Weather, Wildlife and "What the hell are we doing here"

Now reporting to you from Sunny Sawtell, where it really is sunny and blessedly warm! We have caught up with the grey nomads here at the Sawtell caravan park....feels like we've moved into a retirement village in Florida!!

As Dennis has already reported we have travelled up from Sydney, through the Myall Lakes, Barrington Tops and up the New England Hwy through Tamworth to get to our current residence. I thought I'd expand on a couple of themes.

First of all, the weather. Dennis and I both thought that because we had done several outback trips in the past that we would be prepared for life on the road. We neglected to recall that all of those trips had been in the top end in July/August when every day is sunny with a high of 30 degrees. So, the reality of camping in whatever nature chooses to turn on has been a bit of a shock! In fact, the weather overall has been pretty good. But it's been cold alot of the time, especially at night. And of course we had the deluge at Barrington Tops that Dennis reported earlier, and that day was sooooo cold. And then there's the wind - whichever way we park the camper we seem to manage to plant ourselves head on to the wind. So living with the weather seems to be our first big lesson on this trip. We go about our day to day lives in the city relatively unaffected by the weather. It's a bit of a shame if it's a rainy day - but we move from our air conditioned homes, into our air conditioned cars to our air conditioned offices without being all the much affected. Out here, every nuance of the weather seems to affect you and sometimes in unexpected ways. The big thing I've noticed is the sense of space. When it's warm and sunny, our living room is the world for as far as we can see. When it's cold and wet, our living room is about 4ft by 4ft and barely fits a table and 2 chairs.

Wildlife has also featured large on the trip so far - which surprises me because we haven't ventured all that far from civilisation. First, there was the tick which was briefly reported via twitter. Don't know what it is with me and parasites, but it only took a week of travelling for me to find myself a blood-sucking friend. Horrible thing! Anyway, big lesson learned from the nurse at Hawks Nest who removed the tick....always wear your hat when camping because the ticks drop out of the trees!

Then there was the dingo that came to lunch! We were quietly enjoying our lunch by the lake at Myall Lakes when along wanders a VERY hungry looking dingo and sits down about 3 feet away from the table. He shifted positions a few times, but thankfully never came closer. We managed to eat our lunch under his watchful gaze. It was quite amazing.

As well there have been pelicans, snakes, ducks, hawks, kookaburras in the hundreds, a nest of laurakeets......

We are still settling into this new life and I must admit that many times the past two weeks I've asked myself, "what the hell am I doing here". I worry that I'm not achieving anything. But one thought has occured to me.....there have been many weeks in my life when I have achieved copious amounts, ticking hundreds of things off my list, and most of those weeks are now completely forgotten. For as long as I live I will never forget having lunch beside that dingo. Not an achievement perhaps - but maybe part of why I'm here.