The 18th is in fact the anniversary of the day that I started PADing back in 2010. Every year since then I have returned to the same spot as that first shot to take basically the same view.

Not this year, for as you can see the 18th was a Saturday and I certainly wasn't going in to work just to take a PAD shot. I did in fact take my anniversary shot on the Friday but since I plan to compile those shots into a pano and don't have time to do that at the moment, that will have to wait until later.

This was nothing more than a "getaway" weekend. The destination was the Mercure resort at Gerringong. The room was comfortable enough though I was annoyed to see the advertised bath was not there. In addition to which somehow the booking for dinner was lost between reception and arrival at the restaurant. And what restaurant in its right mind does not have a chocolate dish on the dessert menu??

Unfortunately the weekend was more rushed than I would have liked and there was no time to make use of the tennis courts and swimming pools. I probably should have skipped the lunch and movie on the way down (although The Book Thief was worth seeing) and just gone directly to the hotel.

No matter, it was a worthwhile break. Here we see the hotel room balconies bathed in the last of the afternoon Sun.
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Edit August 2024: The Accor group seems to have an unusually high churn rate on its properties but this one is apparently still there, though it now has a simpler name; Mercure Gerringong Resort. It can also be booked through booking.com which advises that it is: "Just 2461 feet from Werri Beach...". This claim is as implausibly precise as it is simply implausible. And where, exactly, was that extra 1 foot measured from?

I'm pleased to announce that as of the date of writing Bella Char, their current restaurant, does have a chocolate dessert, plus a sticky date one.

I had a vague recollection of the movie The Book Thief and recall some of the scenes in it... but don't recall the full plot, and definitely don't recall it being 10 years since I saw it.