This is the first day back at work after the summer holidays for Victorian teachers.
I woke up early in solidarity, but I can’t tell you how glad I am that I’m not having to trudge off to McKinnon to spend all day at work, particularly with what’s going on here with Mum and Dad.
The photo is one I quickly snapped when Mum got up a couple of days ago. Scout was very eager to greet her buddy on a fresh new day.
Dad is not progressing from his hip operation as well as we’d like. He’s not eating much at all, and people are shocked when they visit and see how thin and frail he looks. The new plan is for him to spend two weeks at a rehab facility starting from Friday, which I’m very pleased about. I’m sure they’ll get the cattle prod out in a smaller facility and get him moving, while it also gives Mum a chance to settle into Bonbeach, get the lay of the land, and start making some friends before Dad turns up (and starts arguing debating with people.)
Where I’m going: To Mum’s podiatrist.
Old people have a LOT of appointments, I’m discovering. After we leave there, we’ll visit Dad and then head home.
Mum goes into the aged care home after lunch tomorrow (Wednesday.) That’s why I’m posting today – I think I’ll be dealing with some emotions with Mum tomorrow…
Where I’ve been: to Costco.
I’m hosting Tom33’s engagement party on Saturday. After all this kerfuffle, I’m catering via Costco platters and a mud cake. The only thing I’m baking is some scones.
Meh. The descriptions of taxidermy are really good, but I’m still waiting for anything much to happen and I’m nearly halfway through.
What I’m watching: the news.
Mum is a news junky, so I’ve watched more news programs in the last 3 weeks than I have in the last 3 weeks. I’m looking forward to going back to a far more positive existence.
What I’m listening to: Morning TV.
Oof. See above.
What I’m eating: home-grown rhubarb and apple.
Part of my revised eating plan is stewed fruit and home-made yoghurt for breakfast, avoiding carbs for one meal at least. Yum! I’ve lost over 6KGs since Christmas Day.
What I’m planning: how to spend the 2 full days I have to prepare for the party.
My plans to use the whole month of January to prepare have obviously been thrown out the window. Instead of lovingly preparing the veggie garden beds with layers of fertiliser, mulch, compost etc, I think I’ll be throwing pea straw over everything. Hopefully, it’ll hide a multitude of sins.
Who deserves a ‘thumbs-up’: People who work in aged care.
It’s good to know that Mum will get the care she needs. Dad’s just not up to it and hasn’t really been able to provide it for a while.
What has made me smile:Scout.
She’s a funny little scrap. I’m so glad we have her.
Well, the shit has pretty much hit the fan, as far as independent living for my mother is concerned. This is Mum on Sunday night, putting on a brave face.
While going to bed, she went to sit down on the foot of her bed and only half made it. She fell onto the floor and dragged her left hand across the wooden floorboards. Her skin is paper thin, so she tore a very large gash along the back of her hand.
Fortunately, Georgia and I were talking in Georgia’s room, so we were right next door when we heard the thump and the cry as she hit the ground. We raced in, helped her to sit up, but when I staunched the blood and saw the wound, I said, “Mum, this is going to need stitches.”
We spent all night at Frankston Emergency, getting home at 5 AM. We all had a long nap that afternoon, including the dog!
I’ll spare you all the photo I took of the cut on her hand.
Anyway, living with Mum for two and a half weeks has brought home just how unsteady she is on her feet. She said it herself when Evan28 rang and said to her, “Oh Gran, what have you done?”
She said, “I’m always on the brink of falling and sometimes I don’t get away with it.”
After talking with my sister Kate, I rang Mum’s case manager for her care package and asked her what the next step would be.
Long story short, I talked with a woman who finds places for people in aged care places. I knew Mum would want a shared room for when Dad comes out of the rehab hospital, and we were lucky enough for a place literally 5 minutes drive from me to have a suitable room. Shared rooms are as rare as hens’ teeth.
So Kate and I had to have ‘the talk’ with Mum about going into respite care. We were very careful not to allude to permanent care, but really, that’s what she needs. We’re crossing our fingers that the penny will drop for them once they’re there, and it will become their own idea to stay there. This apparently happes quite a lot, but I’m not holding out much hope for Dad. He’s extremely attached to his possessions.
Mum and I went to look at the place yesterday and to my relief, Mum was very impressed. She is very happy to entertain the idea of moving in for a while, but she’s worried about Dad’s reaction. She’s also scared of rushing into a decision and possibly making a mistake.
