After nearly a year I am back on Blogspot,. Unfortunately the lack of posts was not due to travelling and forgetting to write a blog, but rather due to Walter spending six months in and out of hospital last year. Although it was mostly in hospital!
Last May Walter had knee replacement surgery at a large private hospital which mainly deals with sports injuries. A hospital where no one is ill, as such. A hospital where there is a conveyor belt for knee replacements. And Walter joined that conveyor belt and it all looked rosy for about eight days, whereupon it went downhill.
And what when wrong? Basically his knee became full of fluid which caused the ligaments to collapse, he fell and the wound opened. Two types of bugs got into the knee. So three months of antibiotics, more knee collapses, the replacement taken out, an antibiotic rod put in for six weeks (no weight allowed on that leg), and finally a new knee replacement.
He spent many weeks in the sports hospital, a few weeks in a care home and a few weeks in a rehabilitation hospital. Plus a few days in the public hospital being treated for a stomach ulcer caused by stress, no doubt.
He lost a lot of weight, which can be seen as a positive, and luckily there is no sign of infection in his knee.
Unfortunately his knee cap is now at the side of his knee not in front.
But he still has his leg, and he can walk.
I travelled a lot, as the journeys to the hospitals and home took between forty minutes and one hour. Thank goodness I had a lovely big car, and my route meant less traffic than in the city. But not a lot to record in order to write a blog.
Our recent trip to Port Elliot, forty seven kilometres south east of Aldinga, was a delight, made all the better with cool, and slightly damp weather. We had just experienced weeks of dry weather which led to quite a few days of extreme heat.
Port Elliot beach.
Piper loving the water. We had the beach to ourselves as it was quite cool with light rain. The early morning swimming group had been and gone. At 7.30 a.m. they decided to go home rather than stand around talking.
I took Piper for a walk around the headland, on a beautiful stone path. No cyclists allowed here as there were no barriers between the path and the rocks below.
During the 1800's Port Elliot was used as a harbour. Goods were transferred via a train, which was initially horse drawn, to and from Goolwa. Goolwa was at the end of the Murray River and goods were carried by boats along the river. But the Murray Mouth at Goolwa was dangerous and unpredictable, hence many ships being wrecked there. However, Port Elliot was also a dangerous port, with many ships coming to grief there too. Traversing in rough seas around the small rocky island proved to be the downfall of many boats.
The cliffs at Port Elliot. There is always someone willing to fall over the edge in order to be photographed against the sea and sky!
The bike/walking path at Port Elliot, far from the cliff edge. The path runs from the Bluff in Victor Harbour to Goolwa, a lovely ride, at least from Port Elliot to Goolwa. I have done this ride many times with the U3A cycling group.
A view of Port Elliot from the cliffs behind the caravan park.
And now to our one year old caravan, not used since last May, but often in the caravan repair place. Did we buy a 'lemon'? According to our fantastic caravan repair place in Lonsdale, it is a really good caravan, but at 15 years old it has parts that have worn out.
When we bought it from Noel's Caravans they did a quick check,, which was not the sales pitch we were given! However they did replace the hot water boiler and paid for the pop top roof to be straightened, but only after we reported these two faults.
We had to pay for a new battery and to have the air conditioner serviced, plus have the steadies straightened and oiled. One was replaced. The caravan also leaked badly, which our trusty repair place fixed.
The roof lifter and anti sway device were our decisions. Plus a new jockey wheel.
The final part of the caravan to be sorted is the back door, which is also the roof of the back extension. It flexes with the movement of the caravan, and then pops out of its bolts. Hey presto, the door pops up, and of course we cannot see this from the front seat of the car. I have tied it down to stop it popping up, but we needed something more secure than a cord holding it down.
We collect the caravan from the repairers tomorrow, and hopefully all problems will now be fixed.
I took a photo of Walter to prove that he is now fit and well, and very mobile with the help of his 'walker' which has the unfortunate brand name of 'Wagner'. For some reason it reminds us of the Russian mercenary group rather than Wagner, the composer.
And now we are looking forward to some long trips in our 'new' and greatly refurbished caravan.
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