Jun 14, 2009

Well after a sometimes noisy night, at times from the odd blue or two in the bar below (no breaking glass) to wheel spins, shouting and noisy motors outside we headed off for an early start and didn't feel too bad about warming the bikes up for a while before we headed off. Ha ha.

We breakfasted briefly with two old timers from Adelaide who had been holidaying in Broken Hill for the week. The older of the two, also the fitter of the two, would have had to have been in his late 80's having served in the navy from1940 to 1946 and who had entertained me by the fireplace last night. He had spent the day on a local mail run most of it on dirt roads. travelling over 500 kilometres with 40 stops for pickups and drops. He was one of 5 paying passengers at $125 a piece. They took their own lunch and had a cuppa made for them by the postie. Seriously having a go. What an inspiration!



A service bell with a difference from the Coomella fuel stop. (The key for the toilets was attached to a mouse trap).

The day started sunny and cold and went to bloody cold and back to moderately cold. Hand grip warmers most of the day back and forth from high to low then once we hit Mildura we got a sprinkle of rain and it warmed up and the warmers stayed on low. The light shower lasted until we got through Irymple and it stopped and returned to sunshine again. We enjoyed our ride and were near enough to the only traffic on the road until we got to Wentworth. The roads were largely straight with big sweeping corners and very nice to ride. Our butts appreciated the movement from one side to another. We also saw the greatest concentration of road kill (all kangaroos) mainly up until Coomella since the Longreach Winton area. Shame to see so many beautiful animals meet their demise. From large to small and colours ranging from a light sandy grey to red and every shade in between.

We also saw a fair few sheep in stretches from Broken Hill and Wentworth and some cattle near Broken Hill. No camels today but a couple of big kangaroos first thing this morning and some emus about 20 kilometres out of Wentworth and large numbers of wild goats throughout the day. These last were largely more road savvy than the kangaroos as we didn't see any of their number amongst the road kill. We also saw a couple of small packs of Major Mitchell Cockatoos lifting off as a group with magnificent white back and top of wings changing in an instant to a soft coral pink under the wings. Beautiful.



The sign outside the loos at the same road house as the shot above.

I was aware as we gradually made our way south that our great adventure is drawing to a close and found myself really soaking up the variable landscape. The red sandy soil with silver grey salt bush. The rolling plains of grasslands with dark green mounds of trees around watercourses and homesteads and then the red sand drifts with little grass and small covering of trees. It all looked and felt great and it somehow seemed fitting that we we're left largely to ourselves to enjoy it. It was also a distraction to the dark grey clouds we were continually approaching then steering away from throughout the trip.

The purpose of our destination today was to catch up with 4 of my cousins and their partners which was a treat. They are the children of the marriage of one of my Mum's cousins to one of my Dad's cousins and literally gave my Dad the dilemma (so he said) 'that a man couldn't even complain about his wife's bloody relations!'. I'm confident that didn't ever stop him if he thought he needed to. We shared lunch together and had a great time catching up. So nice to feel so comfortable amongst them when we have gotten to spend such a short amount of time together over the years. What lovely people they are and what a privilege to share the time with them.

Talk to you tomorrow.



A collective cousin and outlaws shot (Normie being the photographer).