Rats! The videos aren't working... Not sure why! I'll try to work it out. Maybe they are too good a quality. I wonder if I made the quality less, if it might work better?? I just did that with the first video... We'll see if it works....
Today was to be a rest day, but for various reasons I think I’ll push on towards Rolleston for that tomorrow.
But, forgetting to check my alarm & putting words to frustrations in a poem-ish thingo (or two) meant that I’m not properly on the road till ~8:15am.
Hopefully I’ll be able to wash my clothes & let them dry that day. Might see Ben on the road today too, he was going to Roma early last week and gave me 3 cold beers and a cold apple/mandarine, but was planning to return to Townsville on Sunday, today.
Thinking of the toil of the trail and it's rule for getting up early in the morning to make good use of the cooler time, & making good use of the evening and the dark, got me thinking of The Call of the Wild a small book by Jack London. Many people think it's a children's book, because it is small, & it's about a dog, But it seems to be very much better viewed as a parable for adults about a dog’s interactions with both humanity and the wild state of living (compare with.tamed) then in the end the man who loved him dies & he just has the wild.
The book by Jack london The call of the wild, could be a good book to read together for those of us who are on the trail - to talk about, to unpack, to appreciate, to learn from.:
Jack London lived in the early 1900’s, he was a Fabian and a journalist. He was a keen observer of life and dogs. It appears that he loved dogs and new them pretty well. He has a grand meta-narrative of materialistic evolution which he let's into his novel profusely but in doing this he speaks of it with a will and a memory, which lays it open for many more parabolic interpretations. He became famous with The Call of the Wild, not sure exactly why. But i read it is a boy and loved it, and then again as an adult and now every 10 years or so. It has become a parable for me of living with creative love. As i recall it outlines well, & gives a feel for, and helps evoke emotional responses to..
- The lure of the fixed comforts.
- The fear of the trap & mechanised power.
…………………….
- The toil of the trace and the trail. (teamwork towards a bigger goal than could be imagined for an individual).
- The love of a master/ man.
- The call of the wild.
In his story the second last point (the love of a master/man) subsumes all the previous parts of the story & can allow for a bit of the last point. But the man who loves him dies, and he is then “free” to revert to the last point solely. In my story creative love lives on, above me more than the Man is to the dog, and it is calling me to all 5 awarenesses at once!
I’m walking along & I’m appalled at the refuse of human existence that is spread along our roadsides… there is a difference in different areas. For the last 40 km at truck stops there are loads of used toilet paper scattered on the ground. I turn a bend today and see this..
(Video here to show kinds of litter)
I can here my lady in Orange saying “He must have his little joke!”
(p.s. often enough they come in clumps of four or five cotton wool balls, just enough to make a nice little pure cottom handkerchief - as long as someone hasn’t used them that way before they threw them out the window)😜
A lovely time of day, with the sun coming through the trees..
RHSVideo here)
Did you see the mountains behind?
LHS video here)
the road does a big loop around to the left and back again, around this ..
(Video here of little mountain range)
.
Wow, I’d rather go on this flat road around them, than up & down those hills.
The lady towing this van stopped in the middle of the highway (no-one was coming either way) and asked how I was going?
& “You don’t need water or anything?” I said i thought i was ok but thank you for checking. We smilled. Waved, & were on our way. How good to meet thoughtful humans eh?
Some signs that orient
Found Consuelo creek, but not the stock route bore “Pallas Bore” that is supposed to be on the left ~23 km out..
About 2pm, I got onto Mandy from the Rolleston hotel motel,. and she's booked me in for two nights tonight and tomorrow night rooms without ensues for 95 bucks a night and they have a washing machine I can wash my clothes in and they've got lamb-shanks on for the special for bar meals tonight too.
You're always finding little treasures on the roads, or beside them. Some I take a photo of them in case I meet the person who needs it to tell them where it is, some I pick up and take for a while to give to someone that I meet. At other times I just take them along for a while and then leave them on a hilltop when I get to one, for someone to find a little stash of goodies.
Somewhere around here a little knoll popped out of the ground near the road, then followed the road for a bit..
(2nd Video of little knoll)
One of those bigger signs of progress:
Just under 3 hr before Rolleston…
At 3pm I put my feet up for 45min, before making the trek of 7.7km into town. Love to clean up before dinner..
A good phone catch up with my lovely lady in Orange. And video catch up when the signal was better with Daughter and family for the last 3 km.
At the Rolleston Hotel I met Richard who lives in NZ, but has been working over here for 17 yrs on the gas pipeline with 2 wks on, 2 weeks off,
He is a bike enthusiast, and has ridden the vertical axis of New Zealand. A fount of knowledge about water filtration, topographical maps, e-purb thingos etc.
I attempted to draw him, but got a good likeness to his cousin (whom he didn’t admit to ever seeing). He just popped into the pub for tea tonight with the lamb shanks special. Thanks Richard, for sharing a table and some of life .
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