Day 21, 43 km to Springsure, 26 Jun ‘24

 Day 21, 43 km to Springsure, 26 Jun ‘24)

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I got on the road @ 07:07am..

8am: a friendly truck driver from Springsure, Anthony Mahady, who passed me yesterday, stopped to tell me “It’s about to start pissing down rain”, & to offer me a lift into Springsure. He was going there & had room on his ute, so he took my trolley in to Leo at the Truck-Stop caravan park, to store it safely..& I will try to make it the 40 km in and stay there tonight if I make it.Thanks heaps Anthony! 

Within ~5 min I came to this sign. 

My Thinking as I go:

Wow. Once I start adding contingencies ( like more water, or raincoats) to my day pack it gets heavier, which isn’t an issue with the trolley. But then again, with this climb today, to not have the trolley should be a help… 

If it looks like I won’t make it, I might be able to get a lift to the truck-stop/van-park, and then get a lift back to the same spot tomorrow morning ( without the trolley), & do the rest tomorrow.

The truck-stop/van park is a couple of km closer than town centre, so it might be about 38km…. Here goes…

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Sure enough it does start to rain. “Luckily” (thanks creative love) I changed my normal practice & put my waterproof pants in my day pack, which I am carrying. Just missing waterproof gaiters.just trying some cloth.

At about 09:09 I come to another sign..

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to try to keep up the walking, I’m going over some poems & songs and stories I’m learning, in order to be able to think about them, when I can’t be carrying around a book. and in order to let them  into me further. Fun too, learning the pleasures of wisdom.

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The lady in this hybrid camry stopped to offer me a lift but then realised i was walking on purpose. We had a brief chat. 

(Yeah sometimes the road is a bit wobbly) She's the third person to stop today and ask if i need a lift.. good to not have the trolley today. Thank you creative love and thank you Anthony.

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Amanda & another worker from the Rolleston pub pulled over on their way to an appointment in Springsure,  to ask where my trolley was? & to see if i still wanted to keep walking (or wanted a lift)? I said “You bet you!” But thanks for your human thoughtfulness. Reminds me of true mateship.

Within an hour, 3 workers from the mine, by the looks of them, stopped to check out how i was going, on their way back towards Springsure. Thanks fellows.

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I saw a stick lying on a guard rail, and remembered that having one (or even better, two) walking stick(s) had helped me go faster, in Victoria, and NSW, and reduce the weight on my feet. I think it is working.. thank you creative love for helping me see those two sticks and to recall what I already knew.

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At three thirty, I came accross this welcome sign of progress:

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I think I’m getting slower. At ~4:55pm I’ve still got a way, 

& my feet are stinging…

At 5:45pm this comes into view:

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Then, as the sun sinks… this is where I’m heading:

Yes! At quarter past six in the dark, I found it, & the fellow’s name was not Leo, but Lopez; and…. the trolley was out the back. The cabins were fully booked, but the men’s single quarters had a bed for $60. I ordered a hamburger with the lot, a flat white coffee, & sat down (lay down until someone-else walked in to the shop). Thank you creative love. 

Got talking to Lopez’s wife, Trina, 

and drew a picture of her 2yr old. What fun, reminded me of my grandchildren. Thanks you folk for looking after my trolley today.

Lay down in my room with my feet up, sent a text to thank Anthony, & brag about a P.B.; & talked to my lovely lady on one bar of reception - with a bit of breaking up & a ring back. 

Who knows I might make it to my friends’ place in Emerald by Sat night. See how these feet hold up…

Then a day off on Sunday… if they are round this weekend, I’ll go along to church with these good friends, & good people.

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Day 20, from Rolleston to …(wards Springsure, Tuesday 25June2024)

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With everything the night before and packing in the morning I set my alarm for 6:20am, then didn’t get of till nearly 8am. Here we go.

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Talked with the friendly  local policeman as we drove together on an empty road, about what I was doing briefly.  and bade each other  good day & happy travelling. 

Turned the corner onto the Springsure road, admiring an amazing looking three axle van when the fellow sitting outside it offered me a cuppa. I said I’ve only got 15 or 20 min, but that would be lovely. I met Jim & his wife Kerry made me a cuppa. Wow, what a life Jim had starting as a Policeman, then … then .. making trailers & caravans at Cootamundra. Now at 70, with 4: grandkids he hasn’t got time for making custom vans, he’s got to use his . .

