Grandma's illness made our holiday a bit more stressful than we expected. Thankfully, she is on the mend now after a few days in hospital. After making sure that Margaret's mum was in safe hands, we made the trip to Batemans Bay to visit my parents.

The fastest way, according to various computer models, was via Kangaroo Valley in the Southern Highlands. Of the three routes selected by Google, there was only a variation of a few minutes on a 6 hour journey, so there isn't much in it.The tollways around Sydney have reduced the time to cross from Hornsby to Liverpool by about an hour.

Our GPS program Co-Pilot took us on an interesting voyage through a number of narrow roads, very like English country lanes until we joined up with the main road to Kangaroo Valley. The most well-known feature in the district is the Hampden Bridge.

We had a relaxed time with my parents. My Dad turns 79 in a few days, but he is very well and extremely active. I learned a lot of facts I had never known before like the fact that he was suffering badly from a stomach ulcer at the time we moved from England to Australia but he refused to see a doctor becasue he thought we might not be allowed to emigrate. Despite suffering half a dozen ulcers before this, he never had another ulcer after we came to Australia.

I highly recommend fish and chips at the Tuross Heads boat shed. We took Mum and Dad out for lunch for his birthday and that was where they wanted to go. Fish was yummy as were the chips and the serving sizes were great. Eating beside the lake was just really peaceful.

We returned home via Kiama and Wollongong, a really nice route. We didn't stop much along the way.

After dinner I wandered around the garden and played around with the camera.