It's difficult for me to comprehend that a year ago Val and I were celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary in Port Macquarie with our family and afterwards we went on a road trip through New England, New South Wales.
Since then so much has happened and almost all of it bad. Covid-19 has arrived and wrought devastation on the planet. Fortunately through good luck-being an island does help-and very effective action by our federal and state governments Australia has managed the pandemic well. There was a setback in the state of Victoria with a second wave but by imposing a very harsh lockdown it was effectively bought under control. Yesterday there were zero new locally communicated cases of covid-19 in Australia.
Covid-19 put an end to comprehensive travel plans for the year. I really was looking forward to our roadtrip through southern Spain and also our riverboat trip into darkest north Myanmar.
As well as the covid-19 lockdown Val and I have had the devastating diagnosis of her illness-a very severe shock which has upended our lives. This year we "celebrated" our 51st wedding anniversary last Sunday with her in an acute care ward of Gosford Hospital. What a difference.
At the time of of that road trip in 2020 eastern Australia was in the grip of a long and devastating drought. The tragic bushfires which ravaged vast areas of eastern Australia started in early November and lasted right through to early March. At home in Terrigal a blanket of choking smoke from the enormous Gosper Mountain fire became a daily occurence.
So 2020 has been a terrible year for us and so many others. Yes, the drought has broken and indeed the rains have been so good that the farmers are looking at the best harvest for at least 15 years but other than this it is bleak, bleak, bleak.
Some photos from that now so distant Australian road trip in November 2019 when we had no idea what horrors lay ahead.
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