This is from a night earlier in the year when a few friends got together to have a jam at Franklinford...
Monday, 26 December 2011
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Power trip
Day 47. The Gap to The Gap
We've had no power on the laptops or my phone for a few days, so we decided to do a 60km-ish round trip on our bikes to hook up to the grid for a while.
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| You may be taller than me, Nolan.... |
We rode along the shoreline dirt track for 12kms to Balgowan. Now known as 'the town that once was' AKA 'the town soon to be'. Deserted. Pretty much completely. Heard a dog bark and a few cars drove through. The houses were either pretty much dilapidated or brand spanking new and BIG! Definitely a holiday home spot. No shops. And with no cafe in sight, onwards to Maitland.
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| But my arms are longer...if I could stretch them a bit more...maybe... |
It was quite a hill to Maitland! Not a particularly steep one, but a long steady one without a bend in it. Pretty taxing on the old Lily legs. Tim switched on his encouraging-sargeant-major routine for me and we were soon singing away army-style with whatever random rubbish we could make rhyme, to the tune of whatever worked at the time! Time flew, we reached the top of the hill, to find another hill. And another. Etc....Until we reached Maitland, 20kms later.
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| Unstable Cliffs. We've all met them. |
A lovely couple in the cafe let us plug in our laptops and phone while we ate baked potatoes, lasagne, two cheesecakes (one strawberry, one mars bar), coffees, chocolate milkshakes and juices. Sated, stuffed, a bit windy, and three hours later we jumped back on the bikes for the return trip.
Wheeeeeeee! 20kms downhill! Awesome! While it took us about two and a half hours to ride the 32kms there, we took just under an hour and a half to get back. The dirt track between The Gap and Balgowan is more sand than dirt, so lots of skidding and giggling, but we made it back without coming off! High fives all round!
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| I hope they've got erosion insurance |
I asked Tim to make dinner as I'm a lazy wench at times and he made a magnificent pumpkin salad. He'd caramelized the pumpkin in the frying pan with red onion, camembert and mixed seeds. Yum! We sat on the dunes watching the sun set as we ate. Doesn't get much better than that.
Monday, 24 October 2011
Shark! Rock!
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| Look Lily. Not a shark. A rock. No, two rocks, stuck together. |
Day 45. The Gap to The Gap
Lily: SHARK! Tim! I've seen a shark!
What was it doing, Lil?
You know that thing that dolphins do in the water, jumping out. I just saw a fin, but it was a shark fin!
No. That was a dolphin.
Lots of them. According to our wildlife book, a 'common dolphin'. Such a poor name for such an awesome creature. We saw their pod swimming past a few times and took the boats out but didn't manage to get up close, they're quite shy this lot. We had a splash around in rock pools close to shore as it was fairly choppy out there (minor chop, but enough to get me spooked today). It was fun trying to manoeuvre a big green machine around little rock pools though.
A gentle day other than that excitement. A quick stroll to check out the neighbourhood, and a lovely sunset.
Sunday, 23 October 2011
The Gap
Day 44. 23/10/11: Jamestown to The Gap
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| The behemoth. I don't think this photo does justice to its enormousness |
Lily: We've decided we need a break. From the Mawson Trail, that is. There's more to tell, but right now we're both a bit sick of the various injuries we've copped so far and the niggles and pains of past injuries that have revisited us since we've been on the trail. So. A beach holiday and some rejuvenation seems in order!
We've come to The Gap - listed in good ole 'Camps 6' (the guide to free campsites around Australia) with a big tick from them for awesomeness. It's situated on the Yorke Peninsula, on the Spencer Gulf side (for you place name/English history nerds, Spencer Gulf is named after Earl George John Spencer, ancestor of dear old Princess Di).
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| Today's crazy wildlife. It attached itself to Tim's thumb with those spiky little feet. |
It took us a fair while to get down here from Jamestown (Jamestown with its modern shopping conveniences and distinct lack of soul) but we went via Clare, a very lovely town (and named after County Clare, Ireland and slap bang in the middle of the Clare Valley wine region. I didn't buy any wine! Crazy!!) where we had coffee and cake and a good leg stretch before hitting the road for another two hours of driving.
