8 October 2023

Loooong nights sleep, lazy start and a visit to the site washing machine. Be nice to have some clean clothes again!

Last night was spent in the pub drinking cold beer. Lots of it. And eating a steak. Also chatting with a couple of guys from Victoria (hope that’s right) who are also doing the trail but are sleeping in their tents on the same site as me. I needed a proper bed after an uncomfortable night the previous day. Also needed Aircon to cool me down!!! And I elected to take a day out as I was a bit frazzled after yesterday.

So, Collie. A coal mining town – named after a bloke, not the mining. Last time you could opt to take a shortcut and bypass it. Most advice I got said to do that. However, I guess the Munda Biddi Trail Foundation, in the spirit of being good neighbors, have elected to delete the bypass in order to drive business into the town. They have made an effort with a mining museum (not much bigger than a shed) a glitzy tourist centre and some old railway bits and pieces. The town centre, for want of a better description, was mostly concrete and hot even though it has cooled down since yesterday. It has a big Woolworths supermarket – if you can find the entrance – and some uninspiring cafes. Or two pubs which I’d try to avoid at midday on a rest day!

However, the tourists seem to love it as there was a continual stream of large four wheel drives dragging monstrous off-road caravans. Got to wonder what state the contents would be in after a day on the corrugations on the Tannami track for instance? Also lots of kids on mountain bikes presumably off to explore the local mountain bike parks.

I just found a frozen solid bottle of beer in the freezer compartment of my fridge. I’m not sure what the outcome will be but I’m currently defrosting it in the hope it will be drinkable later….

In lieu of ‘critter of the day’ I have ‘double take of the day’. Look at the aisle sign in Woolworths.

“Cat food, insecticides, Manchester.”

I suppose I could have asked but the answer would probably have been something mundane….

Oh, a footnote. Have you noticed the ‘leave a reply’ or follow boxes at the bottom of each entry? It would / might be interesting to hear what people want to hear more about. Obviously questions about why there aren’t any pictures of snakes will be ignored!