Just a couple of detours

 

For those with limited reading time (or a short attention span):

Highlights	Less of a highlight
Will finishing work – both!	Saying goodbye to our caravan neighbours, Pam and Bruce - both
A week of ‘holidaying’ before leaving Bundy - both	Farewelling Gail and Geoff - both
A trip to Woodgate Beach with Geoff and Gail – both	Farewelling Dave and Noelene - both
Watching the turtle lay 165 eggs! – both, but maybe Kate just a little bit more.	Only having one more night in this van in the foreseeable future – both! (written a few days ago)
A fair well dinner with Gail and Geoff - both	Coming through the switchbacks on the Illawarra Hwy – Kate – sometimes you just have to shut your eyes!!!
Dancing with Gail – Kate! Will missed out.
Meeting the other two men who started the Razorback Blockade, Jack Hibburt and Sleepy Grimson and their wives Pauline Hibburt and Leslie Grimson – both!
Being at the Razorback Blockade site with Spencer and Gloria Watling and Billy Shaw who were major participants in the event - both
Spending time with Dave and Noelene – both!!
Coming through the switchbacks – Will
Getting hugs - both
Arriving back to a useable office, yay-Both!
Seeing family – both!!

The RAM is serviced and the final trips for 2023 have been shared with Gail and Geoff. We visited Woodgate Beach for a paddle and a tour of the area before enjoying lunch at the bowls club. The sun was shining, the water was warm and the company was lovely. It was so good in fact, we hung out with them the next night too!

No back seat driving happening here

Off we went to Mon Repos in the hope of seeing a turtle. We were in luck, we didn’t even have time to put on our participant sticker before hearing the call, ‘Let’s go, there’s a turtle on the beach.’ Off we went, Turtle K7… was very considerate and chose to lay her eggs just 200m from the entrance. She was a little warn out as she’d been up on the beach the night before without laying so she didn’t climb quite high enough, depositing her eggs within the high tide zone. This meant that once she covered her eggs and headed back to sea, the ranger and volunteers had to relocate them, as the turtles inside the eggs can drown if they are in water for more than thirty minutes at that stage of the life cycle. This was good news for us, as we got to see the eggs up close and we got to hear the tally of her batch – a whooping 165 eggs, 128 is the average.

Our last dinner our with Geoff and Gail at the Lighthouse Hotel Burnett Heads

We spent the week taking care of ‘stuff’, packing the van for the trip home, a few final bike rides and a little bit of shopping before heading off for a final dinner with Gail and Geoff. With live music at the venue a little dancing was definitely in order. After a final hug it was time to go.

A wave, best wishes and a few final navigational hints from our caravan park neighbours saw us heading Southwest by 8am. We spent a lovely evening in a little caravan park at Spring Creek. We enjoyed the company of the permanent residents at happy hour and were given the name of a great restaurant in Tamworth to check out, because, after all, that was where we were headed. However, as I lay in bed that night, inspired by our mate Dave, who had made arrangements for me to meet Razorback people, I decided to check out Jack Hibburt’s address. Low and behold he was just East of us – when I say, just East, I mean if we got most of the way to Tamworth and turned left we’d be there in just over three hours and Sydney would be just a little further south than we had hoped. Will very kindly said “If it works for Jack, sure we can go that way.”

A wall hanging in the Tenterfield Saddlery and other memorabilia

After wandering through the Tenterfield Saddlery looking at Peter Allan memorabilia, we continued on our merry way, going via the Toowoomba Botanical Gardens. Surely this time we would see the beautiful display that last time was just a series of seedlings. Seems we were too late, there was a whole new lot of little seedlings! After a night at Uralla, we turned left because fortunately, Jack and Pauline were able to see us. We spent a lovely time with them. Pauline reminded me of my grandmother, similar height and build – tiny – but oh, the size of her spirit! We had been told she was a strong and determined character and it was still there in her. Jack still has passion and a healthy interest in political decisions and the industry too. 

We spent the evening at Taree. Now, I’m not a great passenger in city traffic so I have a strategy, I read and don’t look! Except in unfamiliar cities when I’m the navigator. I did my homework. I wrote all the numbers of the freeways we needed to take based on google maps, not the old, outdated map books that got us lost at that spot on the way. Feeling terrible that I was near my sister but not popping in as any extra streets in a city with a caravan in tow is more than I can handle, off we went, highly confident nothing could go wrong. Just to be extra sure I set the car sat nav and the phone map going – and wouldn’t you know, just as we got to a turn – tunnel or no tunnel - the two differed – panic set in, logic went out the window and I ordered Will to ignore the sign to Canberra. Before I knew it, we were doing laps past a coffee shop I’m sure my sister Carmel has taken me to and that we went by when we were lost on the way up. Thankfully, I started to breathe again and remembered that Canberra was south of Sydney, just like Benalla, so we found another sign pointing to Canberra and away through the tunnel we went.

