Another Plan Out the Window

1^st May – 20^th May 2025

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again; plans do not work for us.

We wanted to leave Port Macquarie on May 1^st and head north, then west towards Western Australia. I must be back in Port for a check-up in November, so that would give us six months to explore the area and get home before the summer heat and rain got too bad.

With that in mind, we spent most of April getting ready.  This included a quick run up to Brisbane for some admin, you know, non-important stuff like renewing our drivers’ licences, vehicle rego’s, mail redirect, and I can’t believe it, but drop more stuff off at the storage locker, then back to Port.

We were in Port for three days before heading north again. This time to Kingscliff, where we had a wonderful Easter long weekend with Mum, Kevin and Gabriela. Then, back in Port we did health checks on Arnie, Chunky Bum (all good) Peter and me. That’s when our plan began to fall apart.

Peter was due his usual blood work and I was worried about an area of skin on my nose. Peter’s bloodwork was a bit off, and our doctor wanted to re-do the tests. She also told me I needed a biopsy. However, we were determined not to stay in Port any longer.

Mum is doing really well, and we – well, we just want to get back on the road. So, Peter re-did his blood work and set a tele-consult for the results, while I made an appointment with our regular GP in QLD for the biopsy. Nothing’s going to stop us from getting to northern WA this time.

So, come the 1^st of May, off we went. Our first night away from Mum was spent at a roadside stop east of Walcha. From there, another single night at Mother of Ducks Lagoon (always liked that name), then three nights at the entrance gates to Lake Wyaralong, south of Beaudesert (this is part of the National Trail). Sorry no photos, I’m a bit slow getting back into the blogging routine.

Anyway, we were taking our time, making sure Mum was coping alright alone, and she was, so we decided to keep going north where we stopped at Darlington Park, south-west of Brisbane. We figured we’d be back on the road in a couple of weeks.

You may have noticed a few Rainbow Lorikeets in that last set of photos. That’s because a large number have made Darlington Park their home. Such a pretty, noisy, charismatic and randy bunch of birds you have never seen.

Rainbow Lorikeets are so full of character and because these ones are so used to people, we got to witness some of their mating rituals. This selection of images reminds me of date night, as in dinner and a dance. I think these two are doing the official dance of love…the Tango.

I had the biopsy on my nose on the 7^th, but we had to wait another week before getting the stitches removed and pathology results. Good news was, it was not skin cancer. Yaaaay! Then the doctor noticed a lesion near my right eyebrow, which he suspected might be a melanoma. Of course, we made another appointment for him to excise it in his surgery; there goes another two weeks, so we extended our stay at Darlington Park. With time to kill, we did a bit more exploring.

It was another week before the appointment to excise the lesion, and another after that to return to get the stitches (4) removed and the pathology results. We were super relieved that pathology showed it was not a melanoma, but a BCC (Basal Cell Carcinoma) and the good doc got it all so, for now, I am done with doctors.

Here are a few more birds from Darlington Park

Peter, however, was a different story. His bloodwork was still a bit off, his liver enzymes, though lower than the last results, were still way too high, so an ultrasound on his liver and kidneys was arranged…another week. Sigh!

Anyway, we decided we were due for a change of scenery, packed up our goods and chattels and moved to Flanagan’s Reserve where we’d set up home and prepare for the next period of waiting. Our trip to WA seemed to be slowly slipping from our grasp. Not a problem, so much to see in South-east Queensland.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!