Aug 2022, Mulambin, Qld

We do a little shopping in Woolies for tonight’s dinner. The Prado’s are cooking a lamb roast at their van and we’re doing the veggies. We run into them at the supermarket where Elle has bought some decent toilet paper after El Prado’s fiasco with the one-ply.

We ring VeeWee. After breaking down on the Nullarbor in June she’s back on the road and in Forbes where it’s wet, cold, and flooding. She’ll meet us on the coast at Nambucca Heads as we make our way south.

Woody cooks the veggies in the oven. Redeeming himself after the toilet paper episode, El Prado produces a delicious lamb leg in the Weber and Elle her famous Cauliflower bake. As we all tuck into the feast Woody reaches to move the foil tray of cauli and in what seems slow motion it slides off the table, I reach out to save it and we’re both scalded in hot and cheesy cauli sauce. Dinner is delicious but unusual as ice is passed around to cool the wounds.

The next morning, I step out of the shower and hear footsteps on the roof. I look up and into the eyes of a cheeky blue-faced honeyeater. Where’s the privacy?

The Prado’s are packing up, they leave for home tomorrow to pack for their first post-Covid cruise.

Woody goes into town looking for screws for the kitchen cupboard door and a catch for the wardrobe door. He finds the screws but the catch will have to be replaced with Velcro until we get home. There’s always something that needs repair in this caper.

A walk on the beach is a beachcomber’s worst nightmare! I find a shiny cowrie with beautiful markings…but there is someone in there and I can’t tell if it is dead or alive so I hurl it back into the sea just in case. At least I got a photo.

For our last dinner together this trip Woody cooks the Queensland favourite, crumbed steak and gravy with potatoes. Elle provides the cauli bake (she had cooked two yesterday) and I stuff some zucchini. Once again dinner is delicious and it’s nice to be eating cauli rather than wearing it.