Day 295 - Friday 20 Ocotber - Rained in in Wollongong

Day 295

Friday  -

20 October – Wildcats 89 v Melbourne 84 - Yippee

Finished “House Rules” by Jodie Picoult. It was a good read, with an intriguing and thought provoking story line

Began “So What If I’m Broken” by Ana McPartlin. This is another book I picked up in a caravan book swap. I was intrigued by the title and blurb. I guess I will see if lives up to my expectations.

Corrimal Beach – Wollongong

The rain set in. It woke me with its continual pattering on the roof and when we got up to go to the loo at 6.30am there was a grey mist, like a floss blanket covering the city and our caravan park.

We returned to bed and read, where I finally finished my book before, I eventually got up at 8am, having breakfast and finishing off the computer stuff from yesterday, it took a while.

I went for a shower, hearing the rain fall harder on the roof. Thankfully I was able to get back to the van without getting rewashed! We sat around until 10am and finally dragged ourselves out into the wild and woolly day. We stopped in at the Bunnings first for a new gas bottle and then moved on into town.

I had wanted to do a fair bit of wandering around Wollongong today and take it all in, but when we stopped at Flagstaff Hill, we got drenched just stepping out of the car and figured it wasn’t going to get any better, so all sight seeing was off and instead we dropped into Woollies to do a quick shop.

We passed the WIN entertainment stadium and figured we should at least pick up our tickets for Sunday’s NBL match. After waiting behind a dottery old dude, we eventually picked up what we needed and returned home.

As there wasn’t much else to do, I put on the TV and watched some more of my DVD and then we put together a warm lunch. I even had a milo, though the stuff had been in the tin so long I had to grate down the lump just to make it into a powder again.

At 12.30p we had to venture out once again. There are two breweries in town and we were due to visit both this afternoon. We initially stopped in at Illawarra Brewing, but they weren’t quite ready for us, so we went on to Five Barrels instead and spent time chatting to Phil. Paul tried the beers on tap and then picked up a mixed four pack of some other varieties to try.

We made our way back to Illawarra for 2pm, this time they were open and we were ushered upstairs to their tasting room, where Tim and Pam ran through the beers and Dave the owner gave us the run down. We were meant to be attending a Sydney Beer Week basketball event being hosted by the brewery tomorrow ut we found out it has been canned. This was great news for me as it frees up tomorrow for more sightseeing and Paul was happy as we can get to another brewery.

We let Dave know we would be at the Illawarra Hawks match on Sunday and as they have a bar at the venue, he invited us to hang out before the game, so we will see if it comes about.

We left again with more beers, this time a few freebies and made our way back to the van. It has felt like we have been inside a wet soggy cloud all day with the rain not relenting and the temperature dropping off. We don’t usually let the weather determine our plans, but then we haven’t had a lot of rain during our travels. I guess we just write it up as a lay day instead and hope tomorrow is fine enough to complete our touring around.

We settled back into the van for the afternoon. Paul managed to track down a phone number for his mate who created our wedding rings and is now living in Canberra and organised to catch up with him when we get there next week.  He then proceeded to write up his reviews for today. I went through the photos, nothing exciting just more beer and then continued to watch my DVD, grating up another milo to enjoy and keep my hands warm.

The evening disappeared rapidly and before long it was time to get dinner organised. I watched over what was cooking as I paced up and down the three metres of corridor we have in the van feeling like a caged lion. It sucks being tuck inside for so much of the day.

We ate dinner and then retreated back to our books. I was desperate to use the net but it is a bit dodgy here at the park, which is a shame, as it is free and there is no data limit. The weather is obviously playing its part on connections within the ether.

I returned to my new book instead, easily becoming engrossed in the Irish characters.

We were amused when looking for Illawarra Brewing that it was near Ralph Black Drive, the name of the father of one of Paul's very good mates. We had to send Martin a text to let him know.