50 kms north of Augathella, Qld, AU
"You're not living up to our agreement. I said you can wander over my arms all you want as long as you stay off my face. Don't make me get out the bug headnet again!! You promised!!!!"
I can tolerate the flies anywhere but walking on my face, up my nose, in the corners of my eyes, into my mouth or ears...nope...that's not allowed. I figure if I leave them alone on my arms then they won't be on my face. And how the heck do they keep up with me pedaling at the blistering speed of 6 mph?!?!? Sometimes it looks like they're flying faster than I'm pedaling. Ok. It gets a bit boring pedaling all day and my mind struggles for entertainment do it analyzes things...like the speed of flies.
But I have to say I haven't tired of pedaling through this gorgeous country. There's so much variation of the foliage and the soil. I started to notice a week or more ago this funny looking tree across the landscape. It had a fat trunk that is shaped like a case or bottle and the branches all come out of the top. A Dr Seuss tree, for sure! I even took pictures of it. Then when I got to Roma, I found out they are known in thus area for this tree: the Bottle Tree. It's quite slow growing so I know the ones I saw around town and out in the paddocks are quite mature. I still love seeing them and trying to get a great picture. (Nope, can't post my pics because I took them as a portrait not landscape shot...and they won't load:()
In Mitchell I decided to stay at the campground and what a lovely one it was. Family owned and run. Well maintained. So nicely kept they had Grey Nomads who came back every year. (Grey Nomads are the retirees touring the country pulling their trailers usually. And they are aplenty out here! ). They were the nicest folks. It was so pleasant there, I stayed an extra night. Out behind the campground was an Aboriginal Interpretive trail out to where an old aboriginal community used to be. The whites were in one died of Mitchell creek and the blacks on the other. In town I had lunch with a guy who grew up in Yumba, the aboriginal community. He said it was great fun being there. They'd play ball every Sunday. And fish and swim in the creek. He had to walk to town to school after the government closed down their school. In the 1960s the government, who had set up the community in the '30s and supplied simple small houses (which they expanded on), told them to move off the land and then a few years later bulldozed down their homes. Sad time.
It's a couple of days later, it's 6:30 at night, the sun has set leaving a fiery edge on the horizon, and a new moon just above it. And it's warm...ish. Normally the chill sends me into my tent by now. Spring is in the air!!!
Without clouds, and there hasn't been for weeks, I'm not getting those great full sky sunsets.
Back to the Mitchell campground. The second night was most interesting. There's a fund raiser for children's charities called Variety Bash and some of them overnighted there and not at the showgrounds. This was 130 vintage cars (older than 30) driving from Cairns, through the Outback, and finishing at Fraser Island 10 days later. They got their route instructions in the morning before the took off for the day. They stopped at schools and other venues sharing gifts for the kids. Each day was a different costume. The day we saw them was Santa...300 people all dressed as Santa! Each car has to raise $8500 to participate and then pay for their own food and lodging. They are also fined along the way, so they have to bring extra funds for that. And most do it year after year. I've gotten the idea that there's a lot of fundraising for charities done here. I've been asked many times if I'm doing it for a charity.
It's been a bit if a challenge finding places to put up Spacey, my new Big Sky International Revolution 2P tent. There are a lot of prickly plants when I do find a patch of dirt without grass clumps. I don't want to puncture my new air mattress. ExPed had kindly replaced the replacement I got in NZ. It blew a gasket! Didn't go flat, went fat! But within a very quick time a distributor in Brisbane had one waiting for me at the Morven PO. So either the new one, I rub all around the floor of the tent trying to find anything that might poke through and remove it. One more nighttime chore.
I had a tailwind the day I rode to Augathella. I didn't think I could make it because I spent a lot of time chatting with a local rancher, then some Grey Nomads who stopped over while I was breakfasting. But when the wind switched to my backside and I could get up to the teens per km, I was sailing. It was Saturday and I wanted to get to the grocery store before it closed because I knew it wouldn't be open on Sunday. Pedal. Pedal. Whew! It's only 3:30. What?!? Closed? At noon? Dang! Do I stay 2 nights until it opens Monday or hope there's enough food in that pannier to go another 120 kms? I'll stay the night here and decide in the morning. In the morning it was a go. I always have extra food. What was I worried about?
Back to tonight. It's so quiet. No sounds except the rare car or road train. No light except the sliver of the moon. I'm sitting outside beside Blaze and Spacey and I'm in heaven. Why do I love being in the middle of nowhere all by myself? I keep asking myself that and I can't come up with an answer. It just feels right. Peaceful. Serenity. Home.
Got a couple of good roo shots one day as they crossed the road. They're only out early morning or at dusk so this was a delight.
A rancher I met yesterday said he killed 11,000 of them on his property because they are such a pest. Next he's planning on installing a fence that hopefully will keep them out because the eat too much if the pasture grasses and compete with his cattle. But they're so cute!
And some "a day in the life" shots:
Livin' the life!
BagLady
