Part 1

Starting our 2022 holidays at last – Canberra, Menindee,
Canberra, Somewhere, Sydney, Perth, Train to Sydney and then north to Somewhere!

We left the coast late June to see the kids in Canberra, and
importantly, so that Jo, her Dad (Les) and Rebecca could go to the 80^th
anniversary ceremony of the sinking of the Montavideo Maru. Les’s brother was
aboard when the ship was sunk by the US in 1942 with over 1000 Australian prisoners
were aboard – it’s a very sad story.

After some shopping in Canberra we headed out on the Sunday to
Menindee to be a part of SES crew that has been looking after Menindee while
the water comes down the Darling river from Queensland.

The days travel looked pretty good with a mid morning flight
from Canberra to Sydney with the flight to Broken Hill around 1.30 in the
afternoon to get to Broken Hill – from there we would be picked up by a current
deployed SES member to get out to Menindee. As we all know the next East Coast Low
was hitting Sydney on the same day.

We try to check-in – only to find that our flight was
delayed with boarding happening after lunch. We did manage to get on an earlier
flight (good) and then found our connecting flight had been rebooked to 6pm (bad).
We did try to get back to the original time but that was too late (bad). In the
meantime our new early flight got delayed (bad) which made our late second
flight good with 6 hours in the airport (bad).

While waiting I rang the outgoing crew in Menindee to find
out what was happening – and the good news was there was a white dual cab Toyota
ute with a tray waiting in the carpark, unlocked and the keys would be “with the car” sitting in the airport carpark.

Eventually onto the plane from Canberra with the weather
there looking good. After take off the pilot gave us the weather in Sydney (as they
do). His version of the weather in Sydney was only that it was “pretty gross”
and would not add to it!

Nearly 6 hours later we were climbing the walls in the terminal
and ready to get on the plane – only to hear there was a no show on the flight before
us at our gate – and they were pulling the luggage off the plane. Eventually
onto the plane to Broken Hill and off we go.

Off the plane at Broken Hill, grab the luggage and out to
the carpark to find the white Hilux. Not
surprisingly there are quite a few white Hilux’s in carpark, so lets start with
closest which as it happens was unlocked! Out with the phone for the torch and
I couldn’t find the keys where I expected them, they were on the seat along with someone’s
identity badge….off the second one where I had more luck finding the keys.

Day 1 at Menindee went smoothly. As the water comes down
from Queensland, Water NSW is releasing water out of the system to smooth out
the peaks and troughs and a part of what we are doing is to check various water
levels around town and be a part of this community. We did get approached by a
member of the council saying there was a car in water down the road (35ks) that
wasn’t there last night. Off to check on it only to find the Police taped it off a
short time before we arrived. The driver had gone past a road closed sign….

Stay tuned for the next exciting instalment!