"Cheryl' the tent lady

On arrival at El Lago caravan park, we noticed a small green tent in the next row of the park. Some time later a single lady came wandering past and went to the tent. That night, it poured rain. I am not sure how much rain we had but it was at least 25mm. there were puddles in the grassy areas around the park and "Cheryl" was in her tent. A polite "good morming" was about all the conservation we had with her but amongst us vanners, "Cheryl" was the topic of conversation more than once. Elaine had said that the boys, John and Rob, had helped her put up the tent two days earlier and she arrived with tent, blow up mattress and sleeping bag all stuffed in a shopping trolley and had come from Sydney where she had been sleeping "rough.""Cheryl" had no refrigeration
 or cooking facilities. We don't know how or where she ate. She hated Sydney so she told the boys.Anyway after the rain, a small white car arrived one morning, "Cheryl" had packed up her goods and they were all placed in the car and she left. More conservation this time more about the "thank goodness, someone has taken her into care" type ones. All agreed that this was good.
We said our goodbyes to John Elaine Rob and Lorraine on the Friday morning and guess what happened Friday afternoon, "Cheryl" returned with shopping trolley, new larger tent and goods. She had a bit of trouble putting the new larger tent up and knocked on our door for some help. Of course I will.....and she was back.

Central Coast of New South Wales

Having lived in nsw for the last 17 years or so, we still know very little about it. Lets face it, it's our oldest state and with our love of all things historic, we need to find more. We chose to stay at Gerroas Seven Mile Beach caravan park for Easter. South coast is a place that we visited about 35 years ago and we haven't been able to get back in that time. Seven mile beach lives up to its name and there is plenty of WOW factor.The park is divided into two distinctly different sides, beachside, where we stayed, and riverside, on the other side of the verybusy road. A visit to riverside showed many of the sites were annual or long term residents, several canvas cabanas backing on to the river and sites suitable for large tent groups, like school groups and the like. Some large groups of teenagers were spotted when we were out, on a surf school/camp. This type of business fits in well along this coast and the beauty of seven mile is that there are no killer currents or high rough surf.
At beachside there were nice modern beach hut style cabins, modern amenities and a pool with different sections that suited from toddlers to adults. The lounge had a few coin operated games , a pool table and a big screen. Outside the lounge a bbq, sink and a pizza oven. First one we've seen in a park. The jumping pillow was just along from us and it had a fair workout over Easter. Lots of tents in ourarea as well and they took up ALL of their site. Annexes, tarps and gazebos were what looked like "compulsory". The park was full as expected over the peak Easter period. Shopping centre is at nearby Kiama and the traffic there was also bedlam. We did a littleshopping at a lovely little IGA at Kiama downs, just out of town away from the traffic snarls. Back to camp and into "lockdown" mode for the next few days. About 25ml of rain overnight and it was quite heavy, next couple of days, just lovely. Drive to Nowra via Shoalhaven Heads gave usa good look around. We were last here when our good friends the Gibsons lived here and we had a holidat at Ulladulla. We met up again with the Gibsons and had a lovely meal in Kiama at Hanoi on Manning and a great catch up. We hope to meet them on the road somewhere.
We moved on from Gerroa back up the highway1 to the Hume and on to Richmond. It was in the new Camps 7 and is attached to the Richmond club. Wanderest has powered sites and water for 12- per night for clubmembers. Showers and toilets there as well and all sites are on bitumen. This area was part of the earliest settlement after Sydney cove began expanding. The Hawkesbury river valley provided fertile soils for farming and vegetable growing in the area.St.Matthews at Windsor has some very early graves in its graveyard beside the church. We found a first fleeter married a 2nd fleeter and their descendants in there as well.