My feeling is that we were incredibly lucky to find a shared room so close to me. It’s been a week and no other shared rooms in the area have turned up, so we need to grab it. We have until tomorrow to accept or decline.
When Dad and Mum were ill a year or two ago, I started educating myself on how the Aged Care system works. I had a real ‘heads up’ from a friend who has the affectionate nickname of ‘the mayor’ who has been through this learning curve when his mother went into care a few years ago. At least I understand talk of RADs and such. I hate to think of how bamboozled I’d feel if I was coming in cold.
The facility manager recommended we hire an accountant who specialises in the ins and outs of going into care, which I thought was good advice. My parents don’t have a straightforward estate. I rang their accountant and he’s getting someone for us to talk to.
Despite Mum reading all the material and being there when the manager was showing us around, she still worries about things that aren’t issues at all, and gets things wrong. I find that I’m gently correcting her, in the hopes that the correct information goes in and she’s not needlessly fretting about the incorrect stuff.
The idea is that she’ll move in next week under respite care and Dad will join her. They’ll stay while I’m in Vietnam and hopefully by then they’ll be able to make sensible decisions about their futures. (I know… I’m an optimist.)
A lot depends on how well Dad recovers from this broken hip. It’s not a pleasant stage for them to be going through.
Dad has now been moved to Caulfield Rehab Hospital and he said that he was told that he’d be there for 2 weeks. I take what Dad says at the moment with a grain of salt – he’s on pretty intensive pain meds – but seeing as he can’t yet stand by himself and it’s been a week since the operation, I think he’ll be there for a fair amount of time. This, of course, means that Mum will be staying here until he’s steady enough to look after her. And himself.
Where I’m going: For more travel vaccinations.
Today is 4 weeks since I had the Yellow Fever vaccine, so now I’m free to load up on everything else I’ll need. I need quite a few different shots, seeing as I’m travelling to Africa, China, Vietnam and Borneo, so no doubt I’ll be feeling like a pincushion a couple of hours from now.
Where I’ve been: on very slow walks.
Mum goes for a walk every day, and Scout and I go with her. She uses a walker to keep herself steady, so we trot along beside her until she’s had enough and we turn and head for home. This generally doesn’t take too long.
Then Scout and I head out again for a longer walk to stretch Scout’s legs. She can’t believe it – 2 walks every day????
This novel is terrific! It’s only 200 pages long and I enjoyed every minute of it.
What would living in a world that has legalised cannibalism be like?
This is a thumping good read.
What I’m watching: The Sopranos.
I’m up to the end of season 4. Mum has started watching it with me. She jumped right in, but she’s enjoying settling back after dinner and watching people get whacked.
What I’m listening to: Nothing much.
I can’t really listen to podcasts with Mum around, so they’re gently piling up on my iPad again. My sister came and took Mum out yesterday “to give Frogdancer a break.” I had a whole 2 hours to myself. I knocked over a couple of phone calls with Blogless Sandy and Evan28, and an episode of ‘Casefile’ before they came through the gate again.
What I’m eating: things from the garden.
Finally, the tomatoes, beans and zucchinis are producing enough for me to take them seriously. This morning I harvested rhubarb from both the red and green plants and stewed them with apple. 5 ice cube trays are now waiting to be cool enough for me to put them in the fridge.
What I’m planning: two new quilts for the lounge room.
On my second Little Adventure, I went across town to a quilting shop called Cutting Cloth and bought fabric for a quilt, coordinating with a painting I bought. The design is to use hexagons.
I hated cutting out the hexies so much that I soon put it all away in a drawer, but now I’ve roused myself to action. I’ve finished cutting out all the fabric and I’ve marked each piece with 6 dots to guide where the seams go.
Now all I need is to actually fire up the sewing machine and get started…
Who deserves a ‘thumbs-up’: Scout.
Scout has adopted Mum as one of the pack, and she sits beside her constantly. It helps that Mum likes to sneak her titbits of food. Mum has missed having a dog around, so she loves that Scout comes up for cuddles and greets her every morning when she walks into my end of the house.
What has made me smile:Mum enjoying the remote control.
