ALBANY - POPULATION: 33,650

ALBANY MAIN STREET

MONDAY 9 - TUESDAY 10.12.2013: Only caravan park options so spent the night at Albany Holiday Park - back to reality! W-E-L-L, where does one begin to describe our mother of misadventures! Spent the day at Albany - Shayden had finished his hair cut, stopped at the recycle centre to drop off the gas cylinder that had died, picked up a planter box for the Christmas herbs and topped up on everything, with the final stop at BCF. A young chap suggested we stay at Torbay Inlet. Found the area and drove in, but there were limited options for motorhomes. Made the decision not to stay and turned to head back to the highway. Drove around the tree and as we turned the middle section of the driver’s side roof wedged against a large branch. As the driver, Sybil decided to incur further damage by trying to drive out! ‘Poodle Palace’ was thoroughly wrapped round the tree.

After surveying the damage and being physically ill, a plan of attack was implemented. Not a soul was around at the time of the incident (4.00pm), no telephone or internet reception. The SAT phone cobwebs were brushed off, the “distructions” located and the great telethon commenced. Must mention that time is B-I-G money on the SAT phone and every call made was put on hold! Fire Brigade, Duty Ranger, SES and Police were rung – phone numbers were provided for us to follow up on. Rang the first number – Harvey World Travel – the lady was very helpful, but not the most appropriate for the situation! No satisfaction was gained other than we knew that the Police knew where we were! A poor man driving back from taking his dog for a swim had to stop when Sybil flung her body on the ground in front of his car.  Matt Hancock surveyed the scene, let the tyres down and tried to reverse out, but no success. Matt said that he would return in the morning to inflate the tyres and bring a ladder. We settled into the somewhat lopsided motorhome for the evening. 6.00pm Murray Swarbrick from the Albany Council (the only organisation in Australia that we had not contacted), arrived to assess the situation – help would arrive in the morning. A fellow traveller arrived somewhat later and made the intuitive observation that “did you know that your tyres were flat?” Yes, and that is not our only issue – did not even notice the tree embedded into the motorhome!