A wet and dismal day
The morning got off to a relatively slow start and then we went to to Manly for breakfast, a very Australian experience. We all had a good meal and Mark paid for all of us which was very nice of him.
We returned home finished the packing and sat around waiting to go to the airport. Tese final moments of waiting are always the worst in my opinion, we eventually got away at about 12.15 and got to the airport in good time dropping Mark off at the international departure lounge.
There was then some discussion about where we were picking our car up and as we headed away from the international area towards the domestic airport, Rosemarie found the relevant address on the e mail and we had to turn around and go back.
As with all car rental places there was a fair wait whilst the chap in front of us decided that none of the details the car hire firm had on him actually matched anything about him. He no longer lived at the address he had given, his credit card had changed, and he had a different mobile telephone number. It rather suprised me that they were still willing to give him a hire car.Eventually we got to the desk.
The first hurdle was that I had rung earlier in the week to request a larger car, this then entailed a discussion of all the cars they had available.We settled on a Holden sedan and were then billed 500$ to reduce the amount we would have to pay in excess. This and the additional charge was paid and we were on our way.
Our next hurdle was a tearful goodbye to David and Zoe and we expressed we hope our sincere gratitude for all of their kindness and generosity.
We left the car park and headed for Sydney south and as soon as we did this the storm which had been threatening all morning decided it was time to play. Cue, heavy rain,mist and grey skies, on a day when we were driving down the coast to look at the scenery.
The first lookout we arrived at was a disaster, you could not see further than 50 yards and it was cold and rainy. Just like being in Cornwall really. We stopped at a couple of other places and from time to time were able to see something. When we arrived at Jervis Bay where were stopping we found our Bed and Breakfast, and decided to explore in the rain. The white sand was grey, the sea was grey as was the sky,but you could see how beautiful the whole area was. It is almost as I imagine the West Indies to be.
After some exploration and several settings we went in Huskisson to find a meal and eventually found a stone grill.
This is a interesting concept in running a restaurant, basically the premise is that they give the customer raw food and a very hot stone and you cook the food yourself, taking responsibility for any mistakes you may make. It wasn't until we sat down that we realised the restaurant didn't have a drinks licence and so I had to leave and walk to the bottle shop, all of 75 yards away to get some wine for Rosemarie and a beer for me.
Back to the cooking, the food was in fact very good and excellently cooked, certainly the raw ingredients were very good indeed. We ended up extremely pleased with our meal.we came out I to pouring rain and went back to our B and B. We had a cup of cafetiere coffee and retired to bed.