We made an early start the next morning because we wanted to make Sydney in good time. We had hatched a plan, which seemed like genius at the time, to pick up a couple of wardrobes from IKEA while we had the caravan with us as they would not fit in the car. We reasoned that IKEA were bound to have an open car park and, if not we could park outside.
Stopped for a coffee in Kangaroo Valley which is beautiful with lovely old wooden houses and individual shops. It is also very expensive as it is less than two hours from Sydney and lots of Sydneysiders have properties there.
Got to Sydney in good time to discover, not only did IKEA not have an open car park but we had already driven into the entrance of the multi story when we realised. Luckily we saw the loading area for deliveries and had no choice but to shoot in there, it was empty so we popped Monty in the caravan so he wouldn't be spotted and adopted a confident air while heading for the goods lift. My retail years served me well and we negotiated our way through the maze of stockrooms quickly and got out on to the shop floor trying not to think about how on earth we would get back into the staff only areas again to get out.
We picked up the wardrobes and saw a shop worker going through a shutter so we dived through before it closed and were back in the stockrooms. We found our way back to the car and, incredibly, were not questioned once!
The nightmare was not over yet because the loading bay had filled up with lorries and we were trapped! After a while we decided we would have to try and back the caravan out, this is done with a knot in ones stomach at the best of times, let alone when we had to weave it through past several lorries onto a busy Sydney street in an area we shouldn't have been in in the first place. A few lorry drivers were quite helpful and stood on corners while I guided Ian out, amazingly we managed it and drove off as fast as we could for home.
We reached Lemon Tree Passage at around 5pm after our first trip away since we settled in this village, it really did feel like home as we drove back in.