Wandering Time

Cardwell

Been slow to leave Cardwell. Bruises on my legs needed time to heal. The calmness and scenery have also played their part..

I won't miss the sand flies though. They are well fed now.

On the road again, Cardwell

Well, 5 hours later, I'm back where I started in Cardwell.

The day before rode over a hill to see two cyclists on the road! Wow.. Need to catch them. And I did for a bit. But I think they didn't like my music, and soon pulled away. We met up again and spent the night at a caravan park in Cardwell. They are riding for Break the cycle campaign 2015 . Great stuff. We talked long into the night. Was really glad that we'd chanced to meet up.

We rode out next morning, but my destination was Long Pocket. Will and Safi were off to Ingham. Unfortunately the "road" to Long Pocket closed in 1881, and is now a very rocky walking track. Never letting that stop me, I spent an hour pushing up hill before admitting defeat having covered less than 1km. Running out of water also, and pretty stuffed, battered and brused, I returned to Cardwell for the night.

The lyrics from the Toby Keith song were running in my head;

'Now my body says, "You can't do this boy" But my pride says, "Oh, yes you can I ain't as good as I once was Thats just the cold hard truth'

Maybe it wasn't a wise decision to have tried that. Now I'm bruised and sore. And will have to take it easy for a while to recover. I've also reconsidered my plan to head to Charters Towers by a similar route, that would have involved much much more climbing.

Tourist time out west

Struth!

Not caught up on all my posts yet. And I'm getting ready to shoot through. Just been just off playing tourist for a bit in the past week.

Headed out west. Stopped to watching the Savannahlander pulling in at Almaden, the end of the line.

Then onto Chillagoe for a walk about the rocks and ruins. And a surprise catch up with Stuart and Thomas of baking fame back in 2012 on the Great Central Road. They were travelling with Robet. Bit of a shock for Thomas, yacking away in the beer garden of the pub, talking all about me when I walked in, sat down and heckled him.

Not surprising he didn't recognise me out of my cycle gear. He'd only ever seen me like this. Impossible to know if I had hair, let alone style and colour.

Stayed an extra day, eating delicious bacon and egg burgers made by Andy at the Chillagoe General Store and catching up. We had planned to meet and cycle up north together, but I couldn't wait for them, and arrived about when they set off from Charleville. Was hoping to still meet up with them and had emailed, but not heard back. Not surprising as reception being iffy out that way.

Before finally getting to the reason for the trip; a camp draft near Dimbulah .

Separate out the cow from the pack and keep it up near the gate.

Then chase it around the paddock. Okay. Was a bit more to it than that. The cows conspired to frustrate the novices. The experienced riders made it look easy. Mostly. Sometimes the cow seemed to know that the exit was at the other side of the paddock, and made a beeline straight out the gate. One didn't want to play at all, and jump clean over the fence.

Lots of cowboy hats and boots, horses and cows. All well sprinkled with fine brown dust.

Australian Slang:

Struth

exclamation of surprise.

Shoot through

leave, usually to avoid or escape from someone or something.

Yacking

non stop talking.

Comments:

Date: 2015-07-29 00:45

Author: John Oliver

Hi Megan,

Really enjoyed this post. The links scattered throughout were all interesting, especially the link to Chillagoe. I always look forward to your blog. Best wishes from Perth.

Date: 2015-07-29 06:54

Author: Megan Lee Webb

Glad you're enjoying it. Thanks for letting me know :)

Bush Poetry: Poor Old Grandad!

When seeing the dunny in the previous post, I couldn't help but remember this bush poem :

Poor Old Grandad!

Poor old Granddad's passed away, cut off in his prime,
He never had a day off crook - gone before his time,
We found him in the dunny, collapsed there on the seat,
A startled look upon his face, his trousers around his feet,
The doctor said his heart was good - fit as any trout,
The Constable he had his say, 'foul play' was not ruled out.
There were theories at the inquest of snakebite without trace,
Of redbacks quietly creeping and death from outer space,
No-one had a clue at all - the judge was in some doubt,
When Dad was called to have his say as to how it came about,
'I reckon I can clear it up,' said Dad with trembling breath,
'You see it's quite a story - but it could explain his death.'
'This here exploration mob had been looking at our soil,
And they reckoned that our farm was just the place for oil,
So they came and put a bore down and said they'd make some trials,
They drilled a hole as deep as hell, they said about three miles.
Well, they never found a trace of oil and off they went, post haste,
And I couldn't see a hole like that go to flamin' waste,
So I moved the dunny over it - real smart move I thought,
I'd never have to dig again - I'd never be 'caught short'.
The day I moved the dunny, it looked a proper sight,
But I didn't dream poor Granddad would pass away that night,
Now I reckon what has happened - poor Granddad didn't know,
The dunny was re-located when that night he had to go.
And you'll probably be wondering how poor Granddad did his dash--
Well, he always used to hold his breath
Until he heard the splash!!

by Grahame Watt aka Skew Wiff

To hear an Aussie reading it, here at the ABC.

Glebe Weir

Glebe Weir would not be one of my normal stops. I prefer to camp where there is no one within cooee ¹ . But, I was stuffed ² , so stopped for a couple of days.

It's marked as a spot for grey nomads to camp. and gets a listing as a great fishing spot. Some are refusing to fish there now. During my time, no one was catching anything. The recently opened Woleebee Creek to Glebe Weir Pipeline was getting the blame. It will be discharging up to 100 megaliters of Coal Seam Gas (CSG) water per day into the weir for the next 25 years.

I wouldn't be getting the cozzie ³ out for a swim in it.

Just through the gates at the weir, you can't miss seeing the dunny ⁴ . Unlike the modern ones, it has a good long drop built into it to ensure no splash back.

Australian Slang

1. cooee: nearby

2. stuffed: tired

3. cozzie: swimming costume

4. dunny: toilet