Day 20 150 days to go. Distance: today 156km total 1838km. It’s 7pm Thursday 26/ 7/2012 (Rest stop 20km east of Kynuna). Rube and I are now under the stars and crescent moon in such a beautiful part of the globe. We’ve just watched the sunset which was an hour long show of bliss. There’s some clouds on the horizon tonight adding to the contrast of colors between the blazing reds. I set up camp and made a cuppa and just took it all in watching the silhouette of bugs against the sky. There’s grasses along the barb wire fence by our campsite and it’s alive now with crickets rubbing their legs in the cool evening. Deep breath…….. mmmmm delish! I look up to the velvet sky and stars growing in brilliance. Life’s pretty dam fine isn’t it?
There’s two other vans parked here, a couple from hobart and another family from Vietnam. I met the father, Long and this is their second time in Australia and loving the outback. My word indeedy!!! I’m so privileged to belong to this place and share it with so many others also in awe of it. Long was telling me of their travels in Tibet and South America. He reckons the Uguizzi falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina makes Niagara falls look like a backyard sprinkler. He said its the most spectacular natural wonderand its a must on anyones bucket list of travel destinations. There’s one to add to the future ‘must sees’!!
We’ve done our longest stint today at 156km and very chuffed with ourselves. We go through to McKinley tomorrow at about 100km and that’s made up one day which is good to have up the sleeve. This morning while packing we were visited by Leona, Brian and Richard also staying at the campsite. They were so excited about our challenge and each through in donations totaling $36.10. I also met Bob at a rest stop during one of our breaks and he chucked in $5. That brings our cash donations in 20 days to $340.35 with 22 oaths how very cool yay!! They leant me their Niko pen and I have drawn our route on the trailer sign and marked Sandgate, Brisbane with a start/finish dot.
About 10km out of Winton we came across two lads driving from Darwin to Melborne in ‘Roxanne’ a Toyota station wagon painted in the best hippy deco. One caption said, ‘Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.’ I like these words allot. The lads were really fun, Bjorn from Sweden and Jason from Brazil. Bjorn has been traveling in Australia just short of 2 years and his visa runs out soon. He’s already planning his next trip out. He was telling me about his cycle adventure through Swedan on an old fix speed army bike. He was a real character and needs to be on the stage. Jason cut his own didjereedoo (can’t spell!!) in Darwin and is now teaching himself how to play it. He’s been shown the art and is still working on his breathing to get the sounds out. Both lads were really quirky and squeezing cool experiences out of Aus. Rube wanted her picture taken with Roxanne, ‘just us girls’ she said. They hit it off straight away giggling like school girls about who knows. Now she wants her own email. Jason said that Roxanne is his foundation so reliable and solid. She’s his even keel as he’s a bit all over the shot. Rube said she’s the one full of super mischief and keeps our day entertaining with naughtiness. How very true. I do love my girl!!!!
The scenery today started and ended with cattle grazing country, open pastures with sporadic water holes, windmills and the occasional tree. Each of these would have a herd of cows hanging out discussing make up tips and world peace. The land had barbed fencing and at each picket there were tuffs of grass that looked like pom poms. They were so cute and dotted the roadside for kilometers. The land changed dramatically and briefly about half way with rocky bare hills weathered and sculptured. They looked so Arizona against the bluest of skies and cotton ball clouds. They made the best pickies. We stopped to smell the wild flowers that grow in amongst the roadside grasses. They have tiny, delicate petals and there are yellow, pink, blue and purple varieties. They feel like early spring and make us smile. There were patches of low lying native trees that were a metropolis of finches ‘beep, beeping.’ We stopped and watched them so busy and important doing finch business. It still surprises me how alive the vastness is!! Hawks are a constant being drawn to the road kill. Their favorite delicacy is pig remains. It’s quite eerie to be cycling and see their shadow on the road and know they’re circling overhead checking us out. Rube calls up, ‘we’re not road kill!!’ and they move on with their progressive diner 🙂 It’s been another awesome day and I totally have the starvs so it’s time for dinner and serious zzzz’d. Talk soon x
The crescent moon
smiles at the stars
with a twinkle in his eyes.
He knows he looks
his Sunday best
for the outback folk below.
It’s a velvet sky of dreams
and wild imagination.
Only the moon and stars
share my thoughts and
I spot a wry smile
from the handsome moon.
shecyclesolo 