Floods cover three quarters of New South Wales! Towns, no longer just names to us, were steadily put under evacuation orders from over the border in Queensland at St George; to along the Lachlan River as it flowed towards the Murrumbidgee River. All pictured clearly in our minds as levees were frantically strengthened with sand bags in an effort to prevent over-topping and minimize the damage to homes, businesses and the small town infrastructures. Each town helped their neighbouring one in the fight against rising waters...The large rural town of Wagga Wagga had to be evacuated and the Riverina containing the vast agricultural flatlands became inundated while other towns were isolated. Caravan parks we’d used along the rivers went under. Thank goodness we explored during the autumn and chilly winter. There was no summer in NSW!
Meantime as March days sped away we worked with our patient Travel Consultant to pull together our “Round the World “flight tickets - no mean feat as it is not often these complicated year long tickets come into the office of a Travel Agent! Fortunately our kind lady with a ‘Ryan’ surname found it both challenging and interesting despite her hectic life scheduling daily flights and holidays. Many hiccoughs and problems raised their heads but finally we clutched our wad of tickets mere days before our first flight out of Perth - 21 March heading for Africa.
More exciting days lie ahead of us as South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe take up almost the next six months predominantly spent with our son Keith, wife Colleen and two grandchildren Ella and Finn in their remote N’kuli Camp situated along the Lugenda River in the Niassa Reserve. By mid September we’ll be winging our way into Manchester with a train to Cleethorpes to join our daughter Justine, husband Daniel and their trio Otto, Roo and Kiki.
Meantime in Perth, we have enjoyed sociable family times over Talia’s official birthday with Tom, Holly and Carmen. We managed an evening out at their place to officially meet the four INDIAN RUNNER ducks - Billabong, Waltzing, Matilda and Cake plus the ducklings that very recently hatched. And, of course the other great love of Carmen’s life Regi. Holly gave us a fine demonstration of her horse-whispering ability with her horse Winston- sadly, the photo just too distant to work well.
Carmen and Roo-roo alias Regi, her Schnauzer
Annual medical checks were all sorted and we joined a little gathering of familiar faces at Marieta Road during Perth’s eighth summer heatwave. Liz and Des Lord with Eggy and Rob Boggs had arranged a gathering for us over a delicious meal which went down very well. In the midst of which we heard eldest of the Lord daughters had been admitted to the Birthing Clinic. The second of the trifecta of grandchildren due within weeks of each other was on his way!
Camera forgotten about so we missed a team photo with Ros and Rodney Richards and Paddy Berry but for the record (left to right) - Lea, Liz Lord, Rob and Eggy Boggs, Des Lord and George
We cared for Talia and Erin while their mother assisted in a two day workshop. This enabled us to have a poolside luncheon with Eggy and her grandson Lewis, Ros and Rodney Richards and Ken Tinley coming up from Perth and Freo. We had to keep an eye on the clock to ensure we collected Talia from school on time.
Noisy noises emanating up in the ceiling required George’s camera trap to establish the culprit. Turned out to be a mouse “Mr Jingles” making merry although Saxon insists a far larger din occurs when some other creature arrives to investigate within the roof! One night while Paul was out at soccer practice George was called from his bed to check out the study as Harley dog was behaving in an excited manner. He diagnosed Harley as a neurotic dog after nothing more than perhaps a cockroach! Eventually a tiny Mr Jingles was spotted scampering across the study carpet and serious measures were now required. Mouse traps were invested in and George prepared them with peanut butter. Shortly before setting them up in the study for the night, George sat patiently waiting in the dining room for Saxon to close up on her computer only for the mouse to dart out of the study door in front of him. George gave a hoarse whisper -“Mr Jingles is here!” From afar, Granny and Talia reading a bedtime story together became aware of hushed excitement as Saxon, Paul and George tried to corner the mouse...
Our last Sunday in Perth had the Gee family insist on a work free Sunday. We enjoyed all enjoyed a day at Mundaring Weir amongst beautiful trees and a myriad of wonderfully noisy birds as we lunched at the popular hotel.
Contrary to the details given out at Christmas regarding our grandchildren travels for this year, our plans turned turtle! Communication will not be at all easy over the coming months so for the time being we’ll be taking a break from blogging and catch up once we are able.
