Sunday 16-10-2011

Hello everyone out there, it is finally my turn to write about what we are up to here "Down Under". We made it to Coromandel town, on the peninsula, after navigating some exacting narrow and winding roads, (with 100 meter vertical drops not far from Angela´s left leg!) which took us around some spectacular bays.

A local bookseller that I had a chat with while selecting some second hand books said it was only an hour from Thames to Coromandel. It took me two hours! I may have upset some of the locals though with my very careful defensive driving technique with some hills requiring second gear to get round the hairpin bends. On the top of one hill I pulled into a layby so that I could look at the wonderful views, (and let the speedsters get passed). We found a really nice campsite and settled in. I went to the local hotel lounge to watch the match, Wales v France. Unfortunately the wrong team won.
We have had some changeable weather these last few days which has made us change our itinary somewhat. A couple of days ago we wanted to watch gannets diving into the sea for fish. We were lucky if we saw the other side of the road because of the fog/mist. When the fog lifted, it was only due to the heavy rain. As you may have seen from Angela´s last report, the word Washout does mean just that.

The local authorities do a good job to keep the roads open so that us `touries´ can get around.
Angela read about a nice cafe in Thames and yesterday, Saturday, (I do get mixed up with dates and time zones, so if I call at 2am in your morning, please forgive me) we called in for breakfast.
Angela thought it was a good time to update you of our trip as we had a good signal. Breakfast came and went, the second coffee came and went, the cake looked home made and very tasty, it too came and went, a pot of tea came and went, followed eventually with a second cake.

I took the opportunity to take a walk along the main street. Raided the ATM so that we could pay for our visit to the cafe. Dropped into the chemist/pharmacy/apothercary for a soothing cream against mosquito/sandfly bites. Luckily we have not encountered too many of the little beasts so that the cream is being held in reserve, just in case. I found a little bookstore and spent a pleasant half an hour browsing. When I returned to the cafe, Angela was just finishing translating her text so that our blog reaches all our friends and family. After uploading the selected pictures, ( we don´t show you everything ) we started driving to Coromandel.
Today we plan to take a ride on a small gauge private train through some picturesque scenery. As they say in the soaps, more to follow. See Ya, (as they say around here) Terry.