NOVEMBER 2013

After some weeks at home, Bus was being readied for another trip, but not such a long one this time. Shorter, more frequent,  forays were one of the things I’d hoped for when we bought Bus, as it was easier to prepare and travel with than the van had been.

John had been bowling several times a week. Had also undergone yet more medical checks, investigating the suspect lungs. What appeared on xrays to be a worrying shadow on one was determined to be “just” the lung folded up on itself and thus not fully inflated. Seemed it would stay that way.

I still had a sore on lower leg, from insect bite back at Forrest Beach, months ago. Occasionally it became infected and might be turning into an ulcer. Quite strange how it hadn’t healed, and I was beginning to wonder if it was something other than the sandfly bite I’d assumed.

Two faces of springtime in Melbourne…

On our brief September stay in Canberra, there had been no swimming competition where John could see his grandsons compete. Now there was a meet happening this month, as well as a triathlon, their other sport, and John was prepared to forego local bowls in order to go see them. So a plan for a short trip that included Canberra had evolved.

I phoned and booked one of the en-suite sites at the Eaglehawk Holiday Park, for the weekend we’d be in Canberra.

We bought two new camp chairs – quite luxurious ones. The old director chair style ones had done great service over more than 20 years.

I’d ordered LED light bulbs for the Bus interior from an online supplier in North Qld. This was after trying to obtain same at local RV supply places. Sales people seemed to know little about these, and we had wasted money on ones that didn’t fit. I wanted to change all our Bus house lights to LEDs, in order to reduce power usage and provide brighter light, especially over the sink and food prep area, and the table where we sat to read, write and use computers. The LEDs from Qld fitted perfectly and were just what I had envisaged.

Our original idea had been to go through Gippsland and along the coast, then up to Canberra. But the weather forecast for this region was horrible, so the night before departure, I suggested an inland route instead.