Day 10 Saturday 25/12/21 Xmas Day Chiltern, hot 35 (perfect Xmas weather)

It’s another glorious summery morning. Woody walks around town. The neighbours are still watching the outside TV. I had no idea that off season television was so entertaining. The park slowly wakes with cheery Xmas greetings and magpies carolling for their breakfast. There’s no hurry, there’s no stress just time for guilty pleasures like chocolate for breakfast.

Through the morning some of the park folk leave for lunches with family who live nearby (the ones who don’t have room for yet another caravan full of relatives on the front lawn). Though most are staying here in the park and as I write I can see the heat rising from a Weber BBQ across the way.

We have pickled octopus for starters then pop the Aldi Salmon thingy in the oven. We had to ring The Prado’s yesterday for the cooking instructions as, in an effort to make space, we’d thrown away the box. The bubbles are going down nicely, and I duck inside to check how the salmon is going only to find that we’ve run out of gas. Luckily the other gas bottle is full. The rather late salmon is delicious and that’s the cooking done. We had bought a nice piece of porchetta in Wodonga and sliced, it’s perfect for Xmas lunch with a German potato salad and a Greek salad it seems we’ve gone for a bit of European summery flavour this year. Because we didn’t pack the whizzer to whip the cream we assemble a deconstructed pavlova (very Masterchef) and lunch is done. The park goes quiet as everyone over indulges in lunch and crawls off for a nap.

Late afternoon a few vans arrive keen to get a head start on their summer holidays.

As the evening draws in, kids do laps of the park on their scooters and adults sit around outside chatting under the elms in what slight breeze there is before retreating early for some well-needed rest.

Accom: 36.00