Stranded! ... in Yamba 🚗

Earlier this year I decided to go on a little self-initiated writer’s retreat. Working from home is certainly convenient but it can also be quite distracting and isolating so to set myself up for the year ahead I decided to get away for a few days. Since acquiring an accessible van a couple of years back, I have been enjoying road trips, getting to see and experience places I never otherwise would’ve. One road trip down to the Hunter Valley in late 2022, saw me spend a night at the Angourie Resort just outside Yamba in Northern NSW and their 2-bedroom wheelchair accessible villa we stayed in struck me as the perfect space for writing. Fast forward 18-months, my friend Lucy, support worker LJ and I set off on the 3-hour drive in my wheelchair accessible van - the ever trusty Toyota Noah! Or so we thought.

Heavy rain pelts down on our car’s windscreen driving down to Yamba.

Heavy rain pelted down on us for much of the drive there but thankfully we arrived safely to Angourie in good time. Now it was time to set ourselves up for 3-days of productivity; mainly to prove everyone wrong who didn’t believe we were going for actual work purposes and were just going on a friends trip away. Okay, there was some wine had but that’s all part of the creative process, right?

Much to everyone else’s disbelief, we were in fact quite disciplined through the day, even despite a kid in a neighbouring villa deciding he wanted to say hello about 10 minutes into our first writing session, yelling out “Hey Neighbour!” through the window. Sorry kid, we’re here to work. The evenings were more relaxing, cooking dinner or driving into town to go out to eat.

Not a bad sight after a mid-week dinner at Sandbar Restaurant, Yamba.

Our last day arrived and I was determined to head home feeling satisfied with the progress I had made so we settled into our final writing push. Around lunchtime LJ decided to duck into town in search of a bookstore so off she went, leaving Lucy and I to continue writing at the villa.

A little while later, I saw my phone ring with LJ’s name flashing on the screen. I had a strange feeling I knew what she was going to say. “Hello?” She informed me that thankfully she was okay, but my car however was not. Keep in mind this was a 20-year-old car that had little quirks and made all kinds of fun noises. Having recently gotten it serviced though, I felt confident it’d be able to make the road trip safely.

Sadly though, after being reviewed by a mobile mechanic it became clear that poor Noah wasn’t going to be returning to Brisbane with us, at least not anytime soon. This brought up two problems to solve; One, what to do with the car and two, how on Earth do I, who requires a wheelchair accessible vehicle, get back to Brisbane the next day??

The mood of the villa shifted from the leisurely pace of creative writing to the pressure of logistical problem-solving, something that many people with disabilities are well-versed in. Thankfully I had two people with me who jumped into problem-solving mode alongside me and I wasn’t going to have to do this alone. Whilst I started calling car rental places, LJ was busy calling car yards, and Lucy was holding my emotions together.

After many calls to some very helpful (and some not so helpful) people, I found an accessible van I could rent the next day - yay! The issue was… it was located in Brisbane - damn! “Would you like me to go ahead and book that for you?” said the helpful lady from Hertz. I’ve found in my experience, when it comes to accessible travel its good to research some alternative options or back up plans in case something doesn’t go to plan. For example, if I travel somewhere either here or internationally, I’ve taken to researching wheelchair repair places just so I know who to call if something should happen. In our situation, I was familiar with some of the rental car companies that offered wheelchair accessible vehicles so I knew who to reach out to. Although next time, I might go a step further and call them ahead of time to see if they often have stock available or if they had other recommendations for who to call should problems arise.

With no other options closer to us or available that weekend, I gave the go ahead to book the car in Brisbane. Our next issue, who do we ask to make the three hour drive down to Yamba to rescue us?

I will say, I’m extremely fortunate to have a very supportive family and so I called the person who you want in your corner when it comes to problem-solving, my brother-in-law Felix. “How’re things going?” he asked when I called. “Well… funny you should ask.” I explained the situation which prompted a very methodical checklist of questions to make sure we had thought of everything, which in fact we had. Thankfully, and generously, he agreed to collect the car the next morning from Brisbane airport and drive down to us; just a casual 6-hour return trip to take up his Saturday! The extraction part of the process was underway. Now what to do with my car in Yamba? With the amount of work needed to get the car roadworthy again and the struggle it would be to source the needed parts for it, I decided it was not worth my time and money so poor Noah would be sold off for cash, ironically to a Queensland-based dealer so in fact the car did return to Queensland, just not with us.

We had done all we could to sort out a plan, now all we could do was salvage our final night of the trip and prepare for what I dubbed “the extraction operation” the following day.

Waking up at 5am the next morning I laid in bed, going through the situation, making sure I had thought of everything. Part of me felt stressed, but part of me felt proud that we were thrown for a loop but had been able to handle things and put a plan in place that would still get us home as scheduled, as long as it all went to plan that is. Thankfully it did!

After vacating the villa at 11am (thanks Angourie Resort for the late check-out) we moved our luggage to the main lobby and just a little while later our knight is shining armour arrived on his ‘Kia Carnival’ shaped horse. We piled everything in and headed over to Noah’s resting place.

Saying goodbye to Noah… thanks for the good times!

There she was, sitting so innocently in a disabled parking spot just off the round-a-bout which she decided to call it quits on. After dropping Felix off for a quick coffee catch up with a family friend and dip in the ocean we went about clearing out the car, discovering all kinds of things I thought had been lost forever. As LJ and Lucy kindly gathered my belongings, I sat there staring at the car and reflected on the freedom it had brought me over the 8 years we had had it. This car had allowed me to visit friends, say yes to job opportunities that took me to all kinds of locations, and most of all, it brought me a level of convenience and autonomy that I had never experienced before. I felt oddly emotional leaving it, essentially abandoning it in Yamba but Felix said it best as we walked away from the car; we were leaving the past behind us and moving into the future, whatever that may be.

Packed up and ready to return home to Brisbane, minus one car of course.

We piled back into the rental car and were off on our journey back to Brisbane, taking one last look at the past behind us. This experience taught me a number of things like when things go awry, I have an amazing support network around me and that it’s okay to ask for help, I can handle problem-solving under pressure, and lastly, I was reminded to enjoy being in the moment. Whilst we could’ve easily described that trip as disastrous, we still were able to enjoy our time away and achieve productivity that had we stayed home, likely would not have happened.

Overall, my takeaways from this experience were to gratefully lean on those around you in trying times, be prepared with backup plans, stay present and enjoy the moment, and most of all, leave the past behind you or as it turns out… in Yamba.