After the mill we drove back into Sale. We had booked a hotel in an old manor house. We met up with the newlyweds for dinner. We decided to grab some take a way. Being in England I know it should have been a curry but we went for Chinese instead.

It was a lovely evening; Emily and Lauren were still on a high from their big day and chatted away about their future, telling us about their plans for children and a house. So sweet.

As we left we handed back the GPS system. It was a bit frightening. We had relied on it so much over the 2 weeks we had been away. We just needed to find our way back to the hotel and then out to the car rental place the next day. No problems. Out came the mobile. We only took one wrong turn, not bad.

As we had going for the cheapest room we had expected it to be quite small. When we booked in we were given direction, “your room is at the top of the stairs.’ The first sets of stairs were lovely and wide with carved banisters. The next set were thinner but still had a bannister although a plain one. The third set were thinner with no bannister at all. If we had thought we were at the end of dragging out suitcases up the stairs then we were wrong. There was yet another set of stairs, even thinner. It was a good thing we didn’t meet anyone coming down. There was no way I was going back down with my suitcase only to have to drag it back up again. Finally we found the room. The room was massive. The largest one we had had so far. What a surprise.

We had told the receptionist when we booked in we would not be having breakfast, as we would be leaving at about 4:00am for the airport. She smiled and told us when we came back from dinner to ask at the front desk for a breakfast tray. It was common for people to leave for the airport from the hotel so they make up trays. Now that is service.

They flight home was uneventful. Same set of movies as the flight over so I watched the movies I didn’t have time to watch for the first trip.   We arrived in Sydney at 10:00pm. The hotel was a short walk from the airport so we didn’t bother with a taxi. Again we went cheap with the room and this time it is what we got. It was like a thin corridor with a door. The view from the window was of the building next door and only about 4 feet away. There wasn’t any room for a wardrobe.  Mind you we didn’t need one as we were only going to spend the one night. After we dropped out suitcases off we went out to find dinner. There was a MacDonald’s close by and a Crispy Cream. We participated in both bringing the donuts back to the hotel room and climbed into bed to watch Australian TV for about half an hour before succumbing to sleep.

The next morning we made our way back to the airport to catch the train into the city. From there we could catch the connecting one to Maitland. The trip took most of the day. Our suitcases seem to get heavier and heavier with each set of stairs we had to climb or descend but finally we made it.   We were home. Well we were back in our little caravan.