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| The van at The Gap. Note awesome rain-catching tarp set up and Lily fixing up blisters. |
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| Our patch |
Friday, 21 October 2011
Flat out
Day 42. 21/10/11: Manatoo Road to Bundaleer Forest
Lily's bit
Hmmm. Interesting.... Yesterday's feeling fit and strong didn't make an appearance on this morning's ride. We started off in the rain, feeling good. We were heading into another forest and they're always nice. After about a kilometre we reached a big puddle straddling the whole road. Negotiated well. Feeling confident. Around a corner past a ruin of a hut and a reasonable hill stretching up for a few kms in front of us. That's ok. It's wet and my tyres are caked in mud, but this is cool. It's lovely to be out in the rain. Up the hill, slowly. Getting slower. Breathing harder. 'I'm really finding this hard today, Tim', says I. But I'll feel better soon. My legs will wake up and I'll be speedy again. A bit of gravel road to kick off all this mud and I'll be right. 3kms later, the hill still doing its hilly thing...I'm really struggling! But I'm ok with hard, it's probably all the mud caked on my tyres making my bike twice as heavy. It'll get easier.
Umm. No.
'Lil, you've got a flat'. WHAT???!!! There were tears. Of relief that it wasn't just me being unfit? Frustration at being so dim and not noticing? Something like that. I'm impressed at my lack of swearing, actually. That was a moment of pure frustrated, angry, relieved emotion and I did well to keep it together (I think. Tim may have seen it differently).
The tyre wasn't staying inflated, so we did a quick pump up and raced down hill to the van. (I was flat again about half way down, mind.) 6kms on a flat tyre in the mud, uphill, in the rain. I was feeling pretty crappy. So I told Tim to go on without me. It meant he could just run unencumbered by a whinging pom and I'd pick him up in the forest later.
I repacked the van with our muddy bikes and drove to the pick up point. My water bladder broke in my backpack. Soaked. Not my day. A good day for sitting inside the van not doing anything!
We're in Jamestown now. The town with modern shopping facilities. It's a very industrial-rural town. There are a couple of grain silos on the outskirts and shops catering for farmers. It was RM Williams' birth place. RM Williams: the bush outfitter. Clothing for the man-about-farm. But it's pretty soulless. Tim put it well: it's a town that wants to be a city. It's not happy with just being a great rural town, so has car yards and oddly placed sections of paving. No bookshops. No history on show. But I'm very very happy that it has a Foodland. Foodland hummus! AND my favorite muesli! To hell with history! Score!
Tim's bit:
Lily's not a whinging pom. She's a delicate flower having mud thrown at her by Fate and flat tyres. But for me it was great she decided not to ride today. Not for the reason she suggested but because the course was hilly, wet, slippery and varied between muddy 4WD tracks and just invisible paths crossing paddocks covered in long wet grass. It was very slow going and I wouldn't have wanted to do it twice. There were some lovely moments: watching kangaroos bound through long grass is somehow beautiful. It's kind of like the land version of watching dolphins dive in and out of water. Seeing this every now and then lifted my spirits when they were down with my feet, sloshing around in my soaking wet shoes. It felt like a true cross country trail half-marathon, and one I kind of felt like I did well to finish. And I'm not saying "Finish in under such-and-such-a-time" - just finish. I was going to sum it up simply as: "Progress was made" but that probably doesn't suggest how much of an achievement that is some days. I would have held my arms up when I reached the van, but my left shoulder is playing up (weird - all this running and the thing that's really hurting is my shoulder!) but I did manage a good WOOT! and a bit of a YAY! as I met up with Lily.
