – Wednesday 30th September Due at Coff's Harbour on Saturday 17th October ready for work picking blueberrys that Monday, Tall and Small had over two weeks holiday ahead. First stop was north Sydney and a nice camp site called Lane Cove River Caravan Site. It was thirty degrees and they had just left snow in the Blue Mountains. The site had a pool and electric supply by the tent for an extra $2. Two nights were paid for, and Wednesday day time was spent just relaxing in the hot sun. A chicken lunch was made to which a Kookaburra flew and landed in the middle of the table right in front of Tall one and took some chicken and flew off. Tall one also celebrated this new leg of their journey by returning his hair colour to it's fake blonde glory. Only finding one box of the dye and not two, he showered in the morning and washed the dye out to find his hair mostly orange. After a trip to the shops no more could be found, but Small brought a Blonde Toner to try and some lemons to squeeze in?? Tall one sat for an hour with lemon juice hardening his hair, worried about ants. Went for another shower when he put the toner in. To find he now came out with grey side burns and light blonde crown. He went back in the shower and used the rest of the toner, which also turned his finger tips purple?? He came out to find the bleached had mostly faded and he now had a silvery, light blonde hair tone. Back in the sun he sat with another lemon in his hair. After an hour, he had yet another shower and was as wrinkled as a prune from all the water his skin had taken on that day. Tall and Small then went for a walk up a river track and saw an awful lot of big lizards, until they got fed up with the sight of them. Tall one then slipped over on a weir crossing a river, and fell in up to his waist, soaking his shorts with mud and cutting his knee and elbow. Back at the camp site that night, Tall and Small sat and watched two green parrots having sex in front of a young boy. That night Small one told Tall one that he should be more socialable and try and speak to more fellow travellers. Within the hour Small one came rushing back to the tent from the BBQ area saying “what have I done!? Tall one don't speak to anybody.....”. He had got talking to two strange men, who's wife turned up later and said how lucky they are to be on a camp site as they always exchange numbers with people and meet up later, and wanted to know all about Small one at Jenolan and his recent ghost story, as she previously lived in Oberon. Small and Tall hid in the tent for the rest of the night