NSW Deployment- day 4

Hi everyone,

Starting this post on the flight back to Melbourne.  The pilot just announced that we've now crossed back into Victoria.

The day has gone well so far.  I woke up (unintentionally) at about 5:30am and decided it was too good a chance to go for a run to pass up.  Conditions were ideal: warm and humid, but not so much as to make it at all uncomfortable.  I hadn't really thought what good terrain this would be for running: mostly flat with some gentle hills to work on.  I ran with really no plan or direction aside from being back by 6:30.

** Later **

There was some fog/mist about while I was running, but this didn't cause any issues at all.

I actually finished the run a little ahead of time, which gave me a chance to explore the Memorial Park over the road from the motel.

** Later Still **

Sorry: fell asleep and now finishing this at 5am next day!

I'm always interested to look at memorials to the South African War (1899-1902). As it happens, Lismore sent quite a number of young men to that conflict and there was indeed a memorial to them.

I can never convince myself that that war was other than unjust.  Anyway, I took some other photos of that monument which might make for a future blogpost of their own.

The bus collected Ian and me and a number of other interstate volunteers and took us up to the Gold Coast Airport. It was a pretty trip even if quite a few spots in the countryside were still pretty damp. I was a little surprised to see sugar cane being grown - it must be right on the limit of the fertile zone for that crop.

Gold Coast Airport is actually smaller than you'd think, but clean and spacious and with a quite pretty view of the hills of the hinterland.

It felt kind of good to see so many people in orange overalls walking about the airport - we'd been up there to help and hopefully we'd done so.

Lunch was at Hungry Jacks (I think I've put in a couple of kilos in this trip!) and I scrounged a copy of the Sun-Herald before we filed out to the plane.

I can't say I felt especially emotional on the flight home. Maybe some regret?  As soon as I take these overalls off I go from being an emergency worker with a useful set of skills and a passion to help and transform back into an unemployed dole-receiving potato-head.  Sigh: press on.

Back on the ground, we were greeted by an officer from Emergency Management Victoria which I thought was a nice touch.  I got a lift back up to Benalla with Ian and his wife Sue and drove back to the farm.

Dad and Michael returned from Rushworth not long after I got back - they'd been over there putting in grain. I got the feeling they weren't too happy I'd been away. Nothing I can do about that.

Felt good to have a proper shave and shower and clean up.  Back to reality I guess.