Mid May: Loving Byron and the Grans

3800km later found us rumbling into the misty hills at the back of Byron to the welcoming arms of Ken and Jan. It was all good.

They were thrilled to see their little granddaughter again of course and Uncle Stu gave her a pink bicycle. Ken was the intelligent, patient mechanical wizard to help sort out the alternator and stroke the old Dyna beast back to purring perfection again.

At some point we had to admit that Varsha's 3 month whooping cough wasn't going away, so went to various medicos and herbalists. No asthma or pneumonia, thankfully, but the cough continued. V refused all manner of cough remedies. Very frustrating trying to stuff medicine down the throat of a hysterical 2.68 yr old. Likewise, she developed a nasty sore on her gum above the missing tooth from when I dropped her on her head in the bus. Turns out the root had rotted and was coming out through the gum. Not to worry says the dentist...it probably will heal and then she'll get adult teeth in a few years.

Sigh. I'm sure you can imagine the state of mind Caro and I were in. Nothing like a suffering child to make a person frantic.

And of course it was suddenly time to pack and get on a plane to start hiking around the world.