Success is getting what you want; happiness is liking what you get

Wednesday 30 December 2015

Next stop Ongaonga

As expected, we were all alone in the Dannevirke Club car park last night – not a single van or motor home decided to join us.  These clubs are ideal to stay overnight, but we would not be comfortable to stay for too long.  For example, these are not the kind of places where we would light up the BBQ, or lounge about outside on our folding chairs, and certainly not have the week’s washing strung about.  Perhaps some campers do these things while parked up at clubs in the middle of town in suburbia, but to us, it just doesn’t seem right. So we were quite happy to move on, but not before we visited the local laundromat.

As planned, we had another short drive today, just 45km to our next destination at Ashcott Park, Ongaonga, not far from Hastings.  This POP is situated on a rural farm, and somewhere we had never stayed before.  Just the sort of place we were looking for, a “new to us” venue to experience.  We had phoned the owners the previous evening to make sure the POP was available, keyed the destination into the Garmin, and we arrived at the sun dappled driveway.

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Arriving at Ashcott Park

There was a nice grassy area to park in, and the caravan was soon in place, legs wound down, fridge turned onto gas, and we were all set.  There is water and a toilet available, but no electricity.  That doesn’t really matter this time of year, as the solar panels provide power for the caravan batteries, and both the fridge and hot water can work off either gas or electric.  The laundry was soon hung out to dry, no problems here  in such a rural setting, and was soon dry in the hot sunshine.

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Romany Rambler in a lovely rural setting

The owners do not live in this part of the farm, and we haven’t met them yet.  There are several old barns dotted around and the paddocks over the fence are growing Chou Moellier (we think it is, but could well be wrong) for stock feed.

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There are paddocks full of plant feed

The afternoon was hot and rather somnolent, so much so that the man of the house, or should that be caravan, nodded off after lunch while sitting under the awning, and had to creep inside for a Grand-dad nap.  And why not?  Revived later in the day with a cool beer, he then fired up the BBQ and produced a beautifully cooked meal of Scotch fillet steak, char grilled asparagus and cheese topped zuchinni.  Served with some tasty Jersey Benne potatoes, and peaches and custard for dessert, we were a couple of very happy campers indeed.

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Meal cooked in the fresh air

What shall we do tomorrow?  More of the same perhaps, plus a little exploring too.  We’ll have to see what we feel like doing, won’t we?

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