As some of you have heard, we've had a bit of an unexpected diversion early doors, but we're all safe and well, so that's all that really matters!
On Monday we drove from Lightning Ridge, across the border and into Roma, Queensland. This was actually a bit of a detour, at least 2 hours out of our way, but I've always wanted to visit, mostly just for this photo.
Josie's middle name is passed on from my paternal grandmother, Roma O'Donnell. Roma was a truly larger than life character, and I still miss her. I think she would have gotten a kick out of us visiting her rural namesake! In particular, she would have liked the punny name of the bakery/diner, Bakearoma. Well, maybe not, but we sure did 🤣.
We were really only in Roma for the photo at the town sign and wanted to get started on the long drive to Longreach quickly, but when we worked out that Tuesdays happened to be when the big cattle sales are on every week at the ginormous saleyards on the edge of town it was too interesting of an opportunity to miss out on. And wow were there a lot of cows - you could smell them as soon as you got out of the car! As Bob noted, it was pretty odd to visit a site that was obviously designed to be a serious working operation with seemingly pretty serious OHS risks, but that had by chance also become a bit of a tourist destination... thankfully there were no stampedes triggered by stupid city slickers while we were there!
We then did a quick drive by the largest bottle tree in Roma, which was indeed LARGE. Unfortunately I had assumed 'bottle tree' was just a informal name for boab trees, which Josie is a big fan of thanks to bringing home a reader on the topic earlier in the year. So she had spent the whole day pointing out all the boabs in town, and was SO excited to see the biggest one. Unfortunately, she was crushed when we arrived and discovered that bottle trees, while related to boabs, are in fact a separate species. So crushed that not even this most girthy of bottle trees could cheer her up 😝
After this less that stellar farewell to Roma we struck out for Longreach, which is almost exactly 700 km north west. We did pretty well, stopping for peanut butter and banana sandwiches by the side of a river but mostly motoring through. We got into our ensuite site (oohlala) just in time for last calls for dinner service at the Woolshed bar and grill in the caravan park. After dinner Nora decided to have a shower before getting into bed. Unfortunately, our kids aren't particularly familiar with shower recesses that you have to step over, and she managed to slip while exiting the shower, landing very, VERY heavily on her shin onto the sharpish raised edge of shower recess. The resulting laceration was large, deep and very stomach turning - I've taken to calling it a blunt force trauma injury 🤢😱😭. We could tell straight away that it was going to be beyond the scope of our off-road first aid kit, even though it did prove handy in supplying something sterile to stem the flow of blood.
Thankfully, Longreach is a big enough centre to have a hospital, and it happened to be 800 m down the road from the caravan park. Everyone was deep in their feels, and no-one wanted to be left behind, so we all jumped in the car and headed down. Thankfully we were the only ones in the ED at 9:30 on a Tuesday evening, so we were seen straight away by a lovely calm nurse Jess. We then met Dr Matt, who agreed that it was going to need some stitches. But before they could do that they would need to flush it out with a whole lot of saline to make sure it was as clean as possible. Even after the local anesthetics that was the hardest part - it really, really hurt. But Nora was an absolute trooper and muscled through it, and it was so difficult that the actual stitches were a walk in the park - she literally called them her favourite part!
Of course, all of this took a few hours, so we were trying to juggle the needs of all three kids, including Toby who was exhausted and wanted to go back to the caravan, Josie who was exhausted but got hysterical at the thought of leaving Nora behind. At one point we agreed that if I could get someone to sit with Nora for 5 minutes I would drive the other 3, who had been sitting in the car out the front of the hospital for about 2 hours by that stage, back to the caravan park then zoom back to Nora's side before the stitches went in. But by the time I'd organised for a lovely student nurse Abby to sit with Nora things had reached boiling point and Bob had just taken them back, with the plan to drop the car back to me and walked back to the van, carrying Josie if needed. Once I worked out where they were, I waited for all of 15 secconds, then decided in my panicked and exhausted state that it would be best if I could minimise the time away from Nora by heading back to the park myself, to save at least 5 minutes by meeting them half way. So off I took, running along the highway at 12:30 am. Yes, I RAN. And, if I do say myself, I was pretty fast, and not completely wrecked by it. I'd like to claim that is evidence of my post-lyra improved fitness, but it was probably just the adrenaline!!
I ended up meeting Bob just out the front of the caravan park, so we did a quick driver swap and I turned around to take him and Josie back to the van. In the struggle to spot the back entrance to the park I ever so briefly wandered onto the wrong side of the road, but correctly quickly enough ... or so I thought. But then I noticed another car following us into the park, and when I stopped to get Josie out they stopped behind me. I waved them passed, a bit crossly, but then as then drove up alongside me, I was horrified to realised it was the police, who had obviously followed me thinking I was a drunk driver 🤯. Thankfully they accepted my near-teary babbling about a daughter in hospital at face value and kept moving. But seriously, not what I needed!!
So all in all it was a SUPER eventful evening. By the time Nora and I got back to the caravan it was nearly 2 am, and we were on our last legs. Bob and the girls crashed out in our bed and I crawled into Josie's bunk, which was coffin like enough that I seriously contemplated crawling back out and sleeping on the floor. But I just passed out instead!
So, instead of the planned 2 nights here in Longreach, we decided to hang out for a bit to let Nora rest up and start working on healing the leg. There's been lots of craft, as well as gaming, tv watching and movies - we saw both Wickeds! Bob and Toby have even done some work on maths, god bless them. I am of course taking the opportunity to indulge in my favourite camping pastime, washing! I've also done some more organising in the van 😍
We've also been taking our new kitchen appliances through their paces, including the induction plate, air fryer and the NINJA SIZZLE!!! The resulting dinners have been delicious, thanks to Bob!
So, we're here for another few days, which makes me particularly grateful for the ensuite site! As Bob says we're very lucky to be carrying our own home on our back like a snail, or a turtle - we're able to be flexible with the plans, plus I'd built in a bit of buffer in these first few weeks which turned out to be very fortunate. Unfortunately we will have to miss a few days in the Bungle Bungles, but we'll still be able to make a day trip to see them which is very lucky. We're going to play it by ear in terms of when to leave Longreach and how many stops to take along the way to WA, making sure to get the leg healed nice and proper. But we'll be sure to have fun on the way!