I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve stayed in a caravan park in the last 20 years. If you’ve been reading our Blog, you’ll see we are happiest out in the bush. We decided to “do a park” in Coober Pedy (I’m not sure what made us think that). So when we pulled into town and saw a queue of at least 8 cars and their caravans and trailers waiting to check in at the first caravan park, I started to feel sick. We went on past, to another caravan park, where the queue had only 3 cars. Lucky we don’t need power – all the powered sites were gone. But just checking in at the office for an unpowered site approached the rigmarole of picking up a hire car at an airport. Endless staring at computer screens, complete lack of efficiency. Stuff like that.
We found our small plot of gravel, adjoining the bitumen. The total lack of any grass is probably attributable to the climate rather than the standard of the caravan park. Nonetheless – we all had a shower (3 minutes for 20 cents). It was divine! And there’s five bars of 3G reception, the BBQs were spotless (they cost extra too), there was hot water to wash the dishes (free!) and the dozens of children all went to bed early. In fact all the adults did too. John and I were the only two about after 9.30pm, catching up on the Tour.
John and the boys did a quick ride (boys) and run (John) around town before dinner. Then the boys found a TV room (in an enormous tank), so my peace time was extended. Nice.