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So feeling refreshed after a couple of days in Cairns it was time to head off into the hinterland and start our volunteering in Ravenshoe, which we'd organized about 6 months prior to leaving the UK, with a brilliant scheme called Workaway. Workaway enables both individuals and couples to work a certain amount of hours a day, anywhere in the world, and in return bed and board are provided free of charge by your host. Gwen and Bruce were to be our hosts, and I'd been emailing Gwen regularly since we'd left the UK, so we were very much looking forward to meeting them both. Little did we realize that Ravenshoe (NOT Raven-shoe as I'd embarrassingly been calling it!!) was an hour and a half out of Cairns, 3300ft above sea level.. meaning a really unpleasant journey up the Gillies Highway, which consisted of lots and lots of windy roads!
After a very sickly couple of hours, we eventually arrived at Chilverton Cottages - AKA the middle of nowhere - a beautiful 7 acre B&B with 5 self-contained cottages and apartments, with a river running through at the bottom. Our accommodation was to be a loooovely metal tin at the back of the main house, and we were to be sharing with Loic, another volunteer from Switzerland who had arrived a week ago. Having an old rag hanging up in the middle to give us 'privacy' was going to be interesting.. haha!
Gwen and Bruce, and their two gorgeous German Shepherds Winnie and Pal, made us feel very welcome on our arrival, and no sooner had we been shown around were we already sitting in their bar tucking into a couple of ciders each!! Unfortunately these guys loved their drink a little too much and proceeded to get horrendously drunk, which isn't the best when you are expecting them to make a good first impression and it's only the first night... the next morning Gwen gave us a tour of the cottages and it seemed that we'd chosen the wrong time of year to come as it was the wet season here so she had very little business and non existent guests. Luckily there were SOME duties we had to complete each day, such as feeding the chickens, walking the dogs, taking out the rubbish and clearing the grounds.. not much for 3 of us to share out though!
With only having to work 5 hours per day, it still gave us opportunity to explore the surrounding areas in the afternoon, and having been informed that there were a fair few National Parks and waterfalls dotted about we were looking forward to filling our days (as long as the one and only Ute was available).
In addition to helping run the B&B, Bruce also worked in the mines further down South on a working rota of 2 weeks on 2 weeks off. As it happened, he was due to leave in a few days after our arrival, so to make us feel more at home he decided we should all take a trip to his Dad's home, about 15 minutes drive away, and introduce us to his side of the family... safe to say this was a little weird! His Step Mum was absolutely bonkers, and his Dad was one massive perv and couldn't keep his eyes off me! So wrong. As I'm sure you have guessed, they also liked their drink far too much, but unlike Gwen and Bruce, they were actually pretty entertaining, especially the Step Mum - a funny memory being when she decided to put on some country music and dance around wildly like a chicken to a song actually named 'stick it on the chicken'. Me and Billy have it etched in our brains now!
Bruce left to go to the mines for two weeks, so it was just the 4 of us. Gwen would cook every evening, and I've got to give it to her, she was a bloody good cook! We were treated to our fair share of home comforts - cottage pie, chilli con carne, homemade soups, breads and a roast - and it goes without saying, of course we had to have an Aussie Barbie! Oh I forgot to mention, did it ever rain here?! No it absolutely poured.. In the 3 weeks that we stayed here, I think we only had two completely dry days, and so getting to sleep at night was a challenge, considering our ceiling was made out of metal, haha.
Luckily we had mentioned to Gwen before our arrival that Billy was a kitchen fitter by trade, so plans were soon put into place to rip out her existing one and fit a brand new one, which meant we were finally busy all day every day! Things seemed to change now though that Bruce wasn't around. We started experiencing Gwen's nasty side... the patronizing and manipulative side, which meant holding back tears and biting tongues most days!
