14/01/2026
So now we are back and had time to reflect on the trip since leaving on the 8th Dec and getting back last Sunday, with the plan being to get me back to Albury to spend Xmas with my family, which I hadn't done in a long time(well another life anyway😂), so we headed off with plans to drive all the way down the coast of NSW to Melbourne, geat ocean Rd, to Port Campbell then to Adelaide (which we cut short) and headed to Horsham earlier than planned, to catch up with an Auntie for a couple extra days, Mitre to see friends, then Echuca, Albury for a week or 2, then head back via Bathurst, Windsor, hawksbury River, then back up the coast Rd we managed most of it apart from a couple of friends, clocking up just on 5 thousand klms in the process. Now when we headed off I had to deal with a lot of anguish and fear of not being near the hospital and my support team if anything went wrong, and the fear of what Julie Von Bibra Higgins would have to go through if anything did go wrong and we were not near a major hospital, so the first 2/3 day ended up being a bit more rushed than planned until we could settle into a routine and realised if it happened it happened, then we started to enjoy the trip more, we went from 26/28 degrees when we left, to feels like 8 degrees with the wind chill factor and gale force winds on the great Ocean Rd, to 4 hrs later 40 plus temps out near the SA border😂, i learnt on the trip my body doesn't like quick temp changes and the heat really knocks me around now, with the fluid restrictions and not being able to regulate my body temperature as well now,
So I got to sit my arse in some creeks and rivers, only up to waist deep as per doc orders 😅, julie and I watched some gold panning up close, wetting our appetite to do it on our travels, I got to catch up with the family, and some old school friends thanks to some organising to catch up with me👍much appreciated, julie and I drove around the areas where the fires are burning in Vic in our travels before they started to now see the destruction from them on the news😢 stay safe everyone down there.
So the trip was a success, the gypsiewagon run like the little old trooper it is and julie has mastered driving it and now thinks she is a truckie 😂😂we both did a lot of soul searching and dealing with emotions and feeling about what has been dealt to us, i am starting to believe i can maybe beat this for a good while now, next 3 mths will tell, and julie is not going to let me go yet, so the fight goes on and we are going to enjoy it as best we can, so stay tuned for any developments and the next adventure in the gypsiewagon 🍺👍
