Laughing at farts: I blame my mother.

Day 35. Wilmington to Melrose

Tim's bit:

Last night's camp site at Wilmington.
Lily is trapped inside the hammock.

I had a bad night's sleep. At first I couldn't get to sleep because I hadn't stretched and my legs, in particular, were still tight and because I was frustrated about not doing enough writing, about me being worried about not doing enough writing etc. Stupid stuff that happens when I'm already tired... Then this morning I woke up from a dream which had three parts. In the first part, my brother died. In the second, I was working in a role where I was supposed to know something about plants. I was embarrassed by a nine year old boy who answered a question I patronisingly asked him astoundingly well, then asked me questions which revealed just how little I knew and that I had was utterly out of my depth. Then I was working on a day when everybody was required (it felt like Solo Day at Clunes) and I knew I wasn't capable both because my brother had died and because I didn't know what I was doing. I wanted to lie down and sleep, but knew I couldn't get compassionate leave or anything like that because everyone was required. I woke up thinking that today would be a good day to have off.

More yummy flesh for the man-eating hammock

But then I started moving, and a storm started rolling in, and I thought about the "guidebooks" I've been reading. Maybe guidebooks is the wrong word. Anyway, I've been reading a couple of "how-to" books on writing and running recently, and every book I've ever read on writing says you should write every day. Even if it's just one sentence, a fragment of an idea, a cool phrase, a mishmash of two half-thougts on a scrap of paper: write something. A book on running I read recently said, if you don't feel like running, just do a fifteen minute run. If, after fifteen minutes, you still don't want to run, fine. Stop. But just go out and see. So I decided to get out and have a trot.

The idea of running in a storm seemed like a good one. It got me going, at least, but the storm never really burst while I was still running.

Lily was a great support crew, again. Once we'd decided that the blister treatment she did yesterday had worked, she was into writing the course out and getting us going. I don't know if many people have ever seen this side of Lily: some may know that she laughs when people fart, but I now know that she also laughs when, while pinching and lancing a blister on the bottom of my foot, she gets a spit of blister-juice first on her chest and then on her cheek! There's no hesitation or "ew gross" just straight "how funny is that?!" laughter. Amazing.

We were visited by possums in the night. Cute but stinky.

Anyway, run was good and flat. Tired legs but cruising along slowly, thinking that I was aiming to cover about 29kms today. Stopping every 7kms for a drink and a catch-up seems to work a treat. 35-40 minutes seems like a nice amount of time for a solo jog. Repeat times four and the day is done. Excpet that after 14kms, exactly the same scenario as yesterday. Blister's back. So we decided to stop for the morning, treat it, and maybe come back in the afternoon. I felt okay about having got out and done something (my 15 minutes plus a bit) anyway.

I jumped in the van and we headed into Melrose, which is lovely! It has a great feel and a very happy mountain biking scene. We stopped in at a cool cafe (Bluey Blunstone Blacksmiths Cafe and B'n'B) then went up to check out the mountain bike shop. It was the nicest looking shop I have seen in South Australia, with cool gear and a great atmosphere. Friends were in there with pets and chats and hugs were being passed around while the lady came over to serve us. So we signed up for a community ride tomorrow, which follows the Rail Trail from Wilmington to Melrose, which will be opened as a bike trail tomorrow! So it'll be us and about 40 locals riding 23kms (or something like that, which is way shorter than the 42 boring dirt road kms of the Mawson!) and then we'll have a barbecue in the town park, called Paradise Park.

The courtyard of the Bluey Blunstone Blacksmith's Cafe.
An old blacksmith's, funnily enough formerly owned
by a chap called Bluey Blunstone.

After that, we quickly checked out a bit of town, including a swing bridge, which Tim made a pathetic attempt at riding over. But all in good fun. And then back to the Showgrounds where we're camped, to watch an amazing storm gather itself up and come over the top of Mt Remarkable. Dinner tonight will be back in town, then hopefully a better night's sleep, and tomorrow we'll see what happens!

Lily's bit:

So we've signed up for a ride tomorrow, which sort of goes against my 'stop doing stuff and fix yo foot, Lilsta' mantra. But it sounds like a wicked cool thing to do! It'll be ace meeting and riding with new people (although, I'm sure they don't think they're particularly new!).  There does seem to be a great crew of bikey-types in town.

Looking relaxed, feeling hungry,
out the back of the BBB Cafe

This afternoon's storm has been mostly low rumbles with a few distant flashes of lightening. We had fun trying to put up a tarp and watch it flap around madly in the wind. I bravely ventured over to the bathroom just as the storm was breaking and hobbled back to the van as quickly as I could. Which seems to have made my heel hurt quite a lot. Twit! But we're tucked up inside now. The wind's all windy and a second big storm cloud has just popped its head over the mountain. We'll snuggle up here for a few more hours and then go check out the pub. I'm hoping there will be something other than chips and salad on the menu! And maybe we can meet a few more locals or other travelling types. It feels like the kind of place where the kind of people I might want to meet might be hanging out, anyway!

Melrose only has a population of 431, yet has two pubs, a primary school and kindy, some great looking tennis courts and a bowling green, a couple of cafes, an awesome bike shop and a few other gift-type shops. I can't help but compare it to Clunes. There is something about a small community like this that I'm attracted to. People are more happily reliant on others: for conversation, friendship, child care. Exchanging ideas, food, tips on making pottery. Welcoming outsiders. Putting their heads together to find ways to improve the heart of the place (Booktown, the Melrose Fat Tyre Festival...). It's pretty cool to rock up in a town and not two hours later have a local invite you to their community ride, anyway!

Tim attempting to ride the swaying swing bridge

Run

Time (hr:min:sec): 1:32:20

Speed (kph): 9.18

Distance (km): 14.13

Watching the storm clouds appearing
from behind the mountain. Pretty cool.