Tuesday 20th November 2018
What an incredibly horrible day for a carnival. It was cold, windy, rainy and downright miserable. A day I was happy to be a spectator.

We spent a lot of time hanging in the first aid tent unsuccessfully trying to stay warm and dry. The first race was the board rescue with David and Doggy having a straight out final.As always it was a little bit of a lucky dip as the cans were at an angle and the far right side had an advantage of about 10m. This meant they had to swim and paddle a shorter distance. DB went as far as to say they should just do the draw for their lanes and then award the medals to the 3 cans on the right end. They were to prove this wrong as luck would have it they drew the can 3rd from the left. Anyway, they defied the odds and came in 2nd with Terrigal a close 3rd. Woohoo boys!

After a trip to the coffee shop to warm up, we came back down to watch the board relay. The boys did very well in this race and unfortunately the 3rd place getter had longer legs than doggy and beat them in a run u the beach,

After another trip to the coffee shop for lunch, we then watched the Taplin relay. Again the boys competed well but were beaten on the day by a few better teams. They came in 9th.

It was a great day despite the terrible weather. The team did really well and shared some great racing. We now only have the beach events tomorrow. The weather forecast is for more of the same with even stronger winds. Yay!!

David’s words today were “Don’t let me do this again without the training behind me”. He felt quite sick after both the relays and doesn’t want to do that again.

David indicated on Sunday that he might retire from competition after World’s 2020 in Italy until we found out that World 2022 is in Morocco, so it looks like we will be playing these games for another 4 years. Woohoo!! Italy and Morocco here we come.

Monday 19th November 2018
Well today we woke to a lovely warm morning. We headed to the beach for 7am for DB to warmup for his Board Rescue race with Doggy starting at 8am. On arrival we were told the board rescue had been transferred to tomorrow and they were starting with the ski race. We could have come a little later, oh well, typical surf carnival. It was a very slow morning. Ski races weren’t before 10am maybe even a little later. DB wasn’t feeling that great so he didn’t do the swim. His preparation has been a little sketchy so he had to be choosy with his events. He did the board race but after a photo finish unfortunately didn’t make the final. He did the ironman and came 9th. Paul Lemmon came 1st, Scarborough 2nd and Craig Chapman from Surfers Paradise came 3rd. A strong field as per usual. Other results for Avoca was Doggy 4th in the board and Nigel 6th in the board race.

It was a very hot day, apparently 38°. Lucky for the breeze and cloud cover. The carnival finished about 3.30pm. We headed out for a nice dinner a BurgAnomix. A burger bar, where we had a nice dinner with the team. Whilst at dinner the wind came up and blew fiercely in huge gusts and started raining. Hopefully our gazebo survived this weather change. This is the forecast for tomorrow.

When we arrived home, Andy Hoban had secured our gazebo further and luckily it survived the 3 big wind storms whilst we were at dinner. We packed up the gazebo as the forecast tomorrow is for more very strong winds and we will be away from the campsite all day. Anyway, another big day due tomorrow. We will find out how the rooftop tent goes in the rain tonight as it has just started raining. Wish us luck!

Sunday 18th November 2018
Today we had another rest day. A swim at the pool, late breakfast, carnival preparation and lots of reading. Finally finished a book I started a couple of months ago. Then we had a lovely Italian dinner with some friends and are now home ready for the next 2 days at the carnival.

Wishing David and all our friends the best of luck over the next 2 days. I haven’t been so relaxed the night before a carnival in the last 6 years. Maybe it is time to retire and enjoy watching the competition again.

Saturday 17th November 2018
Well we started out slowly today and continued slowly for the entire day.

We had a late breakfast and headed out for a walk to Glenelg Beach. This is where the World Surf Life Saving Titles will be held next week. It wasn’t as windy this morning as it was yesterday afternoon and we had a very pleasant walk down to t he beach and then to the shops and back home again. Albeit a little further than we anticipated. It ended up being about a 10km walk. Oh well, so much for a little walk. The homes and apartments n the beachfront are very modern and very nicely appointed. I am sure they are also quite expensive.

After lunch DB decided on a sleep and I had an enjoyable read under the gazebo for a few hours. It was lovely. I followed this with a bike ride in the other direction this time. From the camp ground via West Beach to Henley Beach along a beachfront shared cycle/walking path. It was a lovely ride but I must remember to check the wind next time as the way back was into the wind and ended up quite a difficult ride. Another 10km done and dusted.

We then went for a walk around the campground. The Big 4 Parks sure do have some great facilities. 2 well appointed camp kitchens, 2 jumping pillows, a couple of playgrounds, a swimming pool, a water park, a takeaway shop and 2 laundries. One of the camp kitchens and one of the laundries were huge, catering for the many campers. There were also many, many cabins. A big thing now in all caravan parks. We have an ensuite with our camp site which is definitely an added bonus for us, but it works very nicely.

Anyway, a very easy day for us today which is lovely after the two big days of travel.

Friday 16th November 2018

As we had no idea where we were staying, it was very pleasant to wake beside a farm on the river. It was a very beautiful spot on a lovely sunny day. We headed off before breakfast as we were woken early by the cows, cockatoos and sheep. I love being woken by the animals in the country. The cockatoos were soooo noisy.

Well we were in for a very long drive today. Wagga Wagga NSW to West Beach SA. 974km. Not our preferred distance but off we go very early, 6.30am. We did short stints of driving each as we had a long way to go. The countryside was very dry, quite brown but still an enjoyable view. I love being back on the road again. I had the only roadside kangaroo, which I apparently didn’t slow down enough for, luckily it hopped back into the bush. Ooopss!! We saw some emus running very fast in the pastures beside the road, also a poor dead echidna.

The day continued quite uneventful, after 2 quarantine stops, we finally arrived at the caravan park about 6pm. Almost 12 hours to travel our 1000km. Not too bad for a couple of slow drivers. We had an early dinner and headed off to bed as we were pretty tired.

Thursday 15th November 2018
In true Broadbent style we were running late on our departure. I took the pressure off our leaving time as I wanted to go to the Drs with Mum this morning. That done and dusted with a positive outcome we set about getting organised to leave. I was hoping for 1pm, so when we finally got on our way at about 2pm, we were doing well for us. Only two more computer deliveries and we will be on our way. We were hoping to be through the Sydney traffic before 3pm but as always we left a little late. As I always say “Better late than never”.

The first two hours were very slow, we only travelled about 120km. Eeekkkk!! Hopefully things improve. Luckily for us they did. We made it to Wagga Wagga for the night. Decision time, where to stay. We tried for a motel but they never returned our call , so I found a freebie campsite on WikiCamps. To get there we had a choice of following the freeway and it taking an extra 15minutes back tracking or going the alternate road which was obviously 15 minutes less. We went with the lesser time as it was nearing 10pm and we thought that was the best option. In hindsight, the better road was probably the best option. Arriving at the campground in the dark is never the preferred option but when you leave so late and are trying to get as far as possible the first day, unfortunately it is unavoidable. David’s only request was that if we were camping and arriving in the dark was that I found us a spot. As luck would have it for me, there was plenty of room. Very unusual for a freebie with toilet facilities. We were setup and ready for bed within 5 minutes, thanks to our amazing rooftop tent.