Yesterday

• awake before the alarm, attempt to snooze, Youngest then got up, we decided to get moving earlier than planned
• dealt with forgotten / misplaced pair of shoes; these will be posted to their person from Perth
• breakfast at Youngest's now ex-work; we got there at 5 minutes to opening, they were asked to deal with a thing, and then there was a rush so they were on till for a few minutes (this was their usual shift). They got to say farewell to their set of four regulars
• Brisbane to Murwillumbah - the main highway had a lot of slow downs (holiday traffic) so we took the smaller road inland; this was an adventure.
• Catch up with Youngest's ex K, their parents and their older sibling. Parent J is originally from Murwillumbah, and they are visiting family.
• End point of the day: Taree. Some shenanigans finding the place because apple and google maps both failed to locate it correctly. We got checked in, we ate dinner, we went to bed in separate rooms (the only time this will happen). I asked this morning, the rooms were originally 'barracks' for railway staff.
• Managed to tread on a bee, second toe of right foot, tiny bit swollen.

Today

• awake before my alarm for the ?third day running - I'm not getting to sleep all that much earlier, so I'm a bit concerned about cumulative sleep debt and long distance driving.
• Cleared out in time for Youngest to do Park Run in Taree.
• We had planned to get fuel at one spot on the way out of town; that bit of road was completely blocked off by cops, so we had to detour. I gave in to temptation and bought corn chips, which was the right choice -- I snacked on them on and off, not bad for $2 (v. cheap, even for the small bag) -- even if they only had cheese, cheese, or cheese. Youngest had been meant to drive this section, but was a bit more puffed than anticipated post park run.
• Made it to Hunter Ice Skating Stadium (Newcastle) about ten minutes before the public session. Skated for a bit. I hate hire skates, but I wasn't going to pack skates for at most 2 hours when space is precious. Youngest was able to get lunch, I got a large biscuit (a Byron Bay one, they only had the Dotty in the GF) and a soft drink. Traded drivers - this turned out to be the right way, because I was pretty sore.
• Getting out of Newcastle was a bit of a faff, but relatively quickly we were on an A road. Maps kept wanting us to take a slightly faster B road, but after yesterday's lesson, I wasn't doing that. Got to go through Singleton, and somewhere else I've heard of but don't remember ever going. Got fuel and traded drivers at, hmm, Sandy Hollow? This was about 30km shy of the original planned spot, but I'm all team change early, change often, no heroics.
• Another brief break about 100km later, at Dunedoo. Nothing open except the loos at the rest stop, but that's to be expected at 5pm on a Saturday in a small country town. Did not change drivers
• Arrived Dubbo about an hour later (I ... could work it out, too tired). Find hotel, discover upstairs no lift, at the end of the corridor. This last is awkward in terms of logistics of getting stuff from the car, but great in that we are at the far end away from the music happening downstairs, which I literally cannot hear (I can hear some people talking and laughing, but I think they are in the beer garden).
• Walked up to the Aldi (still open until 8pm, this is not a small country town), got some extra fruit and vege, and another box of muesli bars. Stopped at a nice park on the way back to sit for two minutes (there is a war memorial down a wide avenue with jacarandas either side, but I wasn't up to that bit of walk). The stopped at a ?Chinese restaurant (I was at the too tired to track, but 'they will sell cooked rice' was the important thing, there were two options) and got a serve of boiled rice. I've eaten about half, it was supposed to go with the curry-inna-box, which I haven't had the oomph to deal with.

Tomorrow: alarm set for seven, we have agreed to not have the curtain open, goal is to leave by 8am. Drive to Broken Hill is about 8 hours, plus, say, 1.5h total for rest stops, and minus a half hour because we'll change time zones, and we'll still get in after the reception for our accommodation closes. But we should still be getting in in full daylight, so we will have lower 'roo risk (we have not seen a live 'roo. I have seen finches that might have been zebra finches at Dunedoo, but they were a bit too high up).