Wow, I so badly wanted to bring you tales of fun and excitement today, to prevent the blog from going stale. Tales of cruising through the picturesque Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park, then up the Central Coast towards our camp spot for the next few days in Cessnock. Tales of wonderment, at a range of sights and tourist attractions that we were sure to visit along the way. It wasn’t to be however. I was actually beginning to envy all those we left at home, who would have been waking up to a beautiful warm, sunny morning back in Melbourne, their weekend just about to begin. For us however, there is no such thing as a weekend, each day blurring incorrigibly into the next. And as for heading north to get away from the winter, we endured torrential rain all night and for what would turn out to be, all day. To say that it was cold, wet and miserable would be an understatement.

Where would you rather be? Melbourne…

…or Sydney? I know where I’d rather be.

We started out alright, getting the interior of the van all tidied up and ready for travel. Then I moved onto the exterior, leaving Bec to relax inside. Her neck is still a little tender, I didn’t want her getting it too cold. Clad in a full set of wet weathers, I spent an hour or so in temperatures that felt to be sub-freezing, grappling with icy cold tap fittings, hoses, and tow fittings, finally getting the van hitched back up to ‘The Beast’. I looked like a drowned rat by the time we were ready to leave, losing the 15 minutes we’d made up the other day (Updated Melbourne ETA: 7:20PM, 11/10/13)

As we headed north out of Sydney, the roads were rapidly taking on the appearance of rivers and the average speed on the 110Km/h motorway was down to between 75 and 80Km/h. The rain was a constant feature of the drive, so heavy at times our visibility could almost have been measured in centimeters. There was one point, as we crested one of the frequent peaks, we were literally driving through billowing black rain clouds.

Our time on the road today was to be only an hour and a half, two hours at the most, but with the extra concentration that was required for the drive, by the time we eventually rolled into Cessnock, I felt like I’d been driving for hours. My steely scowl of concentration was matched by the one-dimensional steely grey of the sky, with only the constant swish swash of the windscreen wipers scouring across the window breaking my stare.

Driving through Cessnock towards the caravan park, we found it to be quite a sizeable town, with every conceivable service, including a decent shopping precinct. Here we were, expecting a sleepy little country hollow, where I had even been concerned about the availability of diesel, only to be met with a sprawling metropolis. Well, maybe not quite a metropolis, but more than just the dot on the map that we had expected.

We had our choice of sites at the caravan park, all of them more resembling quagmires than lush turfed oasis’s. Considering the recent climatic events, it wasn’t something that we could protest about. Having chosen our patch of dirt, again down towards the back of the park, away from the road noise and crowds of permanent looking vans towards the front, we went through the humiliation of looking like amateurs getting the van lined up. In our defense, even though the site was fairly open, it was a tough, tight reverse turn to the passenger side, in an extremely snug area. With ‘The Beast’ still attached, there were barely a couple of feet of spare space at either end, so I think we did rather admirably, even if our radio chatter would have been an enjoyable source of entertainment to anyone listening in.

With the van unhitched, and the rain still teeming down, I sent Bec inside to make it cozy, while I toiled away outside. I was devastated when she came back out to tell me that it seemed to have been raining inside the van as well as out, turning my pillow into a sodden sponge. On closer inspection, it appears as though we have sprung a leak. It doesn’t seem to be too bad, but would have been exacerbated by the force of the rain whilst driving. I am hoping that I can fix it up, but am going to have to wait until such time as the rain stops. In the mean time I may well be taking a snorkel to bed! Not the sort of experience we relished.

Despite being only a bit after 2:00, we were feeling as blue as the weather. We were soaked through, wet in places that we didn’t even know existed and it was an absolute nightmare even just taking the dogs out for a bathroom break. We were done for the day. There was to be no playing tourist today after all. Here we are staying pretty much right in the middle of the highly regarded Hunter Valley Wine region, and I couldn’t even be bothered visiting a few wineries or cellar doors. Even with all 4 of us cozying up in bed together, it was still cold, miserable and even just a little bit wet! It is days like these that were obviously left out of the dream that we are supposedly living.

A decent feed for lunch livened us a little. At least enough for me to garner the energy to head out to the shops in search of a tube of silicone to slather on the roof as soon as conditions allow. Dinner supplies were also collected, before returning to the van to settle in for the remainder of the night.

What more can I say? We’re having a ball? Well, I guess we are, and I am sure we will look back on this day at some distant point in time and regale about how fun it really was, but as of right now, I just want the day to be over. At least tomorrow, we have a definite plan in mind, which really will include the visitation of some real live tourist attractions, so stay tuned.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.