Tim is awesome!!!

Day 22. 1/10/11: Merna Mora to Modystiak Dam

We're in week 2 of our adventures on the Mawson Trail and we've run almost 150km of it. And ridden almost 150km of it, too. Today was  a lovely slow start. We left the unit in Merna Mora around 9am after having a relaxed breakfast and pack up and set off on our ride for the day, aiming for about 20k. 

Still windy? Yep, hella windy. Headwindy. And mostly uphill on the main road to Hawker with trucks and cars zooming past. The Trail cut in to a dirt track after about 11k though and the wind dropped a bit. But it's been raining quite a bit lately. And when it rains, dirt turns into mud. It's like a marvel of  science, eh? So Lily got a bit bogged down by that and struggled through the next 8kms of uphill, sandy and muddy track. Tim, on the other hand, is awesome. And here's just a few reasons why:

1. Tim's highlight of the day? The bike ride. All about Patience Persistence and Appreciation today. So despite having to nurse me up the hill on the main road and listen to me huffing and grunting through the mud, he really enjoyed the ride and the scenery and the rhythm of it. He really does the Patience part remarkably well and makes me feel much less guilty for being a lot slower than he is.  And reminds me to Appreciate, too!

2. Tim has given Lily his lovely red bandana so she can have a snot rag to hand. Lily really ought to take a hayfever tablet once in a while but Tim's bandana gets wrapped around her wrist for handy on-the-go snot wiping.

3. Tim pointed out that for the last few days we've been properly into the rhythm of what we're doing. Where before we'd be a bit 'hmm how far are we running today? What does that mean? How is it going to feel?' We're now up to the stage where we're more 'Right. 20k? Yep. Cool, let's go.' We know what it's like. We get into it. It feels fantastic. We do it a few days in a row and then we have a rest day. Cruisy. He's totally right and it was a lovely, encouraging thing to hear.

4. He picked an awesome camp site and then took me for an explore to an old bridge that had been washed away in floods. We clambered up the cliffs of the creek and got a lovely view of the creek bed, bridge and sunset.

5. He chopped all the vegies for dinner and did all the dishes. I put the stuff in the pan, stirred it around a bit and served it up, while Tim read to me, but I get made to feel like the awesome one. Nope. Tim is.

#6 Taking time out from
running to do a spot of yoga

Anyway, we finished the ride after about 19k in the end as we came across some handy trees for shade and to chain the bikes to. We stopped for an extended morning tea break and hit the dirt for the run back to the van. We'd ridden through a field of sweet brown cows on the way in, before the turnaround point, and we could see them all gathered at the gate waiting for us to come back. So cute! But wait...

Lily: Uh, Tim? Isn't that a bull?

Tim: Can you tell because of the big penis hanging down between his legs?

Lily: Hee hee! Um, but is it safe for us to go back through there?

Tim: Yeah, course. It'll be fine.

Through the gate we go. Gently tiptoeing through the field of cows and one rather horny looking bull.

Lily: Uh, Tim? I'm wearing a red bandana around my wrist.

Eek!!! I shoved my wrist under my tshirt and we crept through the herd. I think old bully was more interested in young daisy, but you never know!

Free camp site at Hookina Creek. Great tree.

The rest of the run was less eventful, but ace. We talked about books, movies and songs with a road or travel theme. These association games are a great way to make the time zoom along! When we got back to the main road we were passed by lots of encouraging, tooting cars and had our first person stop to make sure we were ok! People are lovely!

Ride

Time (hr:min:sec):

Speed (kph):

Distance (km): 19.2

Run

Time (hr:min:sec):

Speed (kph):

Distance (km): 19.2