2019/11 Australia trip - Return to Hope |
|||||
Saturday November 30th
John and Edna took us to the airport on a drizzly morning. On a Saturday there was little city traffic but the airport was clogged and they had to drop us off and we had to say our goodbyes in a hurry.
All went smoothly and we took off a little late around noon. 15 hours in a seat was just as painful as we expected, both with backaches and me with shooting pains in my leg so neither of us got much sleep.
We arrived in Vancouver the same day at around 7.30 am. It was a sunny morning but cool at -5C, (about 23F), and the parking lot ice-covered. I managed to stay awake for the drive home, via Chilliwack for some groceries.
We arrived in Hope at noon, the same day and time we’d left Melbourne. Since our takeoff, noon had been traveling west around the world at the speed of time while we’d been traveling northeast at less than the speed of sound and we’d met up with noon in Hope. Yes, hurts the head doesn’t it?
The house looked OK and the yard too. Either there had been little wind or someone had cleaned up for us. Sandie started the washing and I finished off the Christmas card I’d started in October and I began the 2020 calendars. I stayed awake until near midnight and for once managed to defeat the jet lag.
On Sunday it was snowing steadily so we didn’t venture out. I booked our flights for Christmas in Minnesota and New Year’s in Okotoks, and settled down to turn my notes into this journal.
So how did the trip work out? We knew it was going to be very different from our previous trips to Australia, which had all involved mostly camping, usually in national parks but often just in some isolated spot in the wild. Staying in motels just doesn’t have the same appeal; more comfortable usually, but concrete and Internet don’t measure up to the Australian bush and its wildlife. In addition, the novelty of eating in restaurants soon wears off under the onslaught of too much food.
On the upside though, moteling allowed us to share the trip with John and Edna, something we couldn’t easily do with our two-seater Troopy camper. It was also a safer option. One of the problems of having a camper that can go anywhere is that you get tempted to take risks, even if you no longer have the ability to get yourself out of trouble!
Our trip was partly to visit family and partly to revisit the east coast forests, a part of Australia we wanted to see again. The family part worked out well, thanks to everyone who helped make it happen. We never got to the forests, but that was probably good luck; if we’d been a week earlier we might have made it to the area and then got stuck in the smoke, or worse. We enjoyed our time in the desert areas even though it wasn’t what we’d planned for.
We’d still like to have another try at the trip, but it’s hard to predict when. Even if the fires went out now, very unlikely, it may be years before some of the parks can be reopened. The wildlife may not return in our lifetimes. And of course that’s the other factor; we can’t wait too long either!
Things have changed for the worse since our return. John and Edna were in Sydney with Carolyn over New Year’s when the area clocked 48.9C (120F). The fires in NSW and Queensland have grown and Victoria’s Gippsland area, just to the north of Lakes Entrance, has enormous fires now too. Phil and Lynda are staying in Melbourne and hoping that their house survives. Phil had a recurrence of the kidney stones and spent Christmas in hospital.
We wish everyone in Australia a better year in 2020.