Seven hours on the road to get to Cessnock passed uneventfully; we stopped briefly at Goulburn at the Grit Café which did very good gluten free burgers (and will probably earn a return visit); the Big Merino was as weirdly impressive as ever (though nothing will ever beat stepping off a Greyhound bus at 4am in a stupor, to be confronted with a humungous floodlit ram, when all I was expecting was a toilet stop). The biggest excitement was setting off the smoke alarm while attempting to cook sausages in the frying pan in our room; we beat a hasty retreat to the BBQ before we were evicted.

An early start this morning saw us retracing our steps as far as Gosford. We were competing in a Pairs Score event at Rumbalara Reserve, which is a long, narrow, steep sided spur with a lot of large rock, thick vegetation, and many small rough tracks.  Each pair had to visit 20 controls between them, work out the best way to divvy them up, and finish together.  I took the 7 “easiest” controls, leaving Ian with 12 to do.  It was hard work physically, as even the tracks had many steps up and down. The controls were not hard to locate as long as you read the rock correctly – after more than a year, it was pleasing for both of us to discover we could still navigate – but we just haven’t done enough of this sort of terrain, to be fit enough.  We didn’t quite get the division right, with me taking about 15 minutes longer than Ian, after struggling to get down to one particular control. There was a lot of scrambling up and bum sliding down; but I was happy to complete my allocation in one piece.

After admiring the coastal views from the Rumbalara lookout, we headed off to explore the Central Coast. First stop was The Entrance, where we watched pelicans and paddlers on Tuggerah Lake. 

Catherine Hill Beach was the most dramatic, with the surf pounding, and the backdrop of the historic jetty from its days as a coal port. 

Caves Beach was the most interesting, although the tide was too high for us to get inside any of the caves themselves without getting rather wet.  From there we found the coast increasingly urbanised as we got closer to Newcastle; not the place for a tree change or to get away from it all. Nonetheless it was an enjoyable few hours, though the weekend tourists (like us) made for busy traffic in many places.

The welcome news came through late in the afternoon – our balloon flight is on! The weather forecast for next week is less than ideal, with showers every day and possible storms, but obviously the front bringing all this with it, won’t arrive before 6am, and we’ll have clear enough conditions to launch. We’ve both wanted to try ballooning for years, and it’s very exciting to finally be getting the chance!  Now to set the alarm for 4.30am – and turn the volume up to max.