First Leg
House emptied, tenants installed, term ended, leave taken, ute ready, trailer packed. Hitting the road for 13 months on a “big lap” of Australia.
Racing Omicron out of Sydney, heading for the ACT. First leg is a short one, to Mittagong in the Southern highlands; to see some friends and get used to life under canvas. Because of COVID restrictions we have had limited opportunity to do a shakedown trip, so lots of little things need fixing. The awning survives a big storm, the tail end of which later takes the roof of our friend's apartment in Sydney.
We have the first of what will be many bushwalks, and take in the first of many waterfalls. Lots of water around at the moment!
The pandemic throws a spanner at us. Someone in D2's year was COVID positive during the last week of term, and was also with her at after-school care. The school classify this as “casual contact”, after-school care as a “close contact”, with different advice on isolation and risk. It's exasperating that two organisations sharing premises for the same kids have different rules and recommendations for isolation. D2 already had a negative test result; we all line up to get another nose swab, conveniently right next to the caravan park. While we lay low and work out what to do next, the state government change the rules once again (must be Tuesday) and effectively abolish the “close contact” classification, leaving us free to enter the ACT for Christmas. We proceed onwards.