Mental health... hidden in clear sight
and a night at the drive-in
Before I start, I really want to thank everyone for travelling along on our new adventures and I wanted to give a grateful shout out to Nicole B, Silvia M, Maureen P, Shannon C, Jodie T and Doris G. Your messages of support and for pledging a dollar amount to support my writing is inspiring! I can’t access your messages to reply… I think I need to activate the Substack pledge. I’ve read them and they have motivated me more than you know. At this stage I’ll leave the pledge link inactive until I can think some super awesome benefits for you to receive. If you can think of any, I’d love to hear from you :)
I wasn’t sure where to start with our travel update … so I’ll start from right here, where we are now…
Tachi and I have set up camp at Granite Gorge, just outside of Mareeba, Qld (about an hour inland from Cairns). It’s a gorgeous day, about 27 degrees with cooling showers. There are a group of French (?) hipsters camping to our right that look like they have all stepped out of the 70’s. I was watching two young ladies in canoes and the aura around one of them was vivid, shimmering aqua blue, it was truly breathtaking! To our left is a family with young children and a little dog. It’s school holidays so there are more families than hipsters. And then there’s me and Tach, somewhere in between the mix I guess.
I was looking into heading down central Australia to head back to Varsity Lakes, but Tachi has us rethinking this idea.
On Thursday night (It’s Sunday now) she vomited all through the night, the poor love was so sick. She had vomited the day before but I didn’t think much of it as she is a bit of a grass eater when she has an upset tummy but this was beyond anything she’s experienced before.
I booked into the vet on Friday morning (Thank you again Grace for rescheduling your reading) and they gave her a full check up, an anti vomiting injection, ant-acid tablets and antibiotics. She is on tick stuff, so it’s not that… we really don’t know what it is… water maybe. The vet was lovely and called us the following morning to check in. She suggested that we stay around the area for the next few days to make sure the meds take.
Everything that was going on around me just fell away and Tachi was the only priority. As with everything in life, it’s not what happens, it’s how we choose to react to the situation and this one was an easy one. We’ll stay put and focus on getting her well again.
As it turns out we spent last night at a drive-in at Mareeba (15 minutes from our Vet in Tulga/Atherton Tablelands) watching ‘Despicable Me’ and ‘The Fall Guy’. I fell asleep during the second movie and the following morning there were cars with tents pitched, swags, vans, caravans, utes with roof tents. We all slept there overnight. It was such a cool way to utilise an old 1962 Drive In. Well I thought it was, Tachi fell asleep straight after her dinner and snored (she doesn’t care where we park), and I couldn’t have wished for a nicer sound :) We didn’t mingle, just being in the environment was fun enough.
Today I took Tachi to a pet place for a dog wash/bath (probably just me but I thought she would feel better if she was clean). I ended up getting wetter than she did so we both had a cleanse.
Today was her first day of no vomiting, so we’re winning! But we’ll still take it easy.
Backtracking a week or so, we stayed two nights in Port Douglas at a friend’s driveway. We had so much fun seeing you and the boys Teegs. I think the kids thought the van was the coolest cubby house ever. They are so cute! And so nice to have a catch up with my Daylesford friend, Sandi. After this, we made it into Far North Queensland, as far as we could go anyway, Cape Tribulation in the Daintree. From here on it’s 4WD territory.
We spent two nights amongst the lushness of Mother Nature’s canopy in two organised caravan parks and found ourselves parked right next to two separate experiences with humans that made me rethink humanity (again) and how mental health is around us all the time, not so hidden in plain sight.
The Justice archetype within me took a stand in a way that hopefully made someone rethink their actions, but I’ll never know. I only hope that the little girl who was being subjected to her father’s wrath becomes a brave woman who uses her challenges as a tool to thrive.
And the man who was threatening to kill anyone who came near him realises that there was no one about to put themselves in his line of fire, so just calm the farm.
Every day brings a new learning and new people who share their wisdom. Inland there are a lot more free camping places, or some ask for a donation. I love these. They even have signs stating “RV Friendly Town - Welcome”. Thanks friendly RV towns! We think you’re great!
I’m keeping a daily journal of our wanderings and I take note of the nuggets that people share.
Every day is a reminder that our inner nature is our outer experience and our outside experience is our inner search for reconnection to the self.
Both experiences in the Daintree were the meaning I gave them. A young girl who will be brave and thrive and a man who wants to be heard (the lesson for me being, how do I want to thrive and how do I want to listen to myself more). There is nothing outside of us, only the experience of our inner world.
Tachi is doing much better, not back to her usual self but she’s happy x
Love Tania & Tachi
Much love to Tachi! Keep the updates coming. Love reading about your adventure - the ups and the downs xx