Camping trip gone wrong

Probably the thing I like most about blogging is that when something weird happens, I just think about how I now have something to share.

Due to a staff member going away this week for holidays, I ended up working a wednesday and getting a Friday off. So Colin and I awoke early Friday morning and went camping up the coast towards Nelson Bay. I thought it was only a two hour trip, but it turned out to be 3. No big deal, it was a beautiful drive.We even passed a sign advertising a shark petting zoo, and we went to check it out but it was $48/person, so we decided to keep traveling.

After checking out 3 campgrounds, we decided upon Fingal Bay and chose the perfect site. After parking, we meticulously weighed the pros and cons as to where we should set up our new tent. When a spot was decided we began unloading all our gear: air mattress, camping chairs, sweet new cheap grill...And in that moment, as Colin and I were looking for the same item that neither could see, I realized that I had packed everything except the tent. With all of our new neighbors watching, we quickly replaced the previously extracted items and jumped in the car, never to return.

Not 5 minutes after purchasing our campsite, I made Colin go back into the office to explain the situation. They didn't say much, just mostly laughed. There were no hard feelings, but we had to wait around for a bit because they were filling our propane tank that we had originally asked them to fill.

Not sure what to do, we walked around the beach taking pictures of dead blue bottle jellyfish (aka Portuguese man of war). It was overcast and depressing. We were both super tired from our early morning so we had a 40 minute nap, then decided to find a cheap place to stay for the night. The first place we walked into was called the Santa Catalina Motel. The old gentleman behind the desk asked us if we were here on holidays and I explained my packing error, so he took pity and gave us an old room for cheapsies. It even had a full kitchen inside so we could pretend we were camping. Things were looking up.

In the middle of dinner a woman started frantically knocking on our door, asking to use our cell phone so she could call the owner. I gave her my phone but she insisted that Colin go with her to call the number on the front door. When he returned he was laughing saying that her tv wasn't working properly, and she was apparently a little nuts. God forbid your television doesn't work while you're on vacation. We finished dinner and Colin proceeded to do his regular hotel routine of playing superman, diving from bed to bed.

The following morning we woke up and made breakfast, then checked out. We drove around a bit before settling on a place for some coffee. Then in an effort to salvage our strange weekend we found a short but beautiful hike. For whatever reason I thought that there would be a bathroom before the start of the hike, but there wasn't, so we had to run down the mountain after climbing it.

It was another overcast day and all I had wanted to do was lay on the beach anyways, so we started driving home. Colin was getting tired so we pulled over at a McDonalds, got a coffee, and I drove the rest of the way. As soon as we drove out of the parking lot, there was a big downhill onto the highway with a cop waiting at the bottom. Since I had been only driving for 45 seconds and it was all downhill, I happened to be going over the limit. I'm fully anticipating my first ever speeding ticket in the mail soon. It was an inconvenient way to end my inconvenient 2nd hand dungaree weekend.

Here's to better luck next time.

E.

p.s- Australian saying of the day: Someone who is nosey would be called a "sticky beak."