First Rest day at Emerald (Sunday, 30June2024)

---

Wow, how good to sleep in a comfy bed again, to join a family for breaky, to then join with them in honouring such a well chosen “Leader of Humanity”, worth following, learning from, listening to, living in line with, with the goals & mission of, & the help of, as Yeshua!

Would you believe, while with John & Mary at their church, I met a grandmother there who had been an older sister to me (& my siblings) when I was growing up, probably aout 13-15 yr old, in Rockhampton. She was then a nurse on a Honda 500, motor-bike. Jenny Vine, she was then, 

now married and changed her Surname to Hallett, but the same fun-loving person - talking about getting a Harley Davidson. And I met her husband (Rod), daughter (Beth) and some grandchildren.

Met a bunch of folk, another fellow 10 yrs my senior growing up in Rocky (Bob Werner), and a bunch of new friends including John & Mary’s children & grand-children.

Lunch, kip, firebucket out of town, back to dinner. I was present while a mother received a very special woven present, a unique holder from a Son & Daughter-in-law, bought on a trip in PNG, but holding in it a lovely live indoor plant, instead of what it was apparently originally built to contain.

After dinner I had time to reflect on the reflection on Yeshua’s (Jesus’) choice of 12 ordinary men to be his ambassadors (apostles), as a way to change the world from being run by a few talented stars, to being mentored by creative love in partnership with faithful (ordinary) people. 

And, we watched the Tour de France with commentary… (I have here in Emerald experienced an amazing difference being with people who know bike riding, (the culture, the strategies employed, the expected outcomes, & rules & traditions that go with it and with which those who compete have to work). They are avid bike riders. & they shared their life & stories closely enough with me in 3 evenings that I have been converted at least to the stage of interest, appreciation, & following the fun and human pathos of the sport. 

Despite this, before 11pm  (& the end), we’re off to bed. We’ll look forward to seeing the highlights tomorrow though.

Good night.

---

Day 24; from the northern Gindie Sign to Emerald (hopefully, Sat 29June’24)

This is Mary (washing up in the kitchen after a delicious meal), who along with her man John, have looked after me in their house last night, and since.

---

Discipline of listening for pilgriming

They say a pil-grim-age, might very well
have bits of it that are at times quite grim.
Not all the stuff of comfort. I can tell
you from what I have seen, and know, in him

the pilgrim, who par excellant showed how

to walk to let the road form as he went;

to benefit a goal that’s bigger now

than anyone could dream before. He bent

his will to be lined up with higher will

of that creative love, which made the lot

in such a way that God could mentor still

each of his children who would walk, and not

just run away and hide, and sew fig leaves

together in a shame that’s visited

and seems to want to stay, but “pilgrim” heaves

a sigh, and sheep-skin gifts, unembittered,

walks with one who's invisible, though heard;

ol’ Enoch heard the call & walked along

not just for thirty years, a little bird

chirped (that it was ten times that), in a song.

I guess he learned to listen, and to speak

his mind as openly as he then could,

we wasn’t tryn’a show he wasn’t weak,

he wasn’t tryn’a show that he was good.

But I reckon he made his walk a chance

to open up to mentoring from God,

creative love that made the trees to dance

and gave us shoes, but 'times says “Be unshod.”

---

I still get to think about my responses to people, and I feel like God is on my case to listen more deeply, and actively, by asking good questions. I see this in Yeshua, my hero and Big Boss. 

---

Up by 7am to join this amazingly hospitable family, with freshly baked bread timed to come out of its oven around then.

---

At 9am John dropped me off at the same spot where he had picked me up yesterday - at the northern Gindie sign and headed back to town. 

Should be in around sunset. 

---

Reflecting on these days..

---

Thanks John & Mary for the bed last night,

and meal, & then again breaky today.

A catch up - thirty years since our last sight,

or something like that, can be done this way. 

That’s only with initiatives like yours

to offer up a bed within your house,

and use your fuel & car to help because 

another has a plan, that they espouse.

That is a trust you handed on to me,

and gladly (for I will listen and learn)

I do receive your gift of what's lovely,

I want to pay it forward not just spearn.

As our mentor, the cornerstone himself,

Yeshua, who's a builder long ago,

said he would build a government for health 

of all humanity - enough to show

the glory and the honour and the worth,

of living under god's reign, and his lead,

enough that when folk look on this from Earth,

they see borne from above, this tiny seed..

once planted here that bears eternal life,

creative love which never fails (to work),

that can work backwards through eternal strife,

and multiply good purposes - berzerk!

---

Hope you have a good day, dear friends.

---

Quick loo break in a muddy stand of trees. @ 10:10am a sign for me:

---

Someone has already stopped to check if I was ok. Thank you to you who acts out true mateship.

---

---

5 km out of town...

