3 February 2014 - Riverside Caravan Village, Bli Bli, Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Sleep continued to elude us, not least my poor husband, because it is he on whom I lean, rather than the reverse; I am simply the ideas person. A blood vessel had popped or done something equally hideous the day before, no doubt brought on by lack of sleep and stress, however this, his dark red eye bothers me more than him so we have not chased medical attention.

We spent the whole of Sunday packing and discarding, repacking and more discarding, a chore that seemed to go on and on and on. Two days ago I had dared to suggest that if we were required to leave immediately, we were organised enough to be ready within two hours. Rubbish! I say on reflection and in retrospect; two days at least. What a mammoth task this has turned into, and yet, and yet, thousands are relocating from one part of the world to another every day and do I hear them complaining?

We stayed on Jess’s case all day, still hoping a photo of The Cheque would appear. Her excuse was that she had sent it through to our telephone number. We quickly put her right there; our cellphone copes only with texts and voice calls, and really only the latter successfully. So no email came.

I woke before the birds this morning and would have enjoyed the dawn chorus had my head not been in a whirl of anticipation. As I later said to Chris, it is always I who am the optimist and he, the pessimistic curmudgeon, although I normally can keep my own mood above his, but of late, I have allowed his negative thoughts and expectations to creep over mine like a dark cloud.

We were up about six o’clock, breakfasted and packed up by eight. We called into the camp office on the way back from the newsagent and asked when our cabin would be ready. The manageress sent her husband up to turn the fridge on and half an hour later Chris drove the landcruiser up to the other end of the caravan park, full of our residual possessions. I was left to walk; no room for me, my computer and handbag, however the exercise did me good.

Jess phoned to ask if we could deliver the caravan to them after all; this was a positive bit of news. We found ourselves at their home soon after 11 am, almost an hour early, and realised too that we were less than a kilometre from where we had embarked on our travels three years ago after setting ourselves up at our friends Neil and Pauline’s; or at least as the crow flies. A strange coincidence and perhaps a good omen at last. But then that would have been to dismiss the other little gem that had appeared unto me yesterday afternoon; a delightful dragon had emerged from the scrub beside our caravan and stood in the sunshine, poised for escape should the need arise. It has been a while since we last saw one, so this was a little joy for the day. And if I was a superstitious person, yes, all good omens.

Goodbye to our travelling home.

At midday, Maria, Jess and Uncle all arrived; bank cheques in hand and all full of genuine love and honesty. Even Grandad emerged on his walker to sing the praises of the caravan that they had got for a bargain price! There was no scam involved, just a warm fuzzy family who do things in their own sweet time. Before we knew it, we were homeless and with a bit fat bank account; fat by our standards anyway.

We dropped another pile of goodies at the Salvos and made our way home, that is, our temporary cabin home. We telephoned Gary in Darwin to tell him it was all go whereupon he told us he would be arriving at Brisbane at 11.30 am tomorrow morning and would be pleased if we could call into a place on Southbank where he could pick up a shelf fitting for the landcruiser, before we head on to the transporter people in South East Brisbane. It is all go! I have a rental car booked and rather than uproot ourselves to another “home” in Brisbane before taking up our pre-arranged hotel accommodation on Thursday, we will stay on here at Bli Bli and drive back. It is not too far, or at least, not by Australian standards.

So I might have said that I look forward to a good long sleep tonight, but we will have to be up bright and early to fight the traffic on the Bruce Highway and deal with the Brisbane traffic; some of which I will have to drive in myself. But matters are on the up and up, at last!