Monday  April 7 2014

We were up at first light, again and had a good breakfast.  The lori-keets were very popular with the kids.

They are very tame, and the campsite sells birdseed for them to be fed. The weather is good and we got a load of washing on the line.

At 9:00 we headed to the bike shop.  The owner was very helpful, although he didn\’t have a replacement tire, he did say the temporary tire will survive, it will be a bit slower due to the lower air pressure but will get me where we want to be until we can get a decent touring tire – probably Sydney.

We went for a lovely walk along the boardwalk, and through the upper reaches of the Town.

The boardwalk had some great views and we laughed at the pelicans on the boat.  There were four to start of with, preening themselves.  In the end another two joined them, rocking the boat.  These are big birds, with a huge wing span.  We thought they might sink the little boat, but it stayed afloat.

After our walk, we arrived back and our ‘camp neighbours’ invited us in for a coffee. Alwyn and Fay live in Lakes Entrance, they had a very nice caravan and we chatted about their work and our plans.  They have been retired for 15 years and were a really nice couple.

While we were getting dinner ready I was reminded of a very funny story from Lorne Elliot (Canadian comedian) about his daughters.  He told this story about his daughters and how they changed with age.  The first five years when they needed him to look after them, then the next five years when they thought he was the greatest thing, then at 11 to 13 they became dolphins and squealed at everything.  There were three girls in the kitchen playing a game, something like charades, and the girls squealed all the time, it was incredibly noisy.  I could see Ralf rolling his eyes at the noise, so I reminded him of the story and we both laughed.

Because of the bike emergency, and the ride to Merimbula, we now have to replan our route.  We spent about an hour looking at the map and planning our route.  We were going to go to Canberra, now we are going to head straight up to Sydney.