Like November back home, the cold weather has come. Only it stays warm during the day. Sun goes down, heat goes with it. Borrowed layers of fleece and long pants from Annette. Wool socks on my feet.
A shift.
A change.
A cooling.
One week rest at a sort of half way point. Between where I am going. And where I started. Albion, Victoria. Melbourne. 31 days ago. Waking at what seemed an early hour then. Dark. Panniers on bike already. 6am. Julia and Hayden in their robes- frazzle-haired, sleepy eyed. Hugs to say goodbye.
31 days ago.
Train to Bairnsdale where the feel of the trip got set. At Flinder's St Station. Platform 12. When I met a woman who I talked to for most of the three hour train ride.
About children's books.
About grief and loss.
About the way we live our lives.
31 days ago.
When I still noticed nearly every kilometre gone by. When I glanced over my shoulder more. Side to side. Still getting used to this thing I was doing.
31 days over hills into valleys. Friendly fellow campers.
Rain came. Tendinitis and the coast.
In and out of quiet side roads. National park campgrounds.
Keeping more and more to myself. Further north. Into Congo for rest and musical treats.
North. Busier streets. Fellow campers not so friendly. Maybe me not so friendly.
And then Pip. Wombarra. A dear friend to stay up late laughing and talking with. Talking past the surface. Past the middle. Into the place of fuel for me.
Pip to Celine.
Friends friends friends. Never will I underestimate the power of beautiful, loving, supportive friends.
31 days.
Another train.
And a fellow cyclist met on a three minute ferry ride. Eye contact made. held.
Dmitri! Riding the same way as me!
But about 2x as fast.
Ferry disembarked, we sat in the wind, at a picnic bench by the water. All exclamation marks over solo touring:
the mood swings!
the talking to ourselves!
the food!
the mood swings!
the laughter!
the insanity!
He'd already ridden 130+ k's and his day was ending.
3pm and I'd spent the morning in Sydney with Celine and Taihel. Ridden 1km from the Newcastle train station to the ferry.
Day beginning.
31 days.
From my love of central NSW into fear.
Fear.
Fear.
Kelsey Maloney.
Meet a snake bigger than you.
Cars and trucks too.
Bigger than you.
$55 caravan park campsites turned down.
Ritz. Posh. Attitude. Of touristy, coastal northern NSW towns.
Ride. Ride. Farther.
Leaving something.
Going towards…
Something.
Warm shower.
A bed.
Hosts telling stories while stirring spanakopita filling. Riding with me into the next town.
Ride. Ride. A short day? No, keep going.
Flat, river road rides.
Horses.
Cows.
Birds on wires.
All in time.
To Glenugie. To here. For now.
One week resting. Mid way. Half way.
One week and a friend from the Kimberley. Nestled in among a patch of subtropical rain forest.
Hands in garden soil, tugging roots of tiny weeds.
Five types of honey eaters up in the trees:
Lewin's
White Cheeked
Brown
Yellow faced
And blue faced.
And the scarlets I missed. Saw a streak of red flow in to the blooming paperbarks. Lost in there. Missed it.
But a cattle dog. Rowdy and getting reprimanded hourly by Annette.
But a cat. Grey with a split lip and a puffy tail.
Chasing the dog in the paddock as the sun goes down.
Bats in twilight and the moon growing fatter.
Waiting on letters from the States yet to come.
Interlude.
Cause now….one days ride from Queensland.
A place that looms ahead as:
Massive
Mostly empty away from coast
Crocodiles up north
With only crap roads!
But what will it really be?
A warm showers host three days ride away says, "watch out for the red haired copper here, in this little town, who hates cyclists."
But what will it really be?
Probably not as scary as I've made it out to be.
It will be cold in the Great Dividing Range. At least in the mornings.
There will be hills.
There will be beauty and most likely some struggling too.
And me. I'll still be me. Continuing on.
Letting go of five nights of bicycling dream anxiety.
Me. hugging Annette goodbye.
Going back to my own company. My own rhythm.
the mood swings!
the songs sung every morning!
the talking to myself!
the in my tent, asleep by 730!
31 days. From Melbourne to the northern edge of New South Wales.
32 (ish) days to go. Through an Australian state I've never before set foot in.
Queensland, I'll be good to you. You be good to me.
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