Together Again!

Royal National Park, NSW, Australia

Since we now realized that the gate to our official campsite in the national park would be locked at 8:30, we simply skipped the hour's drive entirely and instead found an unofficial camping spot in town. Unfortunately, our spot we chose turned out not to be such a good one. The warehouse and office area seemed quiet when we arrived, but morning traffic started unexpectedly early. Even worse, at 2:30 a.m. a garbage truck suddenly showed up outside our "bedroom" window, clunking, banging and groaning. I was relieved though when I realized the flashing yellow lights weren't the police there to move us along.

In addition to the noise, the major downfall of our camp spot was the lack of facilities. Upon waking, the first order of business was finding a bathroom -- Mc Donald's to the rescue!  Known here as "Maccas," we were thankfully able to wash up, order breakfast, a cup of coffee, and have a place to do some homework and blogs.

Our only sightseeing for the day consisted of a walk over the Harbour Bridge. This was an unwelcomed surprise to the kids, but they eventually came around. In fact, despite being initially dead set against it, Dex actually joined me for the short run back across the bridge on the return trip, while Meg and Kylie check out the air conditioned, double decker metro.

One thing we’ve noticed here in Australia is the prevalence of public service messages. For decades there has been a huge campaign to educate the public on the dangers of sun exposure. “Slip, Slop, Slap,” was the message years ago -- slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, and slap on a hat. The message has clearly been taken to heart as Cam told me the other day that rates of skin cancer are expected to drop significantly based on the younger generation following these guidelines. In fact, we heard that school kids are expected to put sunscreen on four times a day!

Of course, like many countries, cigarette packages are adorned with gruesome images showing the effect of diseases linked to smoking. There are also many public safety messages on the roadways. The current campaign “Towards Zero,” emphasizes safe driving: not drinking, not speeding, and not driving when tired. Signs along the rural coastal roads encouraged drivers to pull over and take power naps, and when heading into a Sydney city tunnel, we were instructed to roll up windows and recirculate the air to avoid breathing exhaust fumes.

The rest of our day was spent back at camp anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Pfyffer's. When we first arrived, the tide was out so we were able to chase thousands of small, blue soldier crabs around the mud flats. I couldn't help but hum the Darth Vader theme song as they marched along, “Dah, dah, dah, dum, Da, dah, dum, Da, dah!”

Finally, at 4:00, our wait was over as we spied the super sized, Mighty motorhome pulling into camp with our five friends aboard. Yeah! There we many hugs and lots of smiles. The kids lost no time running off toward the mud flats and beach while the adults settled down for a beer and some wine. We caught up on the latest travel adventures: time in Thailand with Anne's parents, a stop in Singapore, and a couple days with friends in Sydney. Our Australia visit will be short, but what fun to be together again.