The best bit about the Jamestown Caravan Park is that a portable ocean liner - a beheamoth of lifestyle travel - the ark Noah bought when he retired to drive around Australia - has parked next to us. The thing is big enough to be a terrorist target. If we were a single french fry, it would be the burger grill. It has been supersized so much it even has an extendable midrift which, after it parked, extended out towards us like a fat man loosening his belt. I was reading at the time, and wanted to yell out: "Whoa there, boy: not too far! Maybe just keep the shirt tucked in, eh?!"
But good showers, good dinner, and hopefully a good night's sleep! I think the next few days I may be reduced again to doing a lot more walking than running, and boasting (honestly) that "progress was made!" I am enjoying it. The harder things bring out something like the joy of having something to really have a crack at. Nature all wet and windy and spooky is cool, too!
(Can I put in a plug for Tim’s book-chatting blog here? Follow the link from our travel blog or go straight to http://booksthatmakeyougohmmm.blogspot.com, then click on “The Invitation” to get the general idea... I still haven’t written anything for it, but will soon!)
Thursday, 20 October 2011
You're only as old as the pig you can smell
Day 41. Laura to Manatoo Road
Tim's bit:
I haven't posted for a few days. I've been struggling a bit, for a variety of reasons. For one, it seems that this process means that every injury I've ever had that hasn't been completely shifted onwards has come back to visit, or in other words, any imbalance in my body... and I'm almost forty, of course I'm not balanced!... As Lily and I have taken to saying: "Hmmm. Interesting."
Today we were up pretty early and away by about 8am, hoping to avoid the heat. It was already 24 degrees at 6am (according to techno-boffin and her phone that knows all things), but thankfully the clouds stuck around and I don't think it got much hotter than that.
Today's ride/run went slowly up, then a swooping but sandy downhill, then slowly up again. All up it was a touch over 19kms. Done by 9:15, changed and turned around by 9:30, it was into the wind for the long steady downhills and one challenging uphill. We were back by 11:30. (Lily, riding, wisely chose to speed away from me, running, over the last five or so kilometres, although the stench from the pig farm didn't seem as bad on the way back as it did on the way out! She was back a bit earlier.) I did feel for the people whose house is set in among the pigs. I bet visitors don't stay as long as they might and the kids always have to go to other houses for sleepovers. They need one of the methane capture setups that the pig farm near Clunes got - turning a negative (the smell of pig-shit never won anyone friends among their neighbours) into a positive, as they now manage to generate enough power to light up a whole town, and they don't smell anymore!
When I got back, I walked into the campsite looking, I guess, like I was a bicycle short of being a cyclist, and was asked by fellow-caravan-park-residents if I'd put it in for a service. I explained the story of what we were doing and they were lovely about it and we talked briefly about how they'd met a girl who was cycling around Australia etc etc. I signed off to go and jump in a cold shower.
How many people apart from me do their best thinking in the shower? (Go on, hands up, I'm counting...) Cold showers may not be the best version, but they do calm down sore bodies, and anyway: two things occurred to me:
(1) I have invisible fences in my head. This may sound a little dramatic, schizophrenic or else just stupid, but living in and out of caravan parks has shown me that the idea of privacy is just a weird fence we put around ourselves and other people in order to... what?... avoid talking to them or being interrupted by them. I guess growing up in a city and then being relatively shy and generally busy trying to do things (mostly obscure, useless things like write stories or run long distances, which I spend my time trying to invest with value by being really busy doing them) I am used to the idea that these fences exist. It's the custom. It's the way cities function. If they didn't, we'd all end up stopping for chats all the time and nothing would get done. People who've been on the road for a long enough time - and that's not that long - tend to lose that sense of time and space. When I stopped to chat, I walked into their circle and stayed for as long as it took for us to have our chat, and this wasn't an invasion of their time or space or privacy. I came away realising that it's probably the people with fences in their heads that are weird, because those fences are, really, just inside my head, even when they're not.
(2) Always check your underpants for grass seeds. They're not comfortable.
