SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 1     AIRLIE BEACH

Today was the first day of spring. Somehow, that fact did not seem so noteworthy up in these parts, where the sun was shining and the weather hot.

It was also Fathers Day. John received an email and text from one of his offspring and one of mine. Nothing from the other two.

When I got up, about 7.30am, the Britz vehicle had gone from near us. From the two little piles of used toilet paper that had been left on the grass by where it had been, I deduced that they had not been legal campers. I did not inspect more closely! The amenities block had coded entry access, so they obviously had not been able to get in there.

In the three days we were at this park, I did not once see any park staff check to see if we had a sticker. Not much point in issuing them, it seemed to me. It also seemed that the word was being passed around some of the backpacker fraternity, that they could sneak into this place at night.

John went off quite early to play bowls and came home with $15 for winning the day, so he was happy. As a Fathers Day event, lunch had been provided, so I planned on only having soup and biscuits for tea.

I sat round, read, took Couey on several short walks, did some stuff on the computer.

There were definitely sandflies around. Rid was needed. I still had a scabbed sore on the front of one ankle, from a bite of some kind at Forrest Beach. It kept being itchy and was not healing much. I didn’t need any more of those.

John’s happy mood only lasted until he had to fiddle about with the TV again. There are too many hills around Airlie Beach for normal aerials to work, it seems, hence the need to hook into the park’s system. It was not an easy exercise in Bus. The TV set lives at the back, where the only opening windows had fixed mesh screens. as did the opening roof hatches. Hence the need for the cable to feed in through one of the front side windows, and be run down the length of Bus, trying to keep it to where dog and I won’t get tangled up in it. Or where it wouldn’t fall down from where John had precariously hooked it up, into the dinner cooking on the stove! It needed to be a very long cable, too. Even with it, the picture wasn’t great, and choice of channels very limited.

We might need to investigate whether we can get a plug in point for such systems, fitted on the outside of Bus, before the next trip?