I imagined that my last short trip (here and here) was to be the end of a horrid summer of fire and flood: in other words, I was thinking Release!!! But, that very weekend, in Sydney, the babysitting gig I had committed to was cancelled at the last minute, and while I was there my daughter got an email telling her to start working from home immediately. I said, I might as well throw my winter clothes into Bertha and drive back to DB's. Two days later, back home at my place, my GP had to do a telephone consultation with me because he was already in quarantine. The word telehealth was still in the future then. When I told him that I was thinking of going to the country for the winter he said, Just do it. ... Think six months. … I told my family, We'll be fine. I have 14kg of rice and DB has a sack of potatoes. I spent ten days sorting out stuff, taking photos of the toilet paper queues and worrying about the crazily anxious atmosphere in the town. So I put into Bertha a pile of woolly socks, sweaters and scarves, the contents of my kitchen cupboards and a great pile of art materials. It felt quite unreal that there was so little traffic on the motorway: no trucks at all, and very few cars. I filled Bertha's tank with diesel in Braidwood, worrying that fuel supplies might dry up. Then, during the final thirty-minute drive down the hill, I heard the Prime Minister announce that non-essential travel would be banned from midnight. Gotcha Scotty!! I thought. It was a great place to self-isolate. The property is beautiful and the house seriously winter-proofed. There is time to meditate. There is space to exercise without going out of the front gate. What we didn’t realise for almost a month was that - ironically - the night I arrived was when the number of infections in NSW started falling. When the restrictions were lifted DB said to me, I suppose you'll want to think about going back soon, and I replied, Not as fast as all that.
Bertha, outside behind the shed, didn't manage the stay quite as comfortably as I did. There was a fierce and blustery storm one night that blew water under her retractable rooftop and soaked the mattress and bedding right through. But everything dried thanks to a good log fire and some sunny winter days.
3 Comments
Deirdre Chrzescijanski
4/10/2020 07:39:41 am
You have captured the resilience of the times Gillian! ‘Coronatime’ as Robert calls it has challenged us all to find ways to live through this pandemic with grace and goodwill. You have obviously succeeded. Enjoy your journeys. A lovely read. Thanks xxxxx
Reply
Peta
4/10/2020 11:20:19 am
wonderful read and life gillian so well done. Great forward thinking while others panicked. All surreal now to me, with my journey to victoria and lockdown melbourne cut short by hal. Youre in a great spot..
Reply
Ray W
8/11/2020 03:43:31 pm
I'm a bit behind on my reading....but glad I could hear about this part of your past year.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorIn mid 2018 I started recording each night I sleep in Bertha: sometimes just for myself, sometimes to share with friends and other travellers. Archives
June 2023
Categories |