After an early morning phone call to the caravan repairers, Ray was able to fix the hot water service. They had forgotten to close a valve, luckily Ray is so handy and he could do it himself with the few tools that he had brought along on the journey.
So, knowing that we still have 2 weeks at Lake Clifton and in honor of Judy and Emma’s arrival today, we decided to pull out the annexe and put it up. It is brand new and even the previous owners of our van had never used it. We have been travelling with a heavy bag under Caleb’s bed since we set out on our travelling adventure. Today it occurred to me that it could in fact be anything, and not actually an annexe! Luckily, it was the annexe, brand spanking new, never unfolded.
Ray had no instructions (and we both knew even if he did, he wouldn’t read them) and so he set about erecting the annexe. Pete from next door (a permanent resident) came and lent some muscle and expertise and he was really good at holding the milk crate on top of the esky to give Ray some extra height. The men discovered that in replacing our awning yesterday, the repairers relaxed the roller with an incorrect one. This meant that there were no holes drilled where they were meant to be. No problem though, Pete had a couple of heavy duty drills to lend a hand.
By 12:30pm, it was done. For what Ray said was supposed to be a 30 minute job continued on through the afternoon and took a total of 3 hours….hmmmm.
We had a quick bite and hit the road bound for Bunbury to finally meet our friends arriving from Melbourne. I had been receiving updated text messages all morning from Judy and Emma and they were almost there. We were now running late.
I rang them as soon as we arrived in Bunbury. Judy gave us directions to wait outside a shop and they would be right down. Clutching 2 bottles of Moscato, we waited excitedly on the pavement. They both popped their heads around the corner and we all screamed. After hugs and kisses all around, we went for a celebratory drink at the brewery on the foreshore. We were so engrossed in catching up that I neglected to take photos. We roughly planned out the week and helped Emma empty her car up the 2 flights of stairs into the apartment that she was to share with her friend. Must mention what a fabulous apartment it is, 2 levels, modern with a balcony, views of the water and secure parking to boot!
We were sad leaving her there on her own, but we will catch up in a day or so. On the way back to Lake Clifton we decided to go through the McDonalds drive through for ice cream cones. I have had a “$10:00 voucher” safely tucked away in the glove box for a special occasion. This seemed like the perfect occasion to finally cash it in.
We enjoyed a BBQ dinner and it was very comfortable sitting in our new annexe with Judy and a couple of (bottles of ) wine.
We showed Judy how to use the caravan toilet with an assurance that we wouldn’t hear her in the middle of the night and happily retired for the night.