I don’t watch TV during the day, so Mum has been able to watch any movie or TV show she wants. She reads as well, but so far she’s watched all 3 seasons of ‘Afterlife’, the last season of ‘Bridgerton’, ‘Where The Crawdads Sing’, ‘Memoires of a Geisha’, just to name a few.
Dad controls the remote at home, so she rarely gets to see shows that she’d like to see, particularly if they have a female protagonist.
Last Sunday, Dad was rushing to the back door to get out to the garage when he tripped over Mum’s walker (which was where she always leaves it) and broke his hip.
He’s currently in hospital with a matching pair of hips, as he broke the other one a few years ago. He’s like the bionic man. Mum’s too unsteady on her feet to be left in the house alone, so she’s up here with me. Thank goodness for that guest bedroom!
It’s been an eye-opener how many people are required to keep 2 old people living at home. We’ve had to cancel food deliveries, food shopping, physio, doctors’ appointments and postpone a meeting with their accountant. Their frozen food deliveries for this week have been piling up in the council’s freezer, so a taxi will arrive with it all sometime today. Thank goodness for the huge freezer I have in the laundry!
Mum has turned out to be an easy guest. She absolutely loves having total control of the remote control for the tv during the day and she’s catching up on all the movies that she hasn’t seen because Dad didn’t want to watch them. I’ve been watching ‘The Sopranos’ in the evenings and she happily watches people getting whacked by the New Jersey mafia.
I’m living in fear today that the hospital will want to send him home. He doesn’t sound ready, so I’m hoping that they’ll at least give us the weekend. He’ll be coming here with Mum until he’s steady on his pins. Thank goodness my crazy year of travel doesn’t start until February!
Scout has been an absolute trouper. Mum has missed having a dog around, but since her last dog, Murphy, died, it hasn’t been safe for her to have a tripping hazard running around. Scout is old enough to keep out of the way. She’s been spending most of her days next to Mum on the couch, getting cuddles and food snacks. I think it’s been good for both of them.
At the moment, there’s a shower girl who’s here to give Mum her first shower in nearly a week. She’s from an agency up here near me, so instead of giving Mum her shower and then leaving like her normal shower girls do, we have her for a minimum of 1.5 hours. So she took Mum for a walk around the block and now she’s doing the vacuuming. For some reason, I hate doing the vacuuming, so this makes me happy.
I don’t know how long Mum and Dad will be here, but it doesn’t really matter. The Best House in Melbourne’s floorplan means that we won’t be tripping over each other, so it should be reasonably trouble-free. Dad won’t be nearly as easy a houseguest as Mum, but the extra lounge room will provide a bit of a buffer if I need it. Haha!
Of course, the best thing about this is that, because of early retirement, I’m able to be here for them. My brother isn’t well enough to take them in and my sister works, so we would have been up the proverbial creek without a paddle if I was still heading off to McKinnon every weekday. As it is, the family, especially Dad, can relax knowing Mum is being looked after.
As this is supposedly, a FIRE blog, even though it’s now a ‘watch how Frogdancer Jones does retirement’ blog, I thought I’d tot up the travel costs for the road trip I made with my friends from Latvia and then when I was on my own.
When Liga first contacted me with the news that she was coming to Australia and we decided to spend some time together, going to Uluru was not on my mind. After all, I’d just booked a trip to Uluru with the Ghan for September 2024, two months before Liga would be there. Why on earth would I go back there again so soon? Obviously, I’d do a road trip with them along the Great Ocean Road, drop them off at Adelaide and they’d either fly or drive to Uluru.
Then Liga told me that the rental car companies would charge them an extra $900 if they left the car at Uluru, because they’d have to hire someone to drive it back to Adelaide. Ouch! There’d be no way to avoid that because after Uluru they were flying over to Cairns.
Coupled with the fact that there are no direct flights from Adelaide to Uluru, which meant that they’d have to fly from Adelaide back to Melbourne or Brisbane before flying over to Uluru, meant that it made much more sense for me to keep driving after Adelaide.
Liga also said she wanted “to drive the car with the desert stretching away on either side.” That sounded pretty good to me too, so despite my qualms about Outback driving, we arranged for the Crazy Road Trip to happen.
I decided to put aside 4K for the whole 3.5 weeks. It was an arbitrary number that wasn’t calculated with any real thought. It seemed like an amount of money that should be adequate, but wasn’t too extravagant. I had a few things organised with the girls that affected my outgoings for this trip.
I was paying for all the petrol, as a “congratulations on your 7th continent” present for Liga.
