Paying the price.

 On the flight home I woofed down my meal,  and then suddenly felt a sharp pain in my side.  It was agony.   I have experienced something like it before, but not so excrutiating, but I thought it might be extreme indigestion or muscle pain.  Luckily or not, being in an airplane seat, I could not move much anyway and figured it would have passed by the time we got to the UK.   But as we neared touch down 10 or so hours later, I was almost at wimpering point and not sure how I was going to manage getting off.  I clutched my side, my bag, got off the plane, then saw a row of seats and collapsed in agony.  

It is over a week later, I have been wheeled through passport control, I am on anti biotics, and blood thinners, I have had an emergency ambulance come out to me and been in A and E, and last night I thought I was going to die, so the trip has come at a higher price than even i expected   Yet it started so well. 

The flight to Aus worked well.  I had a very tight turn around in Dubai, so was thankful I was a fit 70 year old who could dash from one end of the airport to the other in the time allocated, I slept when I intended to and got picked up as planned by my friend M.  I say my friend, but in truth she was a woman I meet for a week in Germany and who I had meet once again since but bless her she installed me in her lovely bedroom and I crashed out on arrival ready to discover Australia the next day. Except it was Australia with a German twist. On a beautiful blue sky day, we drove over to her friends,  A,  who I also met in Germany and drove up into the Adelaide Hills towards Hahndorf,  essentially an early settlers town, for people mostly of German extraction, including one of Australia's most famous artists, Hans Heyson.  So there I am in Australia, in England, it is Autumn, but in Australia it is spring. And there in what would have been outback is a lovely sort of Arts and Crafts house with his art works in them.   He famously painted the Australian landscapes, and he does capture the plants well, but I preferred his portraits, however, I loved the house, which had hosted the likes of Dame Nellie Melba and Anna Pavlova.   After we went up into strawberry picking country, (another surprise) and then stopped in town for a German meal.    It was all most delightful and most unexpected  

German sausage in Hahndorf with M and A. 

M, lived in a great location, somewhere I would have happily lived.  At the end of a free metro into town, she had a modern apartment, in what was an old industrial area modernised, so she had a huge cafe below and bakery.  For the next few days we happily chatted over coffee, both here, in her lovely flat and with her walking buddies.  She was brilliant company.     I did not see kangeroos or kaolas despite a brief walk in the bush, but we encountered loads of bats, which was rather scary, and saw stunning flowers and birds.   We also rather movingly went to a newly opened First Nation centre, where we had koala pie and kangeroo sausage roll, before wondering around old Brisbane, which reminded me slightly of the Baltimore area visited last year. 

The Botanic Gardens Adelaide. 

I could have happily stayed longer, but Saturday morning M took me down to the rather disapiriting coach station, and there I boarded the coach to Melbourne, for the next part of my adventure.