ADVENTURES IN OZ with WOK 'n WOBYN: A CHANGE OF PLANS

2^nd February, 2017

How does that old saying go - the best laid plans of mice and men …. There we were back on the Sunshine Coast reunited with our rig and ready to hit the road again for a few months. We had planned to head south to Victoria and slowly travel along the coast to Adelaide. Maybe even taking a detour across to Kangaroo Island for a few weeks. But it was not to be. We were trying to find a place at Kawana that made window awnings for caravans and as Robyn walked up the driveway she tripped over a concrete garden edging, stumbled through the partially excavated garden and smashed her right elbow into the garden edging on the other side and bumped her head. People came running to her aid and called an ambulance as she was in obvious pain.

Wok keeps Rob in the shade as we wait for the ambulance

An x-ray at the hospital confirmed what we suspected. A broken ulna and 'smashed to smithereens' radius. A specialist orthopaedic surgeon was organised to come up from Brisbane to do the operation and everything went as well as could be expected.

Arm in a sling and a lovely black eye

The doctors assure us that all the metalwork holding her arm together won't set off the alarms at airport security.

Now if only they could give us a new brain we should be good to go

Well eight weeks later after many trips to and from the fracture clinic and physiotherapist we were given a six week break between appointments so we decided to make a quick trip away and get the cobwebs out. We headed west to Kingaroy and stopped at the showground for a couple of nights.

A double rainbow at Kingaroy Showground

Kingaroy is the 'peanut capital' of Australia and the Information Centre has a wonderful museum with heaps of exhibits and information. Across the road from the centre are the peanut silos – hard to imagine these large bins full of peanuts.

Peanut silos at Kingaroy

We were going to stop at a freecamp beside a weir further to the west but the rain depression caused by cyclone Debbie was slowly working its way south. Coastal areas were being pounded by wind and rain and the inland areas were also getting their fair share. We decided to get as far away as possible and headed further west to Roma where we checked in at the Roma Gun Club caravan park and hunkered down. Not long after setting up the rain caught up with us. After 24 hours of non-stop rain the clouds finally drifted away. The south east corner of Queensland and the northern rivers area of New South Wales were in dire straits with flooding and storm damage. We had been extremely lucky to have made our escape to the west when we did. With the rain cleared away we drove south following some back roads and found a lovely campsite beside the river at Meandarra. Operated by the local council there were sites with power and water for $10 per night. It was a bargain with even more of a bargain when we were offered a site at 3 nights for $10 by the ranger when he came around to collect the fee that afternoon. We had the whole place to ourselves the first night and were joined by a couple of other campers for the following two nights. We then headed south to Goondiwindi crossing several flooded causeways still being impacted by the swollen rivers and creeks. The showground in Goondiwindi was a good place to camp for a couple of nights while we explored the area and took a guided tour of the old restored pub in the middle of town. Then we headed south into New South Wales and at the rest area at Coolah found the legendary Black Stump. It is here that the colloquial saying 'Beyond the Black Stump' meaning is said to have originated.

Of course the original black stump is long gone but a replica stump marks the spot.

Wok with the replica black stump at Coolah

Its not often that we run into a road block out in the back country but in the middle of nowhere the police had set up a veritable blockade with vehicles travelling in both directions were being pulled up and breath tested. Of course Wok obliged with a sample and we were soon underway.

It was coming up to Easter and we arranged to meet up with Wok's sister Gwen and husband Roger at Milton Showgrounds where their caravan club was holding a rally. We had been there before and enjoyed a lovely week joining in with the activities in the hall. Then it was time to start the journey back to the Sunshine Coast for Rob's next check in with the doctors. We spent a couple of nights at our son Trent's place before finally arriving back on the coast. As we were only going to be here for a few nights we decided to check into Mudjimba Beach Caravan Park (our old park that we once managed) and caught up with some of the residents that were still there. Tina and the girls came for a visit and we took a walk along the beach and the girls had a swim.