Where did you go in the last fortnight?

More than half the 60 km into town from their
property is on a gravel road.

It’s more than two weeks since I last wrote here. In that time we've driven over 2,500 km. We drove up to David's sister and brother-in-law's place in Central Queensland: it took us 10 ½ hrs. Then on each of the next four days we drove 60 km into town (they manage a property). 

We spent those days helping my sister-in-law prepare for and (a little bit) run her Alpaca stand at the Emerald Agricultural Show called Ag-Grow. They were long days, but we were glad to work alongside her, rather than be the kind of visitors that took her away from her daily life. And of course time spent with family is valuable, especially when you rarely get to do it!

My amazing sister-in-law (in pink).

Ag-Grow was mostly a place for farmers to look at stuff they were interested in buying, so there was a lot of large equipment and things we had no use for. They had cattle dog trials (dogs competing at cattle work) and Camp Drafting, which is horses doing a similar thing. I learned the latter is a unique Australian sport, but unfortunately I missed the actual event and only saw the horses the next day as they showed off their skills prior to an auction. 

We enjoyed Australian "show" food (but not the Chiko rolls) and the general atmosphere, though did feel a little bit out of our depth at times. For starters, we didn't have the "uniform" of an Australian farm show: long-sleeve button-up cotton shirt with blue jeans. But in the downward run towards packing up and flying back to Japan, we're also not in a mood to buy stuff, not to mention that prices continue to sky rocket.

Always chooks!

Rosegum Alpacas is my sister-in-law's business

Outback sunset

Sunset with view of the large Burnett River

After that, last Saturday, we drove 600 km out to the coast to stay with friends in Bundaberg. These friends we hadn't seen in over 25 years, but had kept up with what each was doing via Facebook. During that period they worked in three different large Asian cities as teachers and it was great to swap some of the many stories that arise from an international life.

On Sunday we spoke at their church, but overall had a quiet afternoon without driving much at all!

Walking with friends along Woodgate Beach

On Monday and Tuesday we drove about 65 km each day to a nearby township on the coast to spend the days with two families we are very close to who were holidaying there, then each evening we drove 65 km back to our lodgings in Bundaberg. Those were precious days of just hanging out together, unfortunately we then had to say goodbyes, just like we had to with David's family.

On Tuesday we had a bit of a car scare, but it was sufficiently resolved for us to be able to get back to Brisbane the next day. We've got a lot of car uncertainty in the coming weeks, and more than one car as our adult sons look at cars too. Probably that's something to write about another day when I know more.

Then on Wednesday we drove 450 km home. That night (and the next one too) we had family parties while watching football (State of Origin, an annual rugby league competition between our state and New South Wales).

Thursday afternoon I spent driving around town getting medical tests done, hopefully I'll know more about that next week after going back to the dr (it's related to the infection I had while we were travelling in the southern states). And David's been taking our middle son driving the last couple of days as he prepares for his second attempt at getting his licence on Tuesday.

It all adds up to a lot of driving and a lot of people! And a number of farewells too. Yesterday I woke up with a headache and pretty much just blobbed around all day. I read a 200-page book too! Today I'm feeling better, but still not hugely energetic. Tonight we're looking forward to our first evening in nearly two weeks when it's just the two of us.

We have just over two weeks until move in with friends and less than three weeks until we hand the keys in for this house. Three weeks on Monday we will, hopefully, fly back to Tokyo. Time is racing past and some days I'm really feeling the pressure. Not so much the pressure of packing up – I think that will be fairly simple – but the pressure of other things that we want or need to get done while we're still here.