13 October 2023

After a nice snug evening in my glamping dome I headed off at 7:45 to try to beat the heat. It was pretty chilly at that hour! But I did see a kingfisher (or the local equivalent) by the river. My glam pod had a balcony which overlooked it.

I was expecting a nasty morning of climbing up a never ending gravel road but it turned out to be not as bad as I remembered from last time. I think the tarmac had been extended since then. I have a memory of hours grinding up gravel roads in the heat. The tarmac was at a gradient that I could cope with so I slowly wound my way up through some really beautiful countryside for 1 3/4 hours.

After that it was back to business as usual through forest. Again my memory failed me. I recalled mostly downhill but it was actually some up and down and winding about but through some quite dense bush and trees. Very nice but quite tiring.

And instead of spending all day not seeing anybody I spent some time in a remote picnic area in the forest chatting with a group of ladies who were off for a few days of hiking the Bibbelmun track, the walking trail and precursor to the Munda Biddi. They were amused by the difference between walking and cycling and, as ever, asking how hard cycling was. Very much not for the faint hearted….

I have mentioned all the wonderful forest smells before – cigar boxes, eucalyptus, popcorn and a couple of less pleasant ones, but today I got the occasional waft of one of those spices you put in Chinese or Indian cooking. Very odd, quite made me want a curry!

Anyway, I got to Donnelly Mill towards the end of the cooler part of the day (about 25C today) and sat outside their cafe/ shop eating a very unhealthy burger with an egg and some bacon. And some token lettuce and tomato. Though given my calorie burn I don’t think it will have caused me any harm!

You have to keep an eye on your food here. It’s an old logging village which has been turned into a fairly basic holiday village. That means that there are loads of tame kangaroos, emus and smaller birds all over the place. And if you don’t keep an eye on your food a magpie will grab it!

And tonight is being spent in a bunk room in the old schoolhouse. Cheap but functional.

Hopefully tomorrow will also be an early start as I’d like to do the next two stages in one day as I did last time. That would put me in a town when the temperatures get too high for a couple of days. Ideally somewhere air-conditioned……

So critter of the day has been suspended for today as it would be too easy with all the tame ones about. But I am hoping I can snap a blue wren for you soon. So blue it’s hard to believe.

Instead, we have bizarre sight of the day. Miles up in the hills was a property with a lovely lake in a grassy meadow. And guess what? Two pedalos! You can imagine the conversation, ” you know what this lake is missing…..?” Where would you even start looking