Paddington Bear

The very adventurous Paddington Bear wore a label, Please look after this bear. Although I am not looking for a protector, when I leave on a trip I feel  a bit like a storybook character setting out on an adventure.  I am well labelled. I have my Silver Gypsy sign on the back window. I often have to tell people that I am the silver gypsy, not the motorhome. Her name is Angel.

As well, I have my CMCA membership sticker so that my fellow Campervan and Motorhome members recognise me. Recently I signed up to the Solos' Network. I love their logo which made total sense when I discovered that all the Solo chapters have bird names. This gives them a profile among other CMCA chapters.


 On Friday I finally got out of the driveway at about 9.30.  I had dozens of fiddly bits to do before I left, including another 2 hours trying to get an internet dongle working. It must have been well after 2pm before I got on to the motorway. My only objective was to get out of Queensland, not because I don't love my home state but because I wouldn't feel as though I was on my way if I was too close to home.

I spent the first night at Yelgun roadside camp, a very popular spot. My immediate neighbours were a couple from Austria who had flown into Cairns and bought a. campervan. They had four weeks in Australia, leaving Sydney in less than a week. On the other side of me was a woman from the Sunshine Coast, probably my age but, unlike me, fit and energetic. However, like me, she had no fixed destination and was making decisions on a day by day basis.

Day two was spent in Ballina, just poking around and exploring the area. I finished the day at New Italy. I spent some time (and money) in the museum and the glass maker's gallery and enjoyed a coffee and cake in the cafe. Once again, this was a popular camping area, free of charge, with toilets available and the cafe open for morning coffee. I hauled out my camp chair and joined my neighbours  Lorraine and Cec who were on the last leg of their trip and heading for home. I got a few good ideas for camping spots and had a valuable lesson on Wikicamps.

Next stop was with my friends Tracie and Darryl.Tracie and I taught together at Humpybong way back in the eighties. She was a newly graduated teacher and I was already long in the tooth but we worked brilliantly as a team. We've spent time reminiscing. I think those couple of years were career highlights for both of us.