Our first
day of travel and we definitely had more excitement than was required. We left
West Lakes around 9am, heading for Renmark having a short mandatory stop at the
Truro Bakery on the way. (Yes the Cornish pasty was delicious!) We had decided
to do some fruit and veg shopping at Woolworths in Renmark and then head to
Plushs Bend on the River Murray for a lunch break and if the camp area was
nice, we’d stay the night. It was on the drive out to Plushs Bend that “the
incident” occurred. We were travelling along a bituminised road where the
houses are slightly back from the road. There were no distinct driveways or
gutters or anything. People just drove out onto the road. As we approach a
house we could see a car backing out at a reasonably fast rate. The driver did
not slow down or look to see if anything was driving along the road. I just got
the words “I don’t think..” (was going to say “she’s seen us.”) when we heard a bang and
breaking glass etc. We knew that she had
backed into the side of the van and Rob let out a few very nasty words as we
pulled over. I told him that we’re ok and person wouldn’t have done it on
purpose. We got out of the car and briefly looked at the damage to the van.
Luckily we had about 50 metres to walk back to the vehicle that had caused the
accident and Rob had completely regained his composure by then. An old Italian lady
and her daughter probably aged in her 50s who was the driver got out of the car
and looked at the damage to her car which was pretty bad. We checked to see
that they were both OK and then the older woman’s husband came out from the
house. The younger woman, Maria, started to cry and Rob put his arm around her and
said that we’re all OK don’t worry. The older woman and man didn’t speak much English
at all but the older woman called someone on her phone as Rob tried to get some
sense from the driver. She said she was feeling a bit dizzy from shock. Anyway[H1] a short time later another car
pulled up and it was a guy called Jo who was the husband of the younger woman.
By this time she was lying prostrate on the ground, like she fainted but she
hadn’t because she was wailing! Jo said
she’ll be fine, don’t worry about her and started to sort out all the details and
insurance stuff with Rob. Soon after he said this, she made a miraculous
recovery and stood up. Her mother then had to brush all the leaves and grass
off her daughter. There was fair bit of debris all over the road from the woman’s
car so I managed to get a broom from the old man and tried to sweep it off the
road. We then continued on with our journey to Plushs Bend and decided to stay the
night as it is a truly beautiful spot despite the cool weather. Rob had to do
some minor repairs to the van but we should be able to continue on and can have
all the bits fixed when we return home.
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