We'd wanted to get ourselves a camper as soon as we'd landed in Oz, but had to put it off until we were settled in Ravenshoe. The rental prices per day were pretty pricey, so we decided it would work out cheaper to buy a campervan, as we were intending to be on the road for a fair few months after we'd finished here anyway. We found a couple on Gumtree that we liked the look of, so headed into Cairns on some of our free afternoons to check them out. Finally we came across a beauty in Malanda, a little village about 30 minutes outside of Ravenshoe, which was currently owned by a mechanic Mick, who had taken it over as a little project. Mick seemed a really decent chap, and ran us through anything and everything he could think of to do with the van, and by this point we were pretty much sold! It was an oldie but one that came with a lot of experience, as it had been up and down the East Coast a couple of times and even made it to Darwin too - impressive (and maybe a little worrying haha).
Despite the rain we were desperate to go explore, and having purchased our lovely campervan this made it easier for us to make the most of our afternoons off - we visited Mt Hypipamee National Park with Loic, not too far from the cottages, which was home to the famous Crossawaries (they were all in hiding while we were there though) amongst other wildlife too. There was a pretty river running through with a small waterfall, before reaching a viewing station to a 80m crater, which was a little bit insane to stand over! We also visited Milla Milla falls, and Little Milstream Falls, which were not little in the slightest!
Now as Valentine's Day was fast approaching the soppy romantic in me wanted us to do something special, and luckily we were given the following day off so we made our way to Innot Hot Springs, which Gwen had recommended. The springs weren't quite as we'd pictured, but nothing really is in Australia! It was a small little campsite, with a few different hot and cold swimming pools both inside and out.. basically just jacuzzis to us Brits really! Perfect for a little rest and recuperation though before heading back to the cottages.
The kitchen was coming along nicely, it had all been ripped out, and Gwen had chosen her units, cupboards, colours and flooring. So in the meantime whilst Billy was doing the majority of the labour, me and Loic were able to do the odds and ends like painting doors and cupboards! She was definitely pushing our buttons though, with lots of patronizing and two faced comments, and muttering under her breath.. I've never had to bite my tongue so much with one person in my whole life!! Can you imagine my reaction when I was asked if I knew how to use a roller to paint a door? Bear in mind I'd already done one side of the door...
Anyway, as we were already halfway through our time with Gwen and Bruce (thank god), we decided it would be sensible to load our campervan with the necessities we'd need once we left Ravenshoe, and headed down to Cairns once again on our next afternoon off. We'd got the majority of stuff when we tried to find one more shop but ended up getting lost - however the most BIZARRE thing then happened. We were turning around in the car park, realizing it was the wrong shop, when all of a sudden a girl who looked my age ran over to us, and told us that this had been her campervan a year ago!! She was from England too. There were stickers dotted around all over the windows and windscreen, and that's how she'd noticed it was hers.. because she'd put them there! Of all the places in Australia and we stumbled across one another because we'd just happened to drive into the wrong place! She told us that she'd bought it in Darwin and had travelled down to Perth in it with her 4 friends (cosy), and even been a one man band for a while too. She got her friend to take a photo of her stood beside us, and then they were on their way! That certainly brightened up our day - we were chuckling for hours. One word: FATE!
The following night things started to go downhill... we both went off to sleep pretty quickly having finally become accustomed to the loud hammering of the rain on our roof, but before long I woke up to Billy shivering uncontrollably even though it was really warm under our duvet, complaining that he had a violent headache. Not long after that he was then sweating profusely, and as hot as an oven to touch. He reassured me he was ok though and didn't want to go to hospital, but me being me I spent the rest of the night worrying my head off! Weirdest thing though was that when we woke up in the morning he felt better, although the headache wasn't completely gone, and went to work carrying on with the kitchen (?!). This happened for the next 4 nights, with Billy feeling fine during the day apart from a niggling headache. Gwen stepped in and booked a doctors appointment for him, which we went to, but obviously the doctor couldn't see anything wrong as the symptoms were only at night! He put us off going to the hospital as he told us a night there would cost £700, and a blood test would be about £100 - we left there hoping the symptoms wouldn't come to anything and that they'd disappear, but 5 days later they'd slowly gotten worse.
