Thursday 11 October 2007. Day 52. Campervan – Cowes Caravan Park – Cowes.

Up early for usual chores – shower, wash up, fill up van with water, empty waste water, empty the poo tank (although no poos are allowed in it!) and then go to Coles to stock up on food, then use the internet.

Ieuan went to queue for an autograph from Ant West, GP rider who was in Cowes for an autograph session that morning, whilst Lou went and purchased sausages for bbq-ing at the GP. We stopped to get our gas bottle refilled, only to be told it was probably still pretty full, so didn’t, hoping it wasn’t going to run out over the next few days at the GP!

We stop off at the Phillip Island winery to buy a couple of the wines we tasted yesterday plus Ieuan buys a bottle of port, then head rounds to the GP circuit. Surprisingly, it’s not busy yet, although we do have to queue for ages to pick up our tickets. We are given a list of rules as long as a snake (a traditional Australian expression…(Lou says)) to follow, including no eskies, no bottles, no alcohol, no firewood over 30cm, no “structures” to be taken into the GP circuit and on and on….none of which are remotely followed by anyone at the event as we see whole tree trunks being rolled out of vans and mini tents inside the circuit, not to mention the fact that everyone is drunk on their own alcohol every night!

We go and choose our own camping pitch in the “Highside” campground, as due to an oversight on the booking front, we didn’t manage to book ourselves into a powered site! Ieuan insists on a nice quite site next to a respectable looking family, with 1 caravan, 2 trucks, 1 large tent, 1 gazebo, and their own generator, on the basis they will not be rowdy. Later that day, a truckload of about 15 hoons roll up and park directly in front of us, taking about 4 hours to unpack their various monkey bikes, alcohol fridges and other paraphernalia, and set up camp. They claim we cheated (rolling up in the camper, Ieuan say's he'd rather have cheated than take as long as they have!) As we walk around the camp, we notice that some people seem to have bought their 3 piece suites from home and set them up next to the cooking area under giant gazebos/tarps!

We buy some fire wood for our fire tomorrow or Sat (Ieuan is reluctant to agree to Lou’s insistence that we get into the swing of things and have a campfire!) and then Lou cooks spag bol and we have a nice bottle of Phillip Island Merlot. We have a few games of cards then go to bed, noticing that some people have pitched their tent practically under the back wheels of our van, with their campfire alarmingly close!