My Saving Grace

Where did I just spend the last two weeks?

After leaving the peace and solitude of Glendawne, camped next to the fabulous Woolshed, I hit the New England Highway once again.

If you missed my camp at Glendawne, you can find it here :

I didn’t travel far down the New England Highway as I discovered what looked to be an interesting campsite at Kai Iwi Estate, only a mere 12 kilometres from Glendawne.

Kai Iwi Estate is another privately owned Farmstay, this one with a mixture of cattle and horses, situated on top of the Great Dividing Range. I was delighted to be camping in the horse paddock, next to the shed to allow access to power and water.

The reason for the short distance in travel is because Tropical Cyclone Alfred was heading our way and I was running to high ground.

Experienced in the destruction and devastation of tropical cyclones from when I lived in Far North Queensland, where I survived Cyclone Larry (Category 4) and Cyclone Yasi (Category 5), I knew I didn’t want to be in a position whereby I was on low ground with the amount of rain that was expected. Flooding in a caravan was not an experience I was keen to go through.

So, I ran for higher ground. The downfall of this was I experienced the cyclonic winds for five days as it rattled me around in my caravan like a toy in a tin can. I can honestly admit I did not enjoy that aspect!

The plus side was that I stayed safe, although terrified, and it certainly stirred up my memories of past experiences in the previous cyclones.

Then the rain set in and I did not want to be travelling the roads, especially not knowing what to expect out there. Were there trees down, localised flooding or roads washed away?

With the uncertainty, I stayed a second week at Kai Iwi Estate just to be on the safe side.

Not to mention, to get up to the horse paddock when I first arrived, I had to drive up a gnarly hill, on a dirt track, with a steep drop off to one side as I rounded a tight bend. With my car’s wheels spinning, I almost didn’t make it up the hill towing my heavy van — in hindsight, if I’d been aware, I would have put my car into four-wheel drive and towing up the incline would have been a breeze.

On saying that, I did not want to tow the van down again in the wet, after all the rain we’d received.

So, another week was no real hardship. Let’s face it, I’m not on any timeframe or have any need to be in a certain place by a certain time anyway.

Being on top of the range made for some beautiful views, so I really couldn’t complain and I loved watching the horses throughout my days.

Grizabella missed out some with this campsite as the owners had a dog, called Elvis, who became obsessed with us. He’d hang around my caravan desperate to make new friends but this meant that Grizabella couldn’t venture out on her daily walks as Elvis scared her — not that I blame her, there is a considerable size difference in the two animals.

Speaking of Grizabella, I did have a medical emergency with her on the Saturday afternoon, which so happened to be within hours of the cyclone crossing the coast, so the wind and rain were affecting us at the time.

Kai Iwi Estate is situated 4 kilometres north of Glencoe, which is nothing more than a few houses, and 20 kilometres south of Glen Innis, the closest town of any size. I managed to find an emergency vet in Glen Innis who was prepared to open the clinic to treat Grizabella.

After a 54 kilometre round trip in the weather, Grizabella was treated, much to my relief.

It never rains but it pours!

The good news is that by staying the extra week, I was able to explore Glen Innis throughout the weekend after the cyclone.

I found a couple of cafes worthy of breakfast and enjoyed the delicious food they prepared.

But the bulk of my time was spent in the horse paddock, which I had to myself throughout the cyclone and for the week after.

I thoroughly enjoyed some gorgeous sunsets, sunrises and even the full moon from my camp, especially after the dreary grey skies during the days of rain.

When I first arrived at Kai Iwi there was a lovely solo female traveller in her camper van and we got along fabulously. I feel I made another lifelong friend, much to my delight.

The few days during the week before the visit from TC Alfred saw a couple of other travellers arrive but they only stayed one night. The rest of the time I had the paddock to myself.

I have to admit I do wish other travellers where there while the cyclone blew through, to feel the safety in numbers, even if this would have been a false sense of security, because it’s always harder to experience these things alone.

But I got through it and that’s what counts.

All in all, I enjoyed most of my time, TC Alfred excluded — but I wouldn’t have enjoyed that no matter where I was camped — at Kai Iwi and if I’m ever in this part of Australia again, I’ll not hesitate to stay awhile.

How’d I go getting down that gnarly hill? I’ll let you know in my next update.

Thanks for joining my journey.