Kununurra & a bit of the Gibb River Road!

Kununurra

It was Miss T’s birthday the day after we arrived so we had a quiet day planned so she could play with her new horsie Lego. Unfortunately Master J became very sick with gastro and headaches so while Kieren took him to the hospital (there were no GP services available for 5 days) I took the girls out to a gallery for smoothies, devonshire tea and some fish/turtle feeding by the lake. That night we had nachos as Miss T’s dinner request and icecream birthday cake (a novelty for a June birthday down south!) Master J must have been feeling really ill cos he didn’t want to eat any birthday dinner!! Nan & Pa via skype and the rest of our section of the caravan park joined in singing happy birthday to Miss T.

We stayed another day for me to finish EOFY bookkeeping and to see if Master J was getting better. The caravan parks were so full that they didn’t have any availability to stay extra nights.  Master J stopped vomiting and his temperature appeared to decrease so we decided to keep going to El Questro along the Gibb River Road.

El Questro

We got an unpowered site here so we could have a campfire. We set up camp next to a very friendly NT family with 3 girls who we all got on famously with. Over the next couple of days we spent lots of time lounging by the campfire, the girls playing together, working out our solar power issues (thanks a million Tony!!!), and doing some sightseeing to Zebedee Springs and El Questro Gorge. Mr J was ok but still not himself – just content to laze around. One night our friends offered to babysit so we could go out for dinner. This was first time in 2 months that we had had a date night or anytime together without 4 pairs of ears listening in ;) Bliss!

El Questro Gorge where Mr J faded fast. 

On the walk out to El Questro gorge Master J spiked a bad temp and had balance issues as well as a stiff neck. This scared Kieren and I so we cashed in our last night and took off back to Kununurra after a call to the hospital. It was a bit of a rough trip for Master J with all the corrugated roads accentuating his headaches. It felt very remote at this stage. Kieren dropped us off at the hospital a couple of hours later. His temp was now 40.1 and he wasn’t conversing very well. They still thought he had a viral gastro (I did remind them that we were living in a caravan 8m long and NO ONE else had caught it). So they opted to cannulate and give him fluids and take a blood test which was just as well as he was later diagnosed with salmonella septicaemia. He stayed on the ward for another 2 nights and then had to go back in as a day patient to get more IV antibiotics (the bonus of having a dad who can flush cannulas at home).  The time in the ward was very interesting – certainly like no other hospital I’ve ever worked in. There is only one ward. So paediatric rooms were next to birthing rooms, with dementia rooms across the corridor and even an inmate from the local prison being guarded 3 rooms away. The kids visiting their mum who’d just had a baby were riding scooters up & down the hospital corridor. Unique! Doctor Simon and the nurses (Jaime & Kate) who looked after Master J were amazing. We really couldn’t have asked for better! And unlike city hospitals, the carers get a bed and food – how’s that for country hospitality!

IV bound & first TV access in 2.5 months!

So our stay in Kununurra was much longer than anticipated. We were very thankful to the caravan park for fitting us in down the back of their park at the last minute. They checked every day to see how Master J was coming along! We decided not to do the Gibb River Road (even though I REALLY wanted to) due to its remoteness just in case Master J needed further medical attention. So after a few days recuperation, and with promised Telstra reception we drove south.