We were sharing accommodation, which cut down individual costs for each of us.
I’d already paid for my week’s holiday in the Snowy Mountains, as it was part of my timeshare.
I’d just been to Uluru, so I wasn’t anticipating buying many souvenirs at all.
I was intending to take my Vita-Weats and Vegemite for Frogdancer’s sad breakfasts to cut down on costs, as well as taking wine and some groceries/snacks. I also packed the toastie-maker for when I was in the apartment at Lake Crackenvack. We had the car, so I had the space.
As it happened, I bought a couple of souvenirs as well as some Christmas presents. I didn’t include the presents in my final total, as they were things I would have bought anyway.
The girls paid for 3 restaurant/winery meals for me as a thank-you, which was lovely of them.
Petrol in the Outback isn’t cheap. The most I paid was $3/litre, which is far more than we pay in Melbourne.
So how did I go?
I couldn’t believe it!
I actually came home with change from the 4K! Three and a half weeks of holidays and I spent $3,988.
Yep, just squeaked by with $12 to spare! How funny is that? I wasn’t totting the costs up as I went. I only worked out the total after I got back.
The toastie-maker saved me a lot of money because all I had to buy for dinners was a couple of loaves of bread and some fillings. Baked beans, ham and cheese – nothing gourmet. I’d eaten at restaurants with the Ligas and along the way on my own, so I was happy to slum it at Lake Crackenback. It helped that the celebratory lunch I bought at the resort restaurant wasn’t that impressive.
My sad breakfasts cost me around a dollar each time. The Ligas were spending anywhere from $10 – $20 for breakfast each morning, so that saved me a ton. I like vegemite for breakfast, so it wasn’t a hardship, though I couldn’t look a Vita-Weat in the face for a few weeks after I got back home.
I booked the first 3 nights of accommodation on my solo trip when I was still at home, looking for the cheapest motel rooms. After that, I’d search for a room when I entered the town I wanted to stop in for the night. The only time this didn’t work well was a Winton, where I paid $160 for a room for the night. The cheapest was Bourke, where I paid $75/night for 2 nights. It was very basic, with a shared bathroom, but I figured I could suck it up for 2 nights.
I was very happy that I’d inadvertently stayed within budget!
I’m ererging from that foggy week between Christmas and New Years, where everything blurs together and it’s like you’re in suspended animation. Not going to lie – I’ve been enjoying it.
Where I’m going:Absolutely nowhere.
Considering the crazy year of travel I have lined up in front of me, I’m enjoying keeping close to home and doing very little. I have around 10 library books stacked beside me bed, an overgrown veggie garden that needs cleaning up and a sewing room with lots of fabric.
I won’t be bored. 🙂
Where I’ve been:Megan’s place to help eat leftovers.
Remember Megan from the Canada/Alaska trip? She sent out an SOS after hosting her family for Boxing Day and so a group of us gathered for a barbeque and salad. It was nice.
At last!! I’ve been making my way through the Slough House series, which inspired the excellent series ‘Slow Horses’ on AppleTV. I had all the books except this one. Some selfish person had borrowed it before me. On Monday I raced down to the library because they’d finally handed it in.
I’ll be finished with this series lickety-split now. I’m loving the way Herron wries. His use of metaphor and his wry British humour is very enjoyable.
What I’m watching:The Sopranos.
Georgia put me onto this one. I know I’m very late to the party – and I also know about the very last scene in the whole series – but for some reason or another I’ve never seen it. When Georgia told me that she was watching it and thought it was good, I knew I had to see. She put me onto ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul’, so I take notice of her recommendations.
Thank goodness Binge has it.
What I’m listening to:the blackbird in the front garden moving through the leaves on the ground.
I’d swear that there was a huge animal living under the fruit trees, if I didn’t know better. The avocado trees have huge leaves and they seem to keep dropping them all year round. As I’m sitting here on the couch, I can hear it moving around and making the leaves rustle. It’s pretty loud, but it’s only the blackbird.
What I’m eating: The Christmas Ham.
I love a good Christmas ham. Every year I buy one and then slowly savour the hammy goodness on the days after Christmas. This year is no exception. With only two of us in the house nowadays, the ham lasts a long, long time.
When I get sick of it, I’ll chop and freeze the rest. But so far, we’re loving the cauliflower cheese, pizzas, ham and salad lunches, zucchini slices etc. Long may it last!
