Introduction

It was a busy start to the year, but we knew that was to be the case. Pennant bowls went longer than normal due to the great success of two of our teams (not that I played in either). Line dancing continued throughout.

First came cataract eye op # 1 for Shirley, then came left hip replacement for Chris, then cataract eye op # 2 for Shirley. Six weeks disappeared with adjustment to 'new eyes' and a 'new hip', not to mention the daily exercises. A period in rehab also slowed down proceedings (but was a productive period).

Thanks to the physio & exercise experts at Donvale Rehab Hospital my new hip came along in leaps and bounds (wrong words really, but you get the point). Our beach walks (or happy hour) may need to be shorter this year to ensure that I can do all of my regular exercises. Maybe we can combine exercises and beach walks.

Being clean living people, all was good on both fronts, while the liquor cabinet grew cobwebs. Weird how there were cobwebs, but no spiders.

As April crept on the energies moved to looking to replace our beloved Toyota Prado that had been deemed to have insufficient power to tow our caravan.

The hard decision was made in mid April to replace the Prado with a new white Isuzu MU-X LSU. The swap from the old to the new was made on Friday 3 May 2024, with the assistance of Scott & Paul from Penfold Isuzu.

Isuzu MUX

I had a chuckle when the new owner of the traded-in Prado tracked me down and sought some sort of guarantee that the 21 year old, 394,000 km car was not going to cause him any issues. I still believe in Santa but that was 'stretching it'.

As we were in casual mode and needed time to adjust to the new towing vehicle (read 'work out how to pack the new vehicle') a decision was made to delay our departure until after Shirley's birthday at the start of June.

This all meant that our usual time in the Outback with campfires and camp dinners was maybe not to be in 2024.

However bookings in Yeppoon (3 weeks), Hervey Bay (3 weeks) and Maroochydore (2 weeks) offered great beach walks to build up the muscles in the new hip, and updated eyes. All was not lost. 😀😀😀😀

Click here to see our draft route.

Our desire to comply with state & federal laws related to car and caravan weight limits had us also checking the caravan (the new car was fine). Some time, effort and $ later we had a caravan that had an extra 400 kg payload - something that allowed more water, food and comforts to be carried legally.

My last Donvale out-patient rehab session came and went - sadly in some ways. The staff there are a wonderful group of people and do a great job. I will miss them. They have combined (without knowing it) with Shirley's physio to ensure that the caravan will (for the first time) be carrying exercise equipment, such as weights, resistance bands, therabands and laminated exercise sheets. 

As May petered out we were right to go - mentally and physically. The usual stalwart family and friends were organised and in control of our major asset.

We plan to enjoy. Feel free to come along for the ride.

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*** Last Updated: 31 May 2024 ***
*** End of the Introduction ***