That idea of "doing something of value" has been in my head a little bit recently. Running the Mawson Trail is probably less meaningful than one half hour of teaching work. I'm getting fitter; I'm learning a lot about running; I'm hanging out with Lily and seeing new parts of Australia. I do seem to be caught between The Slow Travel Movement (an offshoot of the Slow Food Movement, it emphasises slow, connected, appreciative, attentive travel) and Stop Wasting So Much Time!!!, which I think is called the basic philosophy of the entire 20th Century! We could cover 800kms a day in a car! I could learn about nature by doing a course or just reading the damn internet, and then we could go and make some money and get on with living the god damned dream...
Apart from that, a lot of people seem to respond to us like we're 18 or 20 years old, which I find oddly entertaining. Lots of comments like "Good for you. Do it while you're still young." "...while you still can" as if we have not had jobs or careers or anything before now. It seems to imply that we have a freedom no one over 25 or under 65 has, and since we're not seniors towing a van (lining up the next petrol station with good restrooms and settling for some shade next to the caravan for exercise) we must be kids, which leaves me feeling strangely like I'm too young to be hanging out with the grey-nomads but too old to be getting pissed with the backpackers (who are pretty scarce in these parts anyway)... so we're odd-bods. Apart from the usual anxiety about not fitting into a neat social box, it's nice to have to make it up as we go. Hmmm Interesting.
Lily's bit:
Just a quick one from me... We've had a great day's ride. I am looking forward to getting back into running, but am soooo tempted to keep improving my riding! Feeling fit and strong and seeing daily improvements is cool!
Laura has been a treat, but I'm excited by Jamestown, our next stop. It has "modern shopping facilities", whatever that means (Tim thinks it means there's an eftpos machine in the local shop). I'm hoping for book shops and maybe a good supermarket where I can pick up my favourite muesli. It's the little things that make me happy...
It's raining and forecast to carry on like this for the next couple of days. It's all good. We're warm. We're dry. And I have a bottle of very nice local shiraz to keep me occupied. Yay!
Tim's bit:
I haven't posted for a few days. I've been struggling a bit, for a variety of reasons. For one, it seems that this process means that every injury I've ever had that hasn't been completely shifted onwards has come back to visit, or in other words, any imbalance in my body... and I'm almost forty, of course I'm not balanced!... As Lily and I have taken to saying: "Hmmm. Interesting."
Today we were up pretty early and away by about 8am, hoping to avoid the heat. It was already 24 degrees at 6am (according to techno-boffin and her phone that knows all things), but thankfully the clouds stuck around and I don't think it got much hotter than that.
Today's ride/run went slowly up, then a swooping but sandy downhill, then slowly up again. All up it was a touch over 19kms. Done by 9:15, changed and turned around by 9:30, it was into the wind for the long steady downhills and one challenging uphill. We were back by 11:30. (Lily, riding, wisely chose to speed away from me, running, over the last five or so kilometres, although the stench from the pig farm didn't seem as bad on the way back as it did on the way out! She was back a bit earlier.) I did feel for the people whose house is set in among the pigs. I bet visitors don't stay as long as they might and the kids always have to go to other houses for sleepovers. They need one of the methane capture setups that the pig farm near Clunes got - turning a negative (the smell of pig-shit never won anyone friends among their neighbours) into a positive, as they now manage to generate enough power to light up a whole town, and they don't smell anymore!
When I got back, I walked into the campsite looking, I guess, like I was a bicycle short of being a cyclist, and was asked by fellow-caravan-park-residents if I'd put it in for a service. I explained the story of what we were doing and they were lovely about it and we talked briefly about how they'd met a girl who was cycling around Australia etc etc. I signed off to go and jump in a cold shower.
