Back On Board Again
Back on board again!
Well almost. The absence of news from Yaraka over the last couple of years has been deliberate – deliberate from the perspective that when fingers won’t work and not strong enough to hold a pen and are also numb, when all body joints ache, when walking twenty metres requires a stop and recover
interlude before continuing and utter exhaustion is constant, it all points to a health problem.
After taking these complaints, which had started quickly, to the Royal Flying Doctor in early February 2017 and subsequent blood tests the diagnosis was some what of a relief to know that there was a reason for how I was feeling!
Ross River Fever is the most debilitating and painful sickness I have ever experienced in my life. And unfortunately there is no cure for it and how long does it last? It’s like that bit of string. However over the last few weeks I’ve really been on recovery mode – holding a pen again, typing again, being able to feel strength returning and being able to walk and not hobble.
The Doctor’s advice on treatment was not really very practical – ‘Go home to bed.’ Right! And even if this had been done the frustration level would have caused stress for myself – which I had anyway so it was far more practical to be at the hotel where I could share my stress with others and receive words of encouragement from an amazing number of people who have had Ross River such as; ‘Yea, it got me. I was bed ridden for two years.’ And another; ‘That’s not good. My mate got it and it killed him.’
This last comment was when I was feeling at my worst and at that stage I almost regarded it as a positive comment!
So I’m back on track again – not the field and track quite yet but building up to it. In a couple of months I’ll be turning 81 and if I’d known I was going to last this long I’d have taken far more care of myself when I was younger where various past injuries now attract the arthritis moans and groans. But even with all the moaning and groaning which I am able to do at a very high level, life is very satisfying out here in our beautiful wilderness away from traffic snarls and road rage, stressful busyness and, from our perspective, away from what seems to be more and more chaotic type lifestyles for so many. Our chaotic lifestyle here is at least conducted in peace!
And our sunburnt country out here is decidedly sunny, hot and right at the moment humid and with a great carpet of green as far as the eye can see! So far this year we here in Yaraka and the surrounds have received 220 mL of beautiful rain. This is the best start for a year in decades and wonderful relief for all who have received it. And all the indications are that we will receive more over the next few weeks.
It’s interesting that many of the old timers have little regard for the Bureau of Meteorology with their forecasts and predictions. They prefer nature’s signs which have been building up indicting that rain was going to happen; swallows were building their nests high, emus chicks were in abundance, trees and shrubs were flowering, ant colonies were franticly busy, woodlouse in their tens of thousands emerge from wherever they’ve been and start marching to higher ground, and bird numbers were increasing.
Nature, it would seem at times, is a little more knowledgeable and accurate than computer modelling – but perhaps not always!
We believe our tourist season will start in early April this year with a mid month Easter, and School holidays either side of it, and then ANZAC Day where numbers are increasing every year as Mt Slowcombe becomes better known as a spectacular place to be for the Dawn Service.
No one knows what affect the horrendous bush fires and now floods will have on travel plans this year. We are receiving a number of enquiries from people planning on making Yaraka a stop over which is encouraging, hopefully for the whole region which has and still is suffering badly from the long term drought conditions and which will take many years of recovery for those businesses that managed to survive, as many didn’t, evidenced by shuttered up shop windows in many towns.
We are so dependent on these Outback regions on the support that we get from tourists and travellers during the cooler months and we can only hope that with the rain that we’ve had and the transformation from dust bowl to a carpet of green will attract travellers to what is a glorious sight!
We would love to see you in Yaraka again!
Chris Gimblett
February 2020