Finding Dave and Noelene’s place in Camden was lovely and straightforward. We spent a quiet evening with the two of them, catching up on the news. Dave was so sweet; he made arrangements for us to meet Gloria and Spencer Watling at the sight of the Razorback Memorial where the ten-day blockade occurred. I’ve spent hours chatting with Billy Shaw on the phone but had never met him and he agreed to meet us there as well. We had hoped to be joined by the ‘young copper’ who spoke to the 5 men before the blockade began but he was unable to join us, but with Dave’s help, I’m sure I’ll speak to him soon.  

Noelene and Kath

Noelene, Bill and Dave

Our brief meeting turned into a lovely chat that lasted well over an hour and a half. It was great to see the men reminisce together, laughing over tales of coppers familiar to them all as well as sharing stories of drivers they knew. As Will said, ‘It was quite emotional to be on the site with people who had

Spencer, Gloria, Billy, myself, Dave

actually been there at the time.’ Dave kindly gave us a tour of the area. I can’t thank him enough; my understanding of the location and the blockade has been improved immensely thanks to his thoughtfulness in organising that morning for us.

As I lay in bed that evening, I thought how fortunate I was to have met 3 of the 4 remaining men who were voted in as the committee of Razorback Mountain Blockade. Curiosity got the better of me, I googled where the final committee member of Razorback lives. Low and behold Barry lives only an hour and a half south-east of Camden. If we took just one more little detour, OK, little being about a three-hour detour, we could pop in, say hello and be back on the Hume Highway in plenty of time to be in Benalla for Mum’s birthday. I already knew Barry was free as he’d sent a text saying, “It’s too far out of your way, Sweetie.” But hey, when you’ve taken a detour from Mackay via Alice Springs to Bundaberg, what’s one more detour.

Will and I spent one more night with Nolene and Dave, laughing, looking through photo albums and eating mountains of Chinese before heading off on our last detour. We arrived at Barry and Leslie’s to find a ‘pink carpet’ awaiting us. The men have all been very grateful that someone is taking an interest in the story, not for their own glory, but because they are still passionate about the industry. It was an absolute pleasure to meet Les and Sleepy. Like the others, Sleepy has been very generous with his time answering my myriad of questions, sometimes giving long winded answers. The joke between us is “I don’t want a 10km answer, just a 2km answer,” because one day when we were talking while he was in his Kenworth his answer went on and on and on and that was just about what he was carting that day! In the end he said at the end, “Sorry about the 10km answer,” as he figured he’d covered at least that much distance. 

After rolling out the 'red' carpet for us, Leslie and Barry welcomed us into their home

An hour and a half flew by! Some of the conversation was about my research but plenty of it was just spending time with new friends. We looked at old photos, heard stories and shared stories. Sooner than any of us really wanted, we were on our way again. The Hume was beckoning, a road I’m always happy to travel, unlike the Illawarra Highway. It was my first and hopefully last time on it. Thanks to its switch backs, if I never travel that road again, I’ll be happy!! When you have to increase google maps so the blue line of the road doesn’t run over itself, you know the hairpin bends are real hairpin bends. The commentary went like this… “Oh, this road has got really tight bends, not this one, this isn’t it, this tight one’s not the worst, this one’s close to the worst, oh, what if we meet one of the trucks we can hear over the UHF, yep, this is the worst one, I’m closing my eyes now.” For a person who loves traveling, I worry unnecessarily a lot!!

We spent our final night in the caravan at Gundagai, our 139^th night in a row since leaving the final house sit. Seven and a half months away culminated with two nights in a real bed in Mum’s house. It was lovely to be back in time to celebrate her 87th birthday with her and family members. After long chats, long hugs and long games of Spit-Bo we hit the road for the final leg of our journey. One more stop for hugs from another sister and to collect the mail and off we went.

The family celebrating Mum's 87th birthday and Megan's new home

Kyle popped by to farewell us 7 months ago and welcomed us home as well.

Lily, Lola and Grandma were very excited to be back together - thanks for taking the snaps, Jade.

We arrived home mid-afternoon on the 26^th of November to find our office all but complete! We spent the afternoon wiping and dusting away 7 months of neglect before moving furniture into the office, freeing up space in Will’s workshop. Before we knew it, we had 4 very special visitors at the door (and Dude of course). Hugs feel so special when it has been so long between them.

Kyle helped move a few more items while we chatted and all caught up. Lola had a lot of hugs for us, and Lily quickly warmed up too. Jade was keeping a careful eye on the girls while yawning wildly – Oh yes, I remember the tiredness of the end of year when teaching!! After a meal together the two girls really needed their beds. So, with a promise to see them all again VERY soon, we headed our separate ways. And for the first time since April, we sat quietly in our recliners and let the evening pass.

 

As I know how google works, there is a chance that people will be googling Razorback Mountain and will come across this blog. Some of them may be saying ‘Who is this Kate and Will? I met a Kath and Bill.’ Well, when I first joined Facebook I wanted to keep my on line life private from my students and their families, so I created Kate Glib. When I wanted to blog so that my mum and others knew what we were up to I created Kate (Kath) and Will (Bill). They have served us well over the last eight years, but maybe it is time they retired. We will see when the next adventure happens if its Kate and Will or Kath and Bill.