The Lap of the Dogs

Greetings, loyal followers. It’s been a moment between posts from the Labs and the Penguin. There’s been a few reasons for the radio silence, the most notable being that we no longer have neither a Penguin nor a Loretta to have adventures with. Gasp!

After our last little Penguin pootle around NSW we all pulled up a bit weary, particularly the one of us that gets to do all the work (there’s no equal division of labour in this household). Even Stanley, who is worn out by absolutely nothing, seemed to have lost a few of his beans.

So a family conference was convened and it was decided that the time had come to give Loretta her flippers and send her waddling off to someone more appreciative of her draughty walls and tiny cupboards.

We found several old toothbrushes and scrubbed as much of the residual red dust as we could from her crevices. Then we gave her a general spruce-up, hung a "For Sale" sign on her side and waited. Eventually two able-bodied humans, unencumbered by well-meaning but unhelpful Labradors, offered to give Loretta a loving home. We bade her a fond but dry-eyed farewell and moved on. Fickle, we know.

But, we hear you ask, what does all this mean for the adventures of the Labs and the Penguin? The good news is that we’re determined the fun should absolutely continue, even without a Penguin. And so we’ve welcomed to the family an almost brand new home on wheels with solid walls, air-conditioning and even a proper bathroom! Quite the upgrade.

When our friends enquired about the name of our new four-wheeled home we somewhat unimaginatively came up with Loretta the Second. This attracted an underwhelming response from our friends and we had to concede they had a point. After all, Two Labradors and a Conquest Motorhome named Loretta II doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

So we called in the marketing department. That and the internet. And somehow we ended up charging down a rabbit hole that led us to Homer - the poet and philosopher, not the Simpson. Turns out Homer was, among other things, the chap who first talked about something or other being “in the lap of the Gods”. If the internet is to be believed, Homer may have been misquoted and wasn’t talking about laps at all. But whatever. We’ve taken the liberty of further misquoting Homer and have re-named our very own odyssey, The Lap of the Dogs - on the basis that the Labs are actual dogs and not deities. And of course, our upgraded means of transport is Homer (preferred pronouns “ho/hum”).

Those in the know might think this reference to the great Greek poet and philosopher (as opposed to the donut-scoffing Homer from Springfield) might be a nod to my old Dad, who was a Greekophile if ever there was one. But no, it was quite accidental.

But it’s fitting, we think, that our maiden voyage is all about transporting a portrait of my honorary Greek Dad to family in Queensland who have bigger walls on which to hang him. As we write, he’s enclosed in bubble wrap up in Homer’s overhead storage space (yes, we have storage space!), comfortably wedged between the air fryer and the spare hose.

Fitting or not, it’s a very good excuse for us to have a nice long trial run in Homer, and enjoy some of that beautiful Queensland warmth while we’re at it. We say “trial run” because next year will be our Lap Year. For the benefit of our followers overseas, a “lap”, in grey-nomadic parlance, is a circumnavigation by road of this great big country. We can hardly wait to see some of the bits we missed last year, and a bit more besides. Unfortunately our lap will take in only the North Island for now - Tassie will have to wait a bit longer. But there’ll be lots of wonderful things to see and share with all of our friends and followers. We hope you’ll continue to join us for the ride.

For now, we’re camped at beautiful Huskisson - one of our fave spots - and about to climb into our very comfortable and spacious beds (yes, one each!) after a long day.

This post would not be complete without giving a huge shout out to our lovely friend, Nicola Schubert, who helped design our fab new logo. The marketing department is wrapt. Thanks Nic!

The photographic offerings are a little light on. And one may or may not be borrowed from a previous trip. But we hope you enjoy.