The romance of it all.

September 30, 2024

This has to start in the small hours, or should I say the wee hours, of the morning. We both needed to yield to the call of nature. When I went out into the hall, it was apparent that someone was having a shower. We needed to find another loo and understood that there was another one upstairs. We crept upstairs. It's a vast house with very big corridors containing very few doors. The passages were dimly lit with those purposely flickering orange bulbs set into chandeliers. All the walls are panelled in dark wood and the floors are either wooden of carpeted in dark red. The whole scene was like something out of the Addams Family. We half expected Uncle Fester to appear round a corner. We found a bathroom with a loo and a separate loo next door. Kate went into the bathroom and half a minute later, knocked on my door. There was no lock on the bathroom door despite there being a loo, a bath and a shower in there. We swapped. When we returned to our room, you have to enter a code into the dark wood door, to gain access. If you succeed, a voice comes from the door saying "Unlocked". If you fail, it says "Failed" it invariably starts with 'failed' first whenever we attempt to unlock the door. The voice speaks in a seriously technical sort of way that would not be out of place on the Starship Enterprise. By the time we got back in the room following the inevitable "Failed" , "Unlocked" procedure ringing out into the sepulchral corridors, we collapsed in a fit of giggles. That has to be our most exciting night-time loo visit of the holidays.

I awoke a bit later and thought the fridge was making an unholy row, but it was ok, it turned out to be rain pelting the window. Then I thought, why are people taking out their rubbish wheely bins at this time? But it was OK, it was just peels of thunder...

When I went into the kitchen to wash our crockery up, the Addams Family thing continued as in walked Morticia. She wore long floaty clothes, bare feet and a whimsical expression.

We ate breakfast and packed and were off by 9am. Back on the road.

There was much road to be travelled today. Six hour's worth of driving. We passed up the opportunity to take scenic routes today and beetled down the Pacific Highway. It sounds romantic and we thought it was romantic. Vast scenery, endless trees, mountains, marshes, huge rivers and all the time, the Pacific Highway taking it all on. The climbs over passes were so long and gradual that we only noticed altitude had been gained when our ears went pop. There were miles of flyovers to get across miles of swamp and impressive bridges spanning rivers which were nearing full maturity as they approached the Pacific ocean.

Both we, and the car, needed to stop for fuel. Coffee for us and petrol for the car. Both times, Kate tapped the word coffee into the phone and the phone did us proud, coming up with superb stop offs, both times. The first stop was amongst several shops which embraced all that is organic, home made, locally sourced and generally wholesome. Which included the coffee.

The second stop was at a big shack of a shop with balconies overlooking a beautiful valley.

And so to our stop for the night, Yamba. We drove along a spit of land and were obviously entering holiday land. But what was so special about Yamba? We found out later. First, more excitement. We were staying in a real Motel. We've never stayed in one before. It was just like in the movies. You drive up to your door. What could be easier? We did feel that ideally, we should be on the run from the law. They're always on the run from the law in the movies. Perhaps I have incurred a speeding fine. Better lay low for a while in our Motel...

After a quick whizz round Coles (the Sainsbury's of Australia) we drove to the coast which is actually pretty close to where we are staying. Wow. Another stupendous coast line. So this is why people come to Yamba. Kate had a paddle in the Pacific. I just leapt about taking photos. I think we need to revisit this place tomorrow morning. Tomorrow we have a mere 90 minute drive. 'We have all the time in the world'.