Thanks for the lovely cuppa Jim & Kerry. Shortly after they passed me, also heading to Emerald.

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Finally understand why there are sign posts around with folded signs on them, or 2 posts with no signs on them. Possibly forone of these driving signs, when appropriate.

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Then walk, walk, walk… I listened to a chapter of the master and his emissary that book by Ian mcgillcrest on the left and right brain hemisphere functions and their influence on cultures and societies. Very interesting and quite scholarly and detailed and requiring concentration.

Also putting together some thoughts on trying to understand first century meanings of letters written from a Jewish Christian follower of Jesus to new followers who were not previously Jews. And their understanding of the phrase the word of God which might not be so much a written word as more a spoken word or actually a person as they started to call Jesus himself, the three-dimensional personal expression of god, or the word of God.  

These phones are amazing this one allows me to look at a copy of the Greek translation, made years before Jesus, of the Hebrew scriptures into the vernacular (the common Greek language) and to compare that to the New Testament writtings which were all themselves in Greek, and look at the changes in the Jewish ways of thinking which end up being very very interesting and quite poetic and develop ideas that just weren't commonly there in the Jewish mindset before, or were only nacent, embryonic, before. Still trying to develop my understanding of Greek.

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I talked with a few Road workers who are holding the stop/ go signs.  One of their number was hit by a vehicle yesterday.They heard he had been killed at first, but he’s just damaged badly & airlifted to Brisbane. They're quite concerned about the way some drivers seem maniacal, and not to read any of the signs saying it's time to slow down and wait at a stop go sign. I carefully obeyed the sign that said “Go Slow”; I don't think I went more than five kilometers an hour. The net causes its own set of problems. I had to go right off the road to allow three changes in traffic direction before I got from one side of it to the other. Some of the anomalies of life and the beauties too.

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About 3:30 p.m. I saw that friendly policemen from Rolleston again coming back going back to Rolleston, & we wave to each other.

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Amazing country flat with little Hills long a tall long grass or less than a meter High but probably five hundred and some 750 mm high with a little trees I'll take a photo of some to show you. A panorama of the landscape on the left. 

The cool breeze makes it a joy. The overcastness takes the biting edge off the sun. Almost idyllic conditions for walking. Thank you creative love, this has been delightful.

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.I stopped for lunch about 12:30 for roughly an hour and then walked on. I’d only made about 13k to lunch. Not sure if I'll make 23 or 28 today probably will be 20 or so. it will take the full three days I'd say, to get to Springsure the way things are looking. It sounds like there's a pretty steep climb coming up tomorrow and the next day before I get to Springsure, up a range. It'll probably slow me down a fair bit  I'll probably stop tonight about five, or 5:30 at the latest, set up camp have some dinner and try and get to bed soon, and see what I can do to get up early tomorrow.  It looks overcast so it might not be too cold tonight we'll see. Have a good night sleep yourselves.

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Might lose reception soon, I'm passing an aerial up into the sky. So I might try and post this now.

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Wow I’m crossing a train line which looks electric! In the middle of outback Qld?

I wonder if it is a private one for a mine?

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Hmmmm. Well there is a mine around here according to that sign.

& Yup! A coal dump on a private train line! Where road trains come & pick it up…(?)

@5pm I am about ⅓ of the way.

 If I want to catch the chemist in Springsure, I think it might shut at 4pm, so I might need to get in half an hour extra today, and half an hour tomorrow., to get there before it shuts, else wait till Emerald.

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Rest-day in Rolleston (Mon 24Jun '24)

  Out the window is this:

This is just before sunrise

Yup, a bed in a hotel.  I hope to rest up today.. I've done my washing last night, (just have to hang it up in the sun) &  pre-bought breaky, lunch and dinner.

Started with some lovely time to reflect (in the cold air) , in the presence of creative love, about all the glories seen in people yesterday, and in the world around about. And, under the protection & shelter of, & in the company of such an one, how people can live in completely different worlds, yet be beside each other.  We seem to bring our possible worlds with us wherever we go, and kind of give those worlds 'airplay' in the middle-earth where we meet up. Wow, I get to hang out in the possible worlds of creative love, and feel very privileged to be able to learn to give airplay to those, as I learn from you...