What I’m planning:an engagement party.
Tom32 and Sophie are planning a big year. They want to buy a house, buy a dog and get married all in 2025. To save money, they’re planning a very small wedding and they’re having their engagement party at my place.
I have a month to make my place look sparkling. An added impetus to this is that my ex-husband and his wife will more than likely be coming. I haven’t clapped eyes on them for a happy decade, so it will be interesting for us all to see how time has treated us.
Who deserves a ‘thumbs-up’: Mum and Dad.
Remember when I bought them each a ‘Storyworth’ gift for their birthdays last year? Basically, each week they get a question sent to them about their life/memories/attitudes and they write a response. At the end of a year their 52 essays get put into a book.
Because I’ve been travelling so much, this has turned into a series of binge sessions. They refuse to type out their answers, so I’ve been recording their answers on my phone and then typing them up.
They came over for lunch (christmas ham and salad, of course!) and we got through 10 questions. They only have 3 more questions each to finish the project. We’ll knock them over next week and then it’ll all be completed before I start my crazy travelling schedule.
I’ve learned a lot more about their lives as they’ve made their ways through. It’s been interesting.
What has made me smile:Scout.
I’ve been thinking for a while that she was 9 years old, but Facebook memories tells me that she’s only 8.
I’m a lucky person. I love travelling and I love being home. I have the best of both worlds.
Where I’m going: Christmas Shopping.
I only have Mum and Dad yet to buy for.
Georgia is turning 30 a few days after Christmas, and I want to take her shopping for some women’s shoes to fit her. It’s time.
Where I’ve been:to the mechanic.
I’m still salty about the bingle I had, just 4 days after coming back from the Crazy Road Trip. I was happily driving along Nepean Highway, went into the service road to turn left and saw that there were no cars in front of the car before me, so OF COURSE they’d be turning.
I glanced to the right to check if there’d be any cars on the road when I got there, looked back and the silly cow in front of me hadn’t gone… even though there was nothing in front of her. So I ran into her.
It was my fault by the letter of the law, but why wouldn’t you make the turn if there was nothing preventing you from doing so? My poor little car. She drove 8,000 km with no problems, and then this happens.
I will have to leave her at the mechanics for 7 business days at the end of January. They’ll be stripping her right back and replacing lots of panels etc. Thank god for car insurance!
What I’m reading:LOTS of books.
I’m thinking I’ll do a whole post on this, as I read about 12 books on my holiday. There were some cracking good reads among them.
What I’m watching:Alaskan Bush People.
This is a show on Netflix. I didn’t feel like watching anything challenging and this show fits the bill. It’s about a family of 7 kids who are totally under the thumb of their incompetent parents, particularly the father. They live far away from civilisation and exist like settlers in the 1700’s.
Their father is so STUPID. His decisions are questionable most of the time and he thinks he’s the head of “the wolf pack.” Ugh.
I got excited though, when I saw two towns that we went to in Alaska. Ketchikan and Hoonah. They filmed a segment in the very café I went to in Hoonah, where I saw the bald eagle fly to the pier and eat a salmon it had clutched in its claws.
What I’m listening to:Georgia’s music.
It’s drifting down from her room at the end of the house to where Scout and I are in the lounge room.
What I’m eating:Low carb stuff.
*sigh*
What I’m planning:my Vietnamese visa.
I have to get things together. I’ve heard they can be tricky to get right and I know quite a few people who have had to get one at the airport – at a cost of $500 or so. Yikes!
Who deserves a ‘thumbs-up’:Everyone who has commented on the blog this year.
Anyone who has been blogging as long as I have would know that people used to comment a lot more on blogs back in the day. Nowadays it seems that people just consume the posts and move right along.
I appreciate every comment and they make my day. So thanks, commenters!
What has made me smile:Avocadoes!
I planted a couple of avocado trees 3 years ago. I was watering the front yard a couple of days ago when I noticed something.
Yes, one of the trees is finally sprouting avocadoes. I was so thrilled!
Surprisingly, I didn’t wake up too stiff and sore from my mountaineering adventure the day before, but I decided to forego any more arduous activities on my last day here. I read my 11th or 12th book on the holiday, and then I took a gentle walk beside the creek in the afternoon.
On the map, it’s called the Thredbo River, but it was just creek-sized here.
