David's Journal Entry

Today is our first zero day. We had a very slow start, not getting out of bed until after 9am. Nevertheless, we had lots of time to take care of our laundry and filter litres and litres of water. In our semi-shaded spot at the camp we enjoyed the simple pleasures of stretching our aching legs, charging our electronics and drinking rounds of tea and coffee. The little camp chair has proven almost as essential as the tarp today, as we have taken turns to raise ourselves off the ground.

Doug always garners interest and today was no exception, people frequently stop to have a chat and this morning we were greeted by a keen cyclist, Rob, and his wife Chris, who are driving around Oz, having started out from their home in Forster. Rob has a big European bike tour planned next year, and so he was more than happy to support us in the best way possible, by gifting us a half bottle of red wine, which matched very nicely with my sausage and gravy dinner. Perhaps most charming of all was Rob's commitment to catch us at dawn to send us off, taking photos, which he assures us he'll share via insta. 

The bar here would make a wonderful sitcom stage. Old soaks fixed in position on high stools, a grumpy, seemingly put-upon barman with defunct equipment and a semi-functioning cooler and a mediocre Elvis impersonator doing his nightly set to an unending trickle of moderately curious (in every sense) nomads.

Today was the day Eileen and the boys (my family) should have arrived back in Ireland having travelled from Malaysia, I can't help but wonder how they're getting on, not least because now they feel very far away.