Our Pretend Australia Trip Day 17 Eden

Happy Australia Day!

It's 12:02 here; so I can officially say that now.  

Tim and Jack have been asleep for about thirty minutes.

By the way, we ended up having me sleep in the alone room instead of moving Jack here the next night.  As much as I don't like being alone, I prefer that to Jack being alone here.

* * *

I couldn't concentrate on my book.

I'm going to play Sims 3.

* * *

I'm bored of Sims 3.

I'm going to surf the internet.

* * *

I watched some fun YouTube stuff, mostly Lost and Harry Potter videos.

I'm trying hard to avoid anything creepy or spooky.  To do that, I have to avoid looking to the right, where they have suggested videos.   You never know what you're going to get.

It's 1:30 now.

I have about 5 hours until sunrise.

I'm a little sleepy, but I think I can make it.

* * *

I hear knocking at the door.

It's 2:00 am?

Who would be knocking at 2:00 am?

* * *

I went to tell Tim about the knocking.

I whispered because I didn't want to wake Jack up.

Tim didn't wake up either.

Oh well, the knockings have stopped.

* * *

I thought of who could be knocking.

A serial killer.

A zombie.

A crazy escaped prisoner from somewhere.

A kangaroo.

A Brumby.

A ghost.

* * *

I hear the knocking again.

* * *

I went to tell Tim.

This time I spoke a little louder and he woke up.

He asked, Who was it?

Who was it?  Did he really expect that I'd open the door to see?

I told him I didn't know.

He said it was probably the wind. I shouldn't worry about it. Then he went back to his snoring.

Maybe I heard his snoring and mistook that for knocking.  He does snore awfully loud sometimes.

* * *

The knocking has begun again.

I'm ignoring it.

I can't imagine any good scenarios with me opening the door.

* * *

I realized I could be making a huge mistake by not opening the door. 

What if the one of the other families is having an emergency?  What if they need something?

What if it's the police and they're trying to warn us about something?

What if there's a bushfire and we need to evacuate?

* * *

I woke up Tim and insisted he go out and check.

He wasn't too pleased.

Maybe he would have been more into it if he could hear the knocking.   But it had stopped by the time he woke up.

He ignored my warnings about being careful, opened the door, peered outside, and then reported that no one was out there.

I don't think he was very thorough about the whole thing.

* * *

There's three more hours until sunrise.

I haven't heard the knocking for awhile.

I'm thinking maybe it was someone pulling an annoying prank.

I'm not going to worry about it.

* * *

I'm worried about it.

What if I'm having hallucinations?

What if I'm losing my mind?

* * *

I'm losing my mind.

Or there are ghosts here.

What's worse?

Probably the mind bit because we're leaving soon.  Ghosts don't follow people.  Do they?  Mental illness does.

So, here's what happened.

I had a sudden urge to look out the window behind my bed.

I don't know why, since windows at night scare me.

I turned and saw three figures outside the window. The shade's down so I could only see vague shadows.

I decided to just get it over with and face this head on. I lifted the shade and saw the camping family.  There was the man, the boy, and the girl.

I stared at them for a quarter of a second, screamed, closed the shade, and ran out of the room.

I waited for Tim to wake up and rescue me....or scold me.  He didn't.

I stood in the hallway trembling for several minutes.  Then I had to spend some time on the toilet.

After that....

It took me about twenty more minutes to gather enough courage to run in the room and grab my computer.

* * *

I wanted to say that as far as I could see the camping family didn't look monstrous in anyway.   They weren't zombie-like. They weren't disfigured in a horror-movie way.

I know.  I only saw them for a very quick moment.  But I think I would have noticed if they looked scary.

They didn't.

They looked like a happy...blond family.   

But they were creepy in the fact that they were standing right outside my window at three in the morning.

So....

Am I hallucinating?

Were they ghosts?

Maybe I had fallen asleep without realizing it.  Maybe I dreamed the whole thing?   Maybe THIS is a dream.   I'll check later to see if all this writing is still here.  If it's not, then I can assume it was a dream.

* * *

The writing is still here.  So it wasn't a dream...well, at least not the part with me typing.

It's 9:30 now.

I slept from 6:30-8:30.

We're all packed up.

I might take another little cap nap.

* * *

We're about to take off.

Tim's doing some preliminary map work.

I took Jack over to say good-bye to his new friends.

There was sweet hugging moments.

I kind of assumed the kids would exchange email addresses, but they didn't.   I thought of speaking up to suggest it; but decided to keep out of it.   And well also....I was kind of too groggy and lazy to talk much.

* * *

We're on our way to Eden.  

Right now we're in Cooma.  It's about only forty-five minutes from our starting point, but it seemed like a good place to eat lunch.

We ate at a little gourmet food shop.  

We're going to start driving again soon.

I'm going to sleep.

* * *

We're here in Eden.

We checked into the lovely bed and breakfast.   We've unpacked.

This place is AMAZING. They had scones waiting for us when we arrived!   Yum!

We ate on the deck, and chatted to the B and B owners for awhile. Tim did most of the chatting because I'm feeling like a zombie.  

I did snap out of my trance enough to enjoy the visiting lorikeets. They're beautiful.   I love them. 

In our room, there was a nice fruit basket waiting for us, and also some chocolates.  Jack and I had a couple of grapes.  We'll save the chocolate for dessert.

It turns out we all have to squish onto a queen size bed.   I can't say I mind that right now.   But yeah....I forgot to look into that when making the reservations.

* * *

It's really awesome that we're in Australia on Australia Day.

I'd appreciate it more though if I weren't so tired.

* * *

Tim's going to take Jack out for awhile.

I'm going to take a nap.  

* * *

I couldn't fall asleep.

I tried calling Tim, but he's not answering.

* * *

I finally reached Tim.

They're hanging out at a beach.  Tim says it's not too far from the bed and breakfast.

I'm going to try to find them.

* * *

I didn't find the beach.  I got lost.

But Tim and Jack caught up with me.  

We're all back at the bed and breakfast.

We're trying to decide what to do for dinner.

This area kind of reminds me of our neighborhood in Fort Worth.  There are no sidewalks.

It's kind of annoying.

* * *

We ate at a place called Wharfside Cafe.

I had a lentil burger.  It was pretty good.  Tim and Jack shared Mussels.   They seemed to like it.

* * *

I'm going to go to sleep now.

I'm so tired. I don't even care anymore about bad dreams.   

Happy Australia Day.

* * *

I lied. I do care about bad dreams.

I hope I don't have any.







NOTE:  This trip journal is fictional.   We are not really in Australia.  Some stuff in these posts are based on research.  Some stuff is based on my reality.  Some stuff is based on past experiences. And some stuff is based on fantasy.   

The non-trip journal posts ARE true and real…except for my dreams (which are written in purple). 
Oh...and also....my 2009 trip reports are about a real trip to Australia.  That's all true too.