It was nice, though the flies were a little annoying. I walked all the way to the Bushman’s Hut, which sounded a lot more interesting than it ended up being.
The sound of the water was lovely. I also heard kookaburras from the bushland on the other side of the creek.
I bumped into these characters on the way back.
“Be careful – there’s a snake to the right,” their owner said. “That’s why these two are on leads,”
I kept an eye out but didn’t see a thing.
This was a nice little “goodbye” from the Snowy Mountains.
The next day I was on the road by 8:30. I had a 7.5-hour drive ahead of me, but I was stopping in Lakes Entrance for lunch with my cousin Lynette. Apart from her Mum’s funeral, I haven’t seen her for years, so I was looking forward to the catch-up.
The country on the NSW side of the border was cattle grazing country.
Farms, farms everywhere.
Then woo hoo! Victoria! My nose was firmly pointed towards home now.
The drive between the border and Lakes Entrance was beautiful, but the closer I got towards home, the less inclined I was to stop the car for photos.
I spent a couple of hours wth my cousin and we didn’t stop talking the whole time. She grows fruit and veggies, like me, and she also travels!! When I told her about the Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar trip, she said, “I’ve done that!”
It was so interesting to hear about what I was going to see, particularly in Zanzibar.
When I got home, Scout MOANED at me for ages. Her tail was wagging, but she was letting me know the anguish she’d suffered in giving me up for dead. After a while, I looked over her head to Georgia and said, “I’m going away again in February…”
I gave her a squeaky toy I’d bought in Barkly Homestead. It lasted 5 minutes before she started pulling the stuffing out.
Screenshot
Here is the final map of the trip. My trusty Golf and I travelled 8,000 km and I had a fantastic time. The Golf didn’t miss a beat and I saw so much. I’ve definitely pencilled in the Nullabor Plain for a future adventure.
On Saturday I spent time with Tom31 and Sophie, and then on Sunday I saw these two for lunch. David31 and Izzy are living in a caravan, preparing to build their first house – can you believe that were married over 18 months ago? Time flies.
On Monday, I got the Yellow Fever vaccination for my Africa trip in April.
And then four days after I got back, this happened:
Windblown, sunburned and happy. This is me at the top of Australia’s tallest mountain.
But this was one of the toughest things that I’ve ever done. Climbing Mt Kosciuszko is not a job for the faint-hearted. Or chubby and unfit.
You start by going up a chairlift. Awesome! Go up a chairlift and then you’re there!
I wish.
There’s a ‘gentle’ walk from the top of the chairlift to the summit. They have provided a path that makes this walk idiot-proof. There’s no way you could miss the way unless you were actively trying to get lost.
It all sounds great, doesn’t it?
A walk of around 7 km – going UP. Then there’s another walk of 7 km – going DOWN. That’s a lot of km. The ones going up are brutal. I’m not kidding.
Add the wind which was blowing at such a hard rate that I had to take my sunhat and stuff it under my jacket. I never would have been able to keep it on.
Incidentally, look at all the water here. Remember the country I’ve been driving through that was so parched? Water is here in every direction.
It was a stark landscape, just rocks and grasses.
I was trying to put as much distance as I could between myself and a school group from Firbank Secondary College that had around 50 screaming teenage girls in it. I knew it’d take them a while to get them all up the chairlift, so I set off briskly (at first) so that I could hear just the wind and the birds.
And here’s where I have to apologise to the US, Canadian and European readers. I know I’ve posted shots of snow in these countries during their summers and laughed at them. Well – it was December 4 – summer. And here are snow patches in Australia.
These were the only ones and they were way up high…
But still. I apologise for saying that snow in summer is ridiculous.
This sign made me sad. I’d been walking for around 2 hours at this point. SURELY the summit was around the next corner?
Actually, when I said I’d been “walking” for 2 hours, that’s polishing a turd. I was walking a little way… stopping to get my breath back… walking a little more… stopping to say, “Fuck me!” and breathing hard and contemplating turning back… then I’d walk a little more and repeat. I was not enjoying myself.
It was AWFUL.
HORRIBLE.
There were two reasons why I didn’t give up and turn back.
I told the kids I was doing it.
I know how stubborn I am. If I turned back, I know that I’d drive up here and try again at some stage. Since I was here now, I may as well save the time and energy and keep going.
