Homeward Bound

We left the secluded valley of Four Bull Hut on Friday.  As usual, the known way out wasn’t as scary as the unknown way in, and within an hour we were back on the bitumen and heading across the dividing range to Grafton and then on to the familiar Pacific Motorway down the coast to Port Macquarie.  The kids were so excited to see their cousins that we only made the brief obligatory stop at the Big Banana in Coffs Harbour on the way.  The scenery across through to Grafton was incredible, and again very twisty and steep so having working steering was a big plus.

We arrived in Port Macquarie late afternoon, which was totally lovely but over-whelming given our isolation all week.  The whole family was in town to celebrate Ken’s 80th birthday, which we did in style on the Saturday.  The weather was fantastic and the sea food was divine!  The weather over the remainder of our time in Port was a bit ordinary but the kids didn’t seem to mind and we still managed beach time and the kids swam, and I got some walking time along the amazing coastal path.

We took Nissy P for the service which we’d arranged while marooned in Camooweal.  Turned out that there were a few other issues and the powered steering was still leaking fluid.  Nothing critical and we’ll get it tidied up back in Adelaide.  Sadly they gave her an unexpected clean and washed all the red dirt we’d been accumulating.  They even valeted the inside of the car. 

It was great to see everyone together and the kids were beside themselves.  Jean got the Monopoly out which James quickly got the hang of.  He’s ruthless. We were sad to move on, but that was tempered knowing we’d all be back together in Leura in a month’s time.

Our next destination was Dubbo for a couple of days at the zoo, and an evening for James and I at the observatory.  It was cold and frosty so we’d abandoned plans to camp and instead stayed in a cabin about 20kms out of town.  Dubbo Zoo is incredible and was fairly quiet with it being mid-week.  They had two baby giraffes (Jemma’s favourite) and she got to feed a couple of the adults.  A highlight was the painted dog feeding, which we arrived for early and enjoyed watching the dogs trying to work out how they could get in a position to eat James and Jemma.  The observatory was a great experience and it was a perfectly clear night with no moon.  Very informative and we got to look through lots of different telescopes focussed on different star clusters, Saturn and binary systems.  It was very very cool. 

Our last leg home had us stopping at the Tooleybuc Motor Inn on the NSW/Victoria border.  It’s the perfect stop when coming back to Adelaide distance wise.  It was a huge amount of driving and long days in the car before we got home.  

We arrived home early afternoon on Sunday to happy dogs, a well looked after and warm house, and sitters who were a bit sad to be moving on.

This week has been a bit of a blur, settling back into life and school.  My electric car had gone flat while we were away but nothing the RAA couldn’t quickly fix.  Nissy P is off to the doctors next week to hopefully fix up the outstanding jobs.

This trip was an amazing adventure for all of us.  We were sad not to make it to WA this time but we got to return to old favourites as well make some new ones in Queensland.  We’ve loved seeing James and Jemma each grow so much over the 9 and a bit weeks.  They have both increased so much in confidence and I’ve gotten to know them both so much better, and them me.  

We’d always hoped for the opportunity to do this.  We had to create a lot of space in our lives to make it happen and we’ve each got to try and work out what the next steps looks like for our work.  I finished full time work in March pretty much burnt out and carrying a lot of unresolved trauma and grief.  At the time I resolved to get my mojo back.  While this remains (and is likely to remain) a work in progress - my resilience jar (a story for another time) is full and for now I continue to put more in than I’m taking out. 

We have another short trip with the kids planned for the October school holidays when I back from Italy and are already scheming something for the end of the Christmas school holidays.  

But there are lots of habits from the trip we hope to continue to do from here.  Adventure is after all a state of mind.  In the words of Terry Pritchett …

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently, too. 

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” 

So over and out from me for now…