The Long Way Home - Chapter 19 - Gladstone Day 17

Funny that – the caravan park wants their bollard fixed/replaced.

Robyn went to pay for yet another week of our forced stay here as we wait for the formal results of medical tests, and was buttonholed, more shirt fronted, by the owner, having returned from holidays, wanting recompense for the damaged bollard, shunted in our less than auspicious arrival. Changing direction at the last moment, moving between them, on the wrong side, in a tight space caused the issue. Yes I was driving and I suppose that means I am responsible.

Having said that, in my defence, there is no signage as you approach the entrance suggesting the turn is tight, and it’s not until you have actually started the turn you see the sign directing new comers onto the “wrong side: of the entrance to be booked in, to a reception that was not manned last time we were here. Just saying.

In the owner’s defence, I could have, should have, realigned the attempt, stuffing anyone behind me as I cribbed across the road as if to make the tight turn.

There I have said my piece. 

Of course in matters of this kind, it’s never what you know. The family around here are all steeped in heavy duty mining and refinery activities. They tinker with vehicles and machinery and have all the tools.

It seems like the base plate is bent, obviously, but also the dyna bolts which secure the bollard to the ground may have been sheared off. Bending the plate back to straight, in my humble opinion, should be simply a matter of securing it in a vice and bending it back into position. For this layman, the technique will just need leverage and as there are still bolts sticking up, either Araldite or Plasti-bond should be enough to secure the bollard back into position

Bruce, thinks my logic is sane and he will give me a hand on his RDO, having nothing pressing to do, other than potentially going fishing of course, but the weather seems to have that covered.

Should our efforts fail, there is always the option of replacing the bollard. But an attempt as a gesture of good faith has to be undertaken. I am unable to find the park owner to discuss these options. I am sure I will find him eventually.

Robyn wants to go to the Visitor Information Centre today in order to find gifts for the upcoming birthdays of her siblings. When we were last here she saw several ideas and is eager to return there. There are also several photographs that have been praying on my mind that I would like to shoot. First though we have a doctor’s appointment to review results of the tests we returned to Gladstone to undertake.

Off to the Superclinic, where I park to make and return some phone calls while Robyn sees the doctor. It’s Wayne, Silver Leader’s birthday, the iconic character from the first two trips and as well as the sledging I gave him on Facebook, there just had to be a followup conversation. 

He is presently on an annual pilgrimage (if staying in one spot can be termed that) to Hatt Head in New South Wales. Many families, some good friends of ours as well, congregate in a caravan park for two weeks, enjoying each other’s company, watching the kids growing up, fishing and generally passing the vocational time. This has been going on for over 20 years and although we have visited for the odd day here and there, it’s not something that interests us. Having said that, we have been here in Gladstone almost three weeks doing more or less the same thing but without the company or the lure of the ocean and the means to attack it.

Their holiday Silver Leader advises, has been a mixture of rain and wind. As soon as it clears everyone hits the beach but apparently the inclement weather soon returns, as do the senior beach goers, with the kids staying on regardless. It’s only water either above or below the sea level. 

Forbesy is there too, as is Pete (the Missing Link) and over the time they have been there, we have spoken to both. Forbsy, after several years alone after the death of his wife (including the periods travelling with us), has found a new lady friend. Covid has kept her away from the scrutiny of those at “the Head ” but evidently she will be running the gauntlet before they all depart.

We have always joked with Forbsy he has been searching for “Inga”, crudely making suggestions everytime an apparently suitable specimen came into our sphere of knowledge (or sight). Sounds like he may have found something much better.

We await the reports with bated breath.

The first of the wanted photographs is the local race course, named Ferguson Park. Ferguson being my mothers maiden name and the family strand of many of those we have seen on tour. Another is the sign of Chanel College, one of the local high schools. It makes me wonder what sorts of ribbing and sledging students, especially the male ones, at a college clearly named after one of the most known female fragrances, have to contend with.

Perhaps it’s a girls college – but that would be horribly sexist to consider wouldn’t it.

Enough said. We have the pictures “in the can” and we are off of the Visitor Information Centre. Idyllically set adjacent to the water, the Visitor Information Centre is in the Gladstone Ferry terminal. In days gone by I have been here to board a fishing charter boat, the Kanimbla for a week’s trek to Swains Reef on the outer half of the Great Barrier Reef. It and its competitor Night Crossing are nowhere to be seen, they must be out on the reef. I take a panorama shot of the dock and send it to my friend with whom I have traveled on this charter, Roger, reminiscing of days gone by.

If we are going to reminisce properly then we need to have lunch at the Yacht Club. Lunch at this establishment, a short walk from the dock is almost a right of passage for Kanimbla fisherman, especially the ones we travel with. Whilst a short walk from the dock, today after Robyn has made one of the required purchases, we drive the short distance around the foreshore gardens.

A two storey building with copious verandah vantage points, it’s a lovely spot to lunch, in the case of a Kanimbla trip, filling up any burley points that might empty in a seasick crossing to the reef. Adding to the burley of course were normally copious amounts of alcoholic beverages to aid in sleep. The seasick tablets helped as well.

Generally speaking once the trek to the outer reef was made motion sickness tablets were no longer required.

We are not on that sort of mission today. Ordering 4 entrees, rather than pigging out on the treacherously large mains experienced here in the past, we sit and enjoy the view. A friend of ours, terminally ill with cancer, sends us a message about her big move out of her mothers house, now sold as part of the estate split. We return with pictures of the verandah setting which gets a retort suggesting a call when she can convince her body it’s not broken after the moving exercise. 

She has followed us relentlessly in the photos I send her regularly. She suggests it helps to ease the pain. Life is just not fair, this person spent much of her later years looking after her mother with a similar affliction, only to lose her and find out she has a similar affliction, undiagnosed because of the concentration on family and being remiss to vagaries of her own health.

Lunch is done, we have one more chore. We need to go to the bank and sort out why Robyn can’t see accounts I have opened with the raft of accounts we have with that establishment. Apparently all the issues come down to “user error”. I thought because I was on a website, having used the business login details that new accounts I had opened, using the business details would be accessible to all owners. 

Apparently not and not on several levels. The login details are specific to a person, not a business, even though they are all only business accounts and because I opened them online, regardless of whether I thought they were business accounts or not, AND I used the business name section of the application, they were opened as personal accounts and as such because she is not a signatory, she can’t have access.

Easy fix, we will make her a signatory. This takes several forms but eventually the job is done. The other options would be to close the accounts and reopen them as business accounts, but unfortunately this staff member does not have the security clearance to do that so we will go with what we have for now. 

Other than from an evidence perspective from a tax office point of view, there is no real issue with the outcome, other than we are suggesting these are business accounts not personal ones.

Chores all done, it’s back to the van where I have an email suggesting I should upload as many blogs as possible for the new platform. I finished the complete Around Oz the First Time upload, now all I need is the ability to upload the photographs associated. I am a little over 20% completed in that area. 

It’s going to take some time, but hopefully the new re-write will speed up the process.