I gritted my teeth and kept walking. It was somewhere at this stage that I realised I could hear my waterproof jacket “Swish-swishing” as I walked. Remember Ming in Antarctica who never took off her Gortex jacket?
I laughed to myself and after a while I stopped hearing it.
People were starting to come down the path from the top.
Nearly there now!” they’d say cheerily.
But I kept turning corner after corner and it was obvious that they were toying with me.
The clouds were starting to get thicker, too.
Then there it was.
Holy hell – I did it!
It’s funny. Climbing Mt Kosciuszko has never been on my bucket list.
But I felt terrific, even with a sunhat stuffed under my jacket.
If I didn’t do this, I would have always felt it was a missed opportunity, seeing as I was staying in the neighbourhood. A bit like how I felt about going on the solo part of this Crazy Road Trip 2 weeks ago, or doing the Rim Walk in Kings’s Canyon a couple of months ago.
Incidentally – both walks are hard. But this one was way harder than the Rim Walk. I think it was because with the Rim Walk you know going in that once you get past the first 500 steps of absolute hell, then the rest of the walk is fine.
With Mt Kosciuszko, the steep incline keeps going on and on with very little respite. It’s prolonged agony instead of a short, sharp agony and then it’s over.
Fortunate Frogdancer strikes again. I was at the summit for 10 minutes, enjoying the clear views, then just as that loud school group showed up – yes, I beat them there! – the cloud began to roll in.
But the side where Perisher was? All clear.
I sat down, ate a nut bar and drank from my Antarctica Pee Bottle, enjoying the view and the sense of satisfaction. I had no idea which direction Melbourne was, or I would’ve waved to the kids.
After a while I got sick of the chatter from the school group, so I began to make my way down.
Every now and then, I’d been sending texts to Tom32’s fiancee Sophie. She grew up on the slopes of Mt Buller and I knew she’d like the views from here. She’s a mountain girl.
I told her that I HATED the walk on the way up, but I was looking forward to the views coming down.
I’m not kidding you – this rolled in just when I was around the other side of the summit. Have you ever seen anything like it?
I was uncomfortably reminded of the Stephen King story ‘The Mist.’ If hungry creatures were hiding here, there was absolutely nowhere to hide.
I decided to pick up the pace a bit, just in case.
Luckily, the clouds held off and I could still enjoy the vistas on the way down.
I took this shot because I was struck with the bright colours of the coats against the grass.
When they came up next to me on the path, the little kids were running. I gaped at their Mum and said, “They’re running???”
She laughed and said, “Yep. They’ll be exhausted tonight though!”
I wish I could show you shots of the huge views sweeping down from the path, but you know how cameras don’t pick up how vast landscapes can be.
It was a walk full of the spectacular. I wasn’t wrong when I said I’d enjoy the walk coming down far more than I did the walk coming up.
Water again. I liked the symmetry of this.
This nearly killed me. It’s pretty much the only part of the way down where the path looks like it did all the way up. See where it angles up the hill? I swear I had to pause 4 times up that bit to catch my breath.
However, much further along the way back, I saw something which made me feel like I’m doing the right thing with all this travel I’ve planned.
It was around 20 minutes from the end of the trek. I was idly watching a middle-aged couple coming up the mountain in front of me, when they stopped, gave each other a kiss and then the wife turned and began heading down the path towards the chairlift.
It was obvious that she’d realised that this walk was far harder than she knew (and I could definitely relate to that!) and she’d given up.
I don’t want to have to be the one who gives up. I want to see it all.
I walked behind her for a while before I overtook her. She wasn’t that much bigger than I am. I was surprised. She probably could have done it.
My last shot before I reached the chairlift!
All up, it took me 4.5 hours to get here and back, not counting the time I spent at the summit. They say that it takes between 3 – 6 hours for people to do it, so I was happy with my time, particularly as I’m unfit.
But it nearly killed me. I was DEPLETED by the time I hit the ground. My face was sunburned, especially my poor nose, and I had nothing left in the tank.
I texted Sophie and told her I was back down on the ground, then said, “It wouldn’t have killed them to make that chairlift end further up the mountain!!!”
It took everything I had to get to the car, go home, get up the stairs and fall on the bed to take a 2 hour nap. I was DONE.
I’m very glad I walked to the summit of Mt Kosciuszko, but this is one of those things that I only have to do ONCE.