Just passing 

Day 23 from 44km from Emerald, to Gindie, then sleep in Emerald; Fri 28/06/2024)

---

Last night it was forecast to possibly (40%) be raining around 7am or 8am, so I thought it would be good to have the tent packed by about  6:30am and be on the road before the rain, in rainproof gear.. So, I set my alarm for 5:40am (when my wife would be getting up for her gymn class, back at our house in Orange, NSW). Got up, it had rained during the night. Was on the road soon after 6:30am. A lovely cool morning. No rain-pants on yet.

Got in a great time of singing! (Notice that I didn't say “great singing”!) A good song (sung a few times over to give my brain the chance to think about it, & see it's ramifications, is a great way to meditate on something good for me. Like an old bull, chewing his cud. That’s how he gets his energy & strength - from grass!

---

About 7:30am, un-noticed by me, a car has passed me on the way to Emerald, done a U-ie, & Rose drives back level to me, to ask “Are you ok?”. She lives at Springsure, but is on the way to Bingo in Emerald, just to see how it goes. We talk for a bit, & I thank her for her thoughtfulness in asking how another human is going. Good to share a world with humans like that. We say good bye. 

She does another U-ie, makes the electric window go down on my side, holds up $5; and says would you accept this for a drink? I say “Yes, from you Rose! And when I have a coffee I’ll say ‘This is a shout from Rose’!”

 We part, both hoping that we’ll meet again.

---

Interesting rocks in this cutting,  like a natural retaining wall..

---

About 8 am I have a sign that some headway is being made - but a ways to go:

---

Got reception at the top of this Hill and found out that a girl (now woman) who has often joined our family for Christmas, & who has grown up living with her Dad, & estranged from her Mum, just had her dad die last night… “Oh God, what can be done?”

---

Pleasant temp now, but must get a bit hot here at times:

---

.There are times of busy-ness too:

---

Sometimes traffic bunches up after a slowish vehicle. And what is it that means some trees are spread out?

& others are bunched up? Is it just where seeds get washed, or suckers grow up, or both?

---

Just heard about a friend’s friend's nephew who died too. Oh God, we weep, with you. It has just started raining here.

---

@ about 1:40pm Bev Zahl drove up in front of me, going towards Springsure.. When I got level with her, she brought out some hot beer pies, and a bottle of Kirk's Pasito (said she thought it would be better for me than coke), for my lunch! 

She had seen me this morning as she went to Emerald and now she was going back home to Springsure, and had got some lunch for me on the way. I thanked her profusely. We might see each other when her family travels up to the tip of Cape York somewhere in the next year as well… I hope so. Thanks again Bev.

---

My friends John & Mary Sefton, in Emerald who had said “When you come to Emerald, don't stay at the pub, come and stay with us”, again reiterated their message in a text:  They’d love me to stay and to call them if I needed them to pick me up.

It's been drizzling on and off today and I've got a raincoat on at the moment, 

when I stopped for a break to put my feet up earlier I thought to ring John in Emerald and just get a lay of the land for what he was doing and whether he could in fact pick me up from the Fairburn Dam Road about 20k out from Emerald with my trolley, to save me a night of camping. John agreed pick me up about four o'clock this afternoon by which time I should have arrived at the Fairburn Dam Road. He thought the trolley should fit in the back of his Ford territory, I think it will too. This is pretty exciting because it means one less night of camping, it means catching up with some old friends who I haven't seen for ~20 years or so, & it means to a meal in a home with people. And…. Instead of me having to hitch back out to that spot tomorrow morning, John said it wouldn't be a problem to drop me out there in the morning and I can do the last 18 or 20k into Emerald without the trolley which will be very nice. How good is that! 

Thanks John & Mary!

---

I’m loving listening to another book on reading Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) texts “ with Eastern Eyes”, meaning there are more similarities between the present day Eastern worldview and mindset and the ancient near Eastern worldview and mindset then there is between the present day Western worldview and mindset and the ancient near Eastern worldview and mindset. So start with the easiest way that will allow you access to the worldview and mindset of the original readers and writers. Especially helpful as applied to that old scroll an “occasional document” from another Paul (who was Saul of Tarsus) to some followers of Jesus in the capital city of the Roman Empire, Rome, just before an expected visit. Dissipates many problem artifacts caused by our own (often unrecognised) Western reading lenses.

---

Meanwhile, the sign on my left reminds me that I'm at the cross roads before the one I’m aiming for today. Lovely plasma Lazer cut (?) in CorTen steel(?)

About 5.5 km to go…

Another bloke Daryl (West?) from Springsure, stopped to check I was ok, & if I needed a lift.

How amazing to meet humans ”from all over the shop” (as they used to say when I was a kid. Must have been a big workshop, or factory??) Thanks for your concern too Daryl!

---

John was there at the Northern edge of Gindie at the Gindie sign, to pick me up. We put my trolley in the back of the car, I took this picture: …

and we drove home. What a lovely shower, dinner, catch up, bed. Thanks so much John & Mary! 

In the morning at 8 am John plans to drop me back off at that same spot where he picked me up from today, and I'll take a small day pack with food and water and walk the 23km into town to their place, without the trolley.

