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.
No comments:
Post a Comment