I have a week at the resort, so I thought I’d spend 3 days lazing around, 3 days racing around to see the mountains and then I’d go home. So naturally, I woke up to pouring rain on the first day of my intended racing around.
But you know? I didn’t care. Retirement has given me the gift of time. I still had more days where I could go and climb Mt Kosciuszko, which I have definitely decided to do. I can’t be in the neighbourhood and not do it!
So I spent the morning reading another book – I’ve run out of the actual books that I brought with me and I’m so glad that I loaded up my iPad with 10 more library books when I last had wifi. This holiday would NOT be a happy one if I didn’t have enough books to read. This resort may be lovely but it lacks wifi.
At around 2 PM I looked out of the window and the rain had stopped. I studied a helpful little booklet about the local area and noticed that there was a gin distillery about a 10-minute drive away. Remember the wonderful distillery that I visited on Kangaroo Island?
I jumped in the car and went to visit the Wild Brumby Distillery. Just the thing for a rainy day!
This turned out to be a lovely place, where someone had decided to put sculptures everywhere – just like me! It’s a gorgeous place, set like a jewel in the hills.
Most of the sculptures are huge. I’m not going to show you all of them, because you might want to visit one day and I don’t want to spoil it for you.
The tasting/gift shop was warm and welcoming. Being a Tuesday, I was the only one there. This is a Christmas tree full of schnapps – which turned out to be what the owners made their name from.
On Google Maps, it was referred to as a schnapps place, so I wasn’t surprised when I asked my hostess what they specialised in and she replied “Schnapps.”
I enjoyed their gin – they even make a ‘navy strength’ one at 50% proof (or so).
What can. say? I came for the gin but left with the schnapps. The butterscotch one was amazing, and I also liked the sour apple with lemon. It’s made from Granny Smith apples – my favourite.
This is the backside of a beautiful little foxie called Cosi. I was walking around the lawns, looking at the artworks, when she came barrelling over to me for a pat. She sat at my feet and wouldn’t leave, even when her owner called her name twice. He had to whistle before she ran back to him.
I miss Scout so much. It’s probably because I’m nearly home and I know I’ll be seeing her in a few days. I can’t wait to cuddle that long little body again.
Imagine having the space to have life-sized pieces like this?
I can’t resist a well-laid-out veggie garden. This one was all berries. I’m assuming juniper for the gin.
I preferred this one from the back angle.
I thought I’d take this shot of a typical country road leading out to the highway. Everyone puts their mailboxes here to make life easy for the postie.
And if Liga’s reading this, then yes. Aussies call their postman a ‘postie.’
Such beautiful, serene countryside. I can understand why people might like to live here.
Not me, though. I’m too leery of bushfires.
But look at these happy cows. They’re surrounded by food and water, so different to the cattle that I saw just a few days ago in the Outback.
This brought home to me just how vast this country is.
On this trip I’ve seen so many differing climates. So many places where people, cattle and crows survive. We are lucky to live in a time where anyone can simply hop in a car and go and explore them all.
If I hadn’t had this booking here at Lake Crackenback, I probably would have wandered around more and seen more of the country in detail. But I’m glad that it has ended up the way it has.
I’ve been able to recharge the batteries before heading home to Life As Usual.
And I’ve looked at the weather forecast. Tomorrow is the day when I’ll stand on the highest point in Australia!
Retirement Reading Quest – Reading my way to ‘free’ council rates.
I’m on a quest to borrow and read enough books to, in effect, cancel out the cost of my council rates per year.
It’s outlined in this post.
Year 7: I’m already a year ahead on my rates, so I’m taking a reader’s suggestion and I’m going to go back and start covering the rates from the year before I started. I may as well.
Year 7: Total needed: 2019/2020…$1,800
Running total: $1,505
Year 6 (2025/2026) $2,590 AREADY COVERED!!!!!!
10/08/2015 – I won’t have another rates notice until August 2026, so I have time to kill. Let’s knock over a previous year’s rates, just for fun.
Year 5 (2024/2025) $2,339 and dog rego ($63) = $2,435.
Finished it before I even had the new rates notice ready.
Year 4 (2023/2024) $2,413.
Success! Not sure exactly when I passed the total, because I was waiting on the dog registrations to come through. But yes – I blitzed it.
Year 3: (2022/2023) $2,350
12/01/2023 FINISHED! Not working gives me heaps more reading time – I recommend it!