---

Day 22, from the BP truck-stop van-park on the Eastern edge of Springsure .. to ..44km from Emerald (Thurs 27.6.’24)

---

Met Mick Mahaney (Anthony’s uncle) while waiting for coffee at the road house. He wished me well. Thanks Mick. Have a good day where you are going?.. in the truck, or to the mine..!

Met Lopez (Trina’s husband) who supported my walk by giving me a free breaky.

Thanks Lopez! (& Trina)

---

Followed a walking path into town.. enjoying breaky.

A grove of trees & a pergola reminded me of people doing hard work to leave a legacy, some of which will be forgotten and overlooked, giving what they had to benefit others, with no guaranteed come-back-ance to themselves.

.

---

Then into the gracery store for some meuslie & apples, fix the blog while there is good reception. And off… towards Emerald around 8:30am.

---

.On the edge of the town, the peak that overshadows the town

 (like Quamby Bluff does for Deloraine in Tazzy).

---

On the way out of town, towards Emerald..

---

.made me wonder if there was a sure spring here originally, maybe that the Aboriginals showed the pioneers?..

---

See the little blue sign along the road in the distance (photo below)? The coffee sign tells me that a coffee van has set up at a rest area. These sort of things get my heart pumping a bit faster.

Though I don’t know if I’ve earned another coffee yet?

Yup, here it is, 

and I did get another coffee. The lady cleaned out my thermos for me, and filled it for the price of a large coffee. And we talked about how I’d get from Clermont to Carters Towers with just a Roadhouse in between, ~176km, then ~196km. Water (& food) could be an issue. Well, my walking partner has made it work so far. I think I’ll stay with my partner, and find out how it’s done, or how it isn’t. The stock routes and bores might yet be part of the answer.

---

Over coffee I met Laurie Chelepis (Macedonian descent),  (just now helping with a property off the Tambo road), but still 

based in Emu Park, where I lived 50yrs ago, well our family had a house there and we ended up getting a house in Rockhampton, but we spent Dad’s “off-call” weekends there. He wished me well, as we finished our time, & off we went. All the best Laurie, too!

---

---

The things you think about on a long walk that is also something of a pilgrimage…

---

Listening to that book by Ian McGilchrist The Master & His Emissary, has been so paradigm shifting for me (well, it is giving me words to describe experiences, or a model the helps me see better, or a metaphor that helps me appreciate what's going on in the world more fully. The trouble is that once it is put into words, my left brain hemisphere with its enlarged language centre, gets first access, and it  loves to gain more understanding, in the hope of better mastery, is almost unaware of others, and how things affect them, even if myself, as an subjective human. I just saw a parable, the interpretation of which by my different brain hemispheres startled me.

What’s happening with this sign? In you?

In me there was a back & forth …(coming from previous experiences of RUOK - maybe 3 or 4 times, but the rotating “chook wheel” ended on the side (that I now see is the Left Brain Hemisphere’s side of things) of recognising words used as cliches & instruments of innuendo to gain or maintain power structures & ascendancy. 5 minutes later, another (right brain hemisphere) interpretation (that involved a real service to humanity, enabling or reminding human people of the simplicity of good questions in relationships) of what could be happening, occured to me. Wow. I think the LHS has a strong pull in me. I’m glad an alternative kicked in 5 min later. I might do well to give >5 min of thought to things in the future, before I decide what something means, to give a chance to the bigger, more relational me to have some say. I wonder if that bigger, more relational me has something to do with creative love? I have a hunch that it has.

---

---

---

Fair dinkum, about 12:30pm a flash Land Cruiser pulls up ahead of me and a cool dude, jumps out, lights up a smoke and comes walking towards me.. .. 

A bit of an ominous feeling… it was old mate Anthony, in his uncle Mick(whom I met this morning)’s car, heading to Emerald & back, just checking all was well. I got my first photo of him this time. 

---

.

---

How amazing, the way adventures like this bring together the most unlikely people! I feel like he’s my cousin. Thanks heaps Anthony! 

---

Wow,, amazing time learning, chewing on those old scripture texts in the middle of this amazing world…

Look at this… no it looks so puny compared with the reality, a three dimensional amphitheater…

---

---

Tina stopped & offered me a second or new trolley! How amazing is that? 

---

---

I thanked her very much for the thought and opportunity, but declined with even rougher conditions coming up after Emerald. We had a chat and found out a bit about each other for 15 min., & off we both went .. woo hoo! Thanks Tina, for your thoughtfulness and offer of the trolley.

---

Break from ~2:45-3:30pm with my feet up on this monument.

---

---

---

This afternoon I finished listening to an audio book, entitled "Misreading scripture with Western eyes" very interesting... Looking at the Eastern roots, of even the Judeo-Christian scriptures, coming from quite different  collectivist cultures instead of the individualistic modern Western culture, also with quite different views of time/ timing; mechanism/relationship, systemization/organ-ization etc.

@5:08pm I found this sign…

and soon after found a camping spot for the night. Had some dinner, and washed. Tucked in.  Good night

---