- a brief catch up & a prelude
In May ’23 we left the Iron Range rainforest after a wonderful year wrapped in it’s warm green & sticky embrace. ( 2 years on Cape York & a total of almost 4 years in Far North Queensland). On our way home to Victoria, we stopped en route to inspect a vehicle we had heard was for sale almost 6 months earlier. We had been in regular contact with it’s the owners, & hoped it would become our new home on wheels to replace the Patrol & Tvan that we’d called home since 2017. It was a difficult time in that we were anxious to buy, but unable to inspect until our commitment at the research Station was completed & the river levels low enough for us to drive out.
When we saw the vehicle & slept in it for 3 very cold nights, enjoying it’s wonderful warm cosiness & comfort we knew it was as close to ticking all of our boxes as we were likely to find unless we built our own & that seemed unlikely given that our physical capabilities were no longer what they once were when we built the bus & later the Patrol . So we agreed to buy it. It was a complicated sale with much trust required of both parties, aided by us having a mutually trusted friend.
We continued home to Victoria having agreed to purchase, but as yet without any money changing hands. Before leaving I had begun to feel pain & was experiencing restricted movement which I put down to the cold weather, but that wasn’t it. Over the next few weeks my condition deteriorated further & even the familiar act of driving became very difficult. By the time we reached home I was in a poor way. Couldn’t turn my head, couldn’t lift my arms higher than waist, lots of pain in shoulders , wrists, feet etc. Pain locations changed from day to day which seemed bizarre. I had trouble walking & often needed help with everyday stuff like dressing & brushing my hair. Medical specialists were unable to decide whether it was an auto-immune related arthritic condition with the added ‘bonus’ of enthesitis, or some weird unknown tropical virus. Symptoms were treated & hope expressed that it would be self limiting (ie. that it would come good)
Well it did come good but took around 6 months to do so. However it was at about the 2 month mark, whilst symptoms were at their worst, that we needed to make a substantial financial commitment to the purchase of the new vehicle, or to drop out.
At that time I would have been incapable of climbing up into it’s driving seat, let alone actually driving it. Making the decision to go ahead was a huge gamble but we went ahead, not knowing if we were buying something we could never use, but feeling that if we missed the opportunity to buy this ’needle in a haystack’ that we had been searching for for so long we may regret passing it up if (& at the time it was very much an ‘if’) I were to come good.
Since then the picture has changed for the better. We chose to act to keep our dreams alive even when highly uncertain that they could come to fruition. We don’t need a medal for that but I am both pleased & proud that we didn’t back out.
So now, almost December 2024, we can see the light at the end of what has been a lengthy tunnel . There have been a few unexpected ‘wrinkles’ with the vehicle which we have ironed out since finally getting it home back in late April / early May, & we have a couple of minor health things still to sort out before we take ourselves back into the sort of remote areas we love, but we are expecting to get away for a shakedown trip within the confines of the Victorian borders before Christmas, & to head off ‘proper’ early in the new year.
Thanks to all our loyal subscribers who have wondered what had become of us. We expect to get the blog ‘back into gear’ in the near future, once we get back ‘out there’ in the new vehicle.
Here’s a pic of the truck taken en route from where we collected it on the other side of the country earlier this year.
A comprehensive description of the truck is planned once we are actually using it.
Best wishes to all,
Cuppa & MrsTea.