Left 7:40am from side of Hall, but spent ,45min at the rest area at the top of the hill where there was some better mobile data coverage, to put up yesterday’s blog
Found a sign that told me I had gone 5 km (I was 48km from Injune when I got up this morning according to Google maps).
so I decided to stop on the new mown grass around, put my feet up, and have breaky there (munch on some muesli whilst on my back).
At ~9:45am, as I was putting my shoes on and getting up,a lady driving past saw, was unsure whether ai might be in trouble. Hanna (born in Hungary, but been here 7 yrs), was concerned as to whether I was ok, so she stopped, to check.
I told her sure. Just putting my feet up and having breakfast after I’d done my first 5 K for the day I apologized for the muck up of her travel plans, but thanked her very much for being a human and checking. Lovely to find humans around the place.
Enjoying the bush, the strange things that gets dropped on the road & then incorporated into it, the interesting starts of rock/soil as roads are cut through hills, the breeze, the views, those ancient poetry texts I’m chewing on.. all up delightful. In the middle of these awe-inspiring things, somehow these little signs keep catching my attention:
Got off the edge of the road to let a truck pass, and the trolley flipped sideways down the slope, twice today. Thinner verge, & sharper falloff.When there was two of us & the trolley was fuller, and heavier, I strainedy shoulder a few times lifting it up.It’s not so bad now
Got a message from my daughter in another land today, where she asked me to remember something (which I often ask her to remember): Remember Whose you are!
Whose am I? If I let creative love into the picture ..
Ahhh. That changes everything back right again! And if I recall we're doing this Life on Earth thing as a partnership, it turns the impossible into a possibility..
Plodding through the k’s (kilometres) certainly helps bring things back to basics. I want to be thoughtful, kind, and gracious. But I’m often not. This walk seems like a training ground for learning the ordinary grace of thoughtfulness, which is strewn throughout folk out here. I hope I can get it established & growing in the garden plot of this small life. I know that others who knows me & love me will want that too.
Just about to take a pic of another helpful, hopeful sign:
When, a nice blue ute pulls up going the other way ( he’d passed me going my way, but did a U’ey to check if I was ok, & had water etc.. I told him I’m hopeful of a tank or a bore coming up. He did another U’ey & gave me a bottle of water, which I accepted gladly, and we talked for ten minutes. He lives in Townsville, but has cattle and a property in Charters Towers, so he gave me his number to have a drink with him when I get to one of those.
Thanks Jesse. Lovely to meet a human as I wander in this big, beautiful world.
Ivy from Emerald was travelling to Roma for a funeral today and passed me. On her return trip after 4pm she stopped to ask if I needed anything & was ok, & why I might be walking. I told her I am a Jesus follower & it is a bit of pulgrimage… Ivy is from VietNam and still has family there she tries to help out. Is that why she is so thoughtful?
She gave me a bottle of cold water and two little packets of biscuits.She said she’ll follow this blog, and one day do more to really look for god…
I am richer for having met Ivy. Thanks for stopping, & checking, and sharing Ivy. When I asked her if she knew my friends (John & Mary Sefton) in Emerald that I had been talking to this morning, & whom I hope to stay with when I get there, she said “No, but Emerald is small, I might even meet them.,” ... I hope you can meet up too, I think you’d enjoy each other.
When I finally made it to Bymount, I found a lonely Primary school. They had apparently had a sports day with Injune today, and as I procrastinated as to whether to go in and see if I could have got some tank water, or wash my hands, feet, and face there, suddenly the friendly principal Craig was standing on the other side of the highway… asking what I was doing etc. That led me to take stock and ask some questions. He said I could get water, I could wash, then I could pitch my tent in the yard, then under cover..Leanne the cleaner was doing some last minute touches to rooms or court yard & suggested I might be able to make a cuppa in the canteen. Craig ok’d that & I put the jug on… I caught a photo of Leanne and Craig in the canteen before she had to drive home:
I asked Craig if he’d like to join me for dinner, he agreed, but said he had to cook up some sausages and mushrooms tonight, so he’d bring that too. We had a lovely nosh up, then talked for another hour or so about curiosity, and educational authors with evidential approaches to education. I took copious notes and he printed out an introductory paper by Rosenshine for “light reading” in Injune. Craig happens also to be going to Injune tomorrow morning and offered to take my trolley in his trailer at 6:30am and leave it at an address of a colleague there. So, with a coffee to take on the way, that might help me make the 27 km before dark tomorrow night. How good is that. Thanks Craig.
What an adventure Paul: finding angels and being an angel! Enjoy Injune. However cold it might be it will probably be warmer than where we are. May God Bless you, your feet and your trolley as you keep going.
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