The problems are decreasing rapidly, and the number of “people in the street” is increasing just as quickly. Many of them are fascinating in various idiosyncratic ways, so I thought it was worth recording a few as we go, before we forget them – or they get replaced by other curiosities.

We met our first real “chatter” (maybe bogan?) at Umina – within 5 minutes of cheerful chatting, with stubby in hand, singlet boardies and tatts, we were informed that he was going to move to Brisbane, had a house to sell in Sydney (no worries!), had a job lined up in a glass business at Logan, had a potential new boss at Logan who wanted him to break Aunty Stacy’s border embargoes, was looking for where to live either near the water in Redlands or on a couple of acres further inland (Beaudesert?), and “how good is a caravan park?” Sadly, name unremembered.

He was replaced in our minds by Colin and Mina in Mudgee. Camped in a tent right beside us, we met them when they returned from an afternoon of wine-tasting (in a tour bus, thank goodness). As Sir Les Patterson might say, “they’d had a few – who hasn’t?” Col immediately asked if we would join them for dinner, we prevaricated, Mina suggested the Mudgee Brewery, then they thought that they may have already been going with someone else, or not, because maybe it was fully booked anyway. They returned after dinner (wherever) and had a bit of a blue in the tent. The next morning, they slowly packed up and departed, Col severely hungover and Mina overset by hay fever. A lot of sharing!

More interesting was the Little Old Lady we met in Gulgong. She spied us wandering aimlessly (on purpose) and proceeded to tell us all about Gulgong – she’d written a history of the town and there really was very little she didn’t know. Completely delightful, the only gap in her knowledge being unable to answer the burning question of how Flirtation Hill got it’s name – she would neither confirm nor deny whether she had been to the hill in days gone by.

The team at the Internet Cafe in Stuart Town were equally fabulous. We went there looking for sustenance at 3pm after the Burrendong Arboretum. The cafe turned out to be the front room of a house (parlour, I suspect) with School of Arts adjacent. The available choices were Devonshire Tea or sandwiches, plain or toasted. Further, there’d been a bit-of-a-run today, so only cheese was available, ham and tomato having been exhausted. A local who had come for (superior, he said) Devonshire, asked how many customers today – about 10 was the answer. Our sandwiches were fine but he had to contend with a meagre helping of whipped cream (that’s all we made this morning), but he was happy with further supplies from a can. Stuart Town used to be called Ironbark(s), so naturally, we bought a tea towel with Banjo Paterson’s The Man From Ironbark printed on it. The tea ladies were also instrumental in renovating the old post office to a stage where it could house several artists-in-residence that week. The parlour was being prepared for a shindig in their honour that Friday evening. Community spirit alive and well.

A final delightful person for now. Murray Smith of Canobolas Smith Wines in Orange. Murray was initially not-really-in-the-mood to show us his wines, but we prevailed and he was welcoming on Sunday. He appeared, looking just like a country Santa Claus figure in leather hat and immediately noticed we were all wearing Keen boots – his demeanour changed to match the brand and we became besties. He piped samples of his 2021 vintage chardy straight from both 3 and 1 year old French casks. The samples were quite different but both delicious – he’ll blend them in time. We then tasted maybe half a dozen wines from the bottles, all of which were very good and a couple were fabulous. He even gave us blue cheese to prepare our palates for his Melliodora sticky (you won’t be sorry – we weren’t). A genuine boutique operation, he was knowledgeable, charming and made us feel like we’d won Lotto – we spent a small fortune and withdrew in good order.

And speaking of withdrawing, now we park the van for a few months and head for Brazil and England to see long-unseen family and probably unrecognisable grandchildren. You wouldn’t want to finally get your great new van and then actually use it, would you? We’ll return to ATGANI and our travels in early March and I personally am very keen to start our Big Lap on April Fool’s Day. The Omicron Covid variant has just appeared but our travel is booked and we intend to fly unless someone stops us – what could possibly go wrong?