How many people apart from me do their best thinking in the shower? (Go on, hands up, I'm counting...) Cold showers may not be the best version, but they do calm down sore bodies, and anyway: two things occurred to me:
(1) I have invisible fences in my head. This may sound a little dramatic, schizophrenic or else just stupid, but living in and out of caravan parks has shown me that the idea of privacy is just a weird fence we put around ourselves and other people in order to... what?... avoid talking to them or being interrupted by them. I guess growing up in a city and then being relatively shy and generally busy trying to do things (mostly obscure, useless things like write stories or run long distances, which I spend my time trying to invest with value by being really busy doing them) I am used to the idea that these fences exist. It's the custom. It's the way cities function. If they didn't, we'd all end up stopping for chats all the time and nothing would get done. People who've been on the road for a long enough time - and that's not that long - tend to lose that sense of time and space. When I stopped to chat, I walked into their circle and stayed for as long as it took for us to have our chat, and this wasn't an invasion of their time or space or privacy. I came away realising that it's probably the people with fences in their heads that are weird, because those fences are, really, just inside my head, even when they're not.
(2) Always check your underpants for grass seeds. They're not comfortable.
That idea of "doing something of value" has been in my head a little bit recently. Running the Mawson Trail is probably less meaningful than one half hour of teaching work. I'm getting fitter; I'm learning a lot about running; I'm hanging out with Lily and seeing new parts of Australia. I do seem to be caught between The Slow Travel Movement (an offshoot of the Slow Food Movement, it emphasises slow, connected, appreciative, attentive travel) and Stop Wasting So Much Time!!!, which I think is called the basic philosophy of the entire 20th Century! We could cover 800kms a day in a car! I could learn about nature by doing a course or just reading the damn internet, and then we could go and make some money and get on with living the god damned dream...
Apart from that, a lot of people seem to respond to us like we're 18 or 20 years old, which I find oddly entertaining. Lots of comments like "Good for you. Do it while you're still young." "...while you still can" as if we have not had jobs or careers or anything before now. It seems to imply that we have a freedom no one over 25 or under 65 has, and since we're not seniors towing a van (lining up the next petrol station with good restrooms and settling for some shade next to the caravan for exercise) we must be kids, which leaves me feeling strangely like I'm too young to be hanging out with the grey-nomads but too old to be getting pissed with the backpackers (who are pretty scarce in these parts anyway)... so we're odd-bods. Apart from the usual anxiety about not fitting into a neat social box, it's nice to have to make it up as we go. Hmmm Interesting.
Lily's bit:
Just a quick one from me... We've had a great day's ride. I am looking forward to getting back into running, but am soooo tempted to keep improving my riding! Feeling fit and strong and seeing daily improvements is cool!
Laura has been a treat, but I'm excited by Jamestown, our next stop. It has "modern shopping facilities", whatever that means (Tim thinks it means there's an eftpos machine in the local shop). I'm hoping for book shops and maybe a good supermarket where I can pick up my favourite muesli. It's the little things that make me happy...
It's raining and forecast to carry on like this for the next couple of days. It's all good. We're warm. We're dry. And I have a bottle of very nice local shiraz to keep me occupied. Yay!
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Things that make you go hmmm...and yum and yay
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| Our little spot at Laura Caravan Park. Loving the grass! |
Day 40. Laura
Lily's bit:
Urgh. A shocking night's sleep for Lily. And Tim's foot is giving him a bit of grief, so needs resting. And today it reached some hellish temperature. So we had a clean up van/study/writing/reading/eating ice cream-day instead of a running/riding/hurting/sweating day.
Things of note:
Ice cream - Go the honey over the chocolate orange.
Clean up - Still no sign of my missing fivefinger shoe. Found the other folding chair though.
Free bread rolls - You can always count on them in South Australia; don't bother ordering garlic bread.
Study - Nine bulletin board posts to do in ten days? Do four in one day. Yeah!
Reading - Good. Especially in air conditioned cafes and hammocks while eating ice cream.
Writing - Blogging is a great way to get writing and thinking. About writing and thinking, especially.
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| Bread Roll Appreciation Society Annual General Meeting |
(Can I put in a plug for Tim’s book-chatting blog here? Follow the link from our travel blog or go straight to http://booksthatmakeyougohmmm.blogspot.com, then click on “The Invitation” to get the general idea... I still haven’t written anything for it, but will soon!)
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| Penne in a creamy avocado sauce. So good. |
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