Bruce came back a couple of days before and was straight back on the booze (surprise surprise) but Billy was feeling so rough that he actually couldn't make it to dinner this time. We'd agreed that we would go to the hospital tonight as his symptoms were getting worse, and although I didn't really want to sit there making small talk when Gwen and Bruce were absolutely smashed, I endured it for as long as I had to, then excused myself to check on Billy. I was with him for all of 5 minutes, as I knew I had to do the washing up with Loic, but as I walked through the door I walked in on Gwen drunkenly moaning about the pair of us, saying that we were 'taking the piss' out of her and had done since we'd got there.. well I was NOT having that!!
By this point Gwen had pushed us to breaking point and we'd already said one more thing and we'd be outta there - well that was it! I headed straight for our metal tin, tears streaming down my face, in which Billy knew it was time to pack our bags. I don't think we'd packed as fast as that during the entire 4 months we'd already been away! We said our goodbyes to lovely Loic, then popped our bags in the van before saying our peace to Gwen and Bruce, who by this point were completely and utterly bungalowed! With us both being angry, we had quite a pop at them, which Gwen didn't like and she started to get pretty lairy, telling me that I'd heard her wrong and she hadn't said that we'd been taking the micheal at all... all the while Bruce was sat there as quiet as a mouse.
Having said all we needed to, we started to walk to the van and then Gwen muttered something under her breath, which Billy can't stand - back we went and once again Gwen was lairy, not long before Bruce rose from his seat, standing right in front of Billy's face, telling him 'I think you better be leaving son', to which Billy's answer to that was as you can imagine, a little impolite to say the least (which I don't blame him for at all). With that, Bruce grabbed one side of Billy's head (knowing full well he wasn't well at all) and punched him 4 times in the other. I screamed and was absolutely hysterical, but quickly stood in between the two of them, with both wanting to take another swing, and me wanting to give the b****** what for too!! I don't think I've ever been so angry, but a night in a cell wouldn't have been what we needed in Australia, plus Billy desperately needed to go to the hospital, so we jumped in the camper and sped away without looking back..
The nearest hospital to Ravenshoe was 45 minutes away in another small town called Atherton. No idea how but Billy managed to drive the van all the way there (he would not let me!!) but he did and we checked in to A&E and waited to be seen. It wasn't long before a lovely male nurse directed us to one of the beds and informed us that as Australia have a reciprocal agreement with the UK, we wouldn't be paying a penny... they soon got some drugs into Billy to ease the pain, and he was out for the count.
I snuggled up at the foot of the bed, and drifted off, to be woken up a few hours later at 2am, as there was a bed free in the medical ward. I've got to hand it to the staff of this hospital, they were absolutely brilliant. About 50m from the A&E department there was an average sized portocabin done out with 4 beds, a kitchen, a bathroom, spare room and laundry, which was used as emergency accommodation for expectant mothers and partners of patients, it was called the Haven, and it literally was. I would have had to sleep either on a chair next to poor Billy, or in the middle of the car park, if it wasn't for the kind and generous staff of this hospital.
There wasn't anybody using the accommodation at present, so they got me to sign some forms and handed over a key so I could use it as and when I pleased. I didn't really want to leave Billy but he told me it was important I get a good night's sleep too, so I did as he asked and slept there, but sat by his side all day. A really friendly female doctor came to see Billy that first morning, and they got underway with blood tests, urine and stool samples, and X-rays. They were testing for Malaria and Dengue Fever, as well as some other tropical bugs I'd not heard of before. First mention of Malaria and I started worrying myself sick! It was a really unpleasant experience not being able to help, and I felt so useless, but Billy was still keeping positive like he always does, and the doctor reassured us that he would probably be ok to be discharged the following day, she just wanted to keep him in for one more night to be sure.
Thankfully we were given the go ahead to leave the next morning, but we still had to come back in a week's time so that we could get all the results of Billy's blood tests and find out what was actually wrong. He was given a 2 week course of antibiotics, which started to clear whatever it was up within 2 days, and I noticed a complete difference in him - it was such a relief to finally have my boyfriend back...
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