The upshot of this morning is this reflection on These days in this place, 

I remember thinking recently, that if I find an L plate on the side of the road, that might be a good reminder to stick on the back of my trolley. I'll have to look out from today on (other legs I've seen them on or beside the road; none this one, so far.

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Met some folk (two families, I think) over lunch at the pub who are doing an anticlockwise circle down to the Birdsville Big Red Bash. Sounds very interesting. They’re off the Emerald, then Winton, then Birdsville (I think). They filled me in on gorge walks in Qld. Might work for our kids & theirs, some time to come out here and try the Gorge walks?

• Porcupine 15 km North of Huendon ****

• Carnarvon *****

• Cania near Biloela half way to Monto ***

(9-11km was done ok in one day by two 9-11yr old girls

Thanks folk! (Pity, I didn’t take any pictures, or take any drawing paper with me to draw one of them).

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A restful Arvo, buying a water filter online. Over dinner I met Peter who works at the coal mine, but lives at Burrum heads, & Ethan who works there too, but lives in Gladstone. Ethan was kind enough to be still for 3 min while I practiced my drawing:

Thanks Ethan. And then later after I had packed my bag, when I was looking for Amanda who manages the Pub to thank, I found her around the fire out the back, & the Italian chef David struck up a conversation around the fire. He had done some of the pilgrimage Comino de Santiago (In Europe, through Spain & Portugal) with his brother, maybe ten yrs back. 

We got to see things freshly just because we were open & honest as much as we were. Thanks Dave.

Well, shower, & to bed. I’ll see if I can get an early start. Wake at 5:30 tomorrow, out by 6:30am )with gloves on.

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Day 19 from 28 km. to .. (wards Rolleston, Sunday 23 June 2024)

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....

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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.

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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.

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• 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!

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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)😜

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A lovely time of day, with the sun coming through the trees..

RHSVideo here)

Did you see the mountains behind? 

LHS video here)

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the road does a big loop around to the left and back again, around this ..

(Video here of little mountain range)

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Wow, I’d rather go on this flat road around them, than up & down those hills.

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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?

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Some signs that orient

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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.

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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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Day 18, from 57km to 28km (from Rolleston) Sat 22June2024CE

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I got up a bit earlier than usual and had a wash then as i was packing up the tent & heard a sound of bins being rattled, and sure enough it was the fellow who collects the rubbish from the bins. i went out to say thank you to him for cleaning them up, and for us to even have bins on the highway. We had a friendly chat, i didn't even get his name but he used to live in Rolleston, now he lives in Springsure & is filling in for another bloke who normally comes down every Friday. He suggested the bore water near consuela might just go straight through me, and told me the was both a pub and a van park in Rolleston. He said “i can give you a couple of bottles of water.”  but he gave me 3, then smiled, said  “Have a good day. Be careful of those trucks.”

Thanks fella. Might see you again if you’re heading back to Springsure..

7:28am I’m on the road again…

It was pretty big day yesterday and my feet are still sore (hope it isn’t gout) but i made 29 km yesterday. That's a record, if it’s not before a rest day, & if I’m still going. Though we’ll see how far i get today.

Thanks creative love for your companionship, and mentoring!

Got to a point yesterday where it felt like everything was meaningless. reminded me of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) It's pretty hard to talk about because to use words, & words don't really work with big meanings very well. They only work within the meanings given by the defined structure of the language and the people that use it. So, as i consider meanings that are bigger than what's given to me by my society that largely gives me my language, I start to flounder unless i can perceive it personally immediately anyway. If this all sounds a bit like gobbledygook - just jump over it, if it does.  i had to spend some time unpacking it here with creative love to be able to keep going i think. Or at least to be able to keep going in the right spirit.

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On recognising goodness then

spying it, being grateful for it, and properly appreciating it…

A poem came, we walked along.

I feel it wants to be a song;

“creative love” 

(and that’s the link)

Feel free to look, feel free to think..

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.walk on, with two breaks, one about 10?km and one at 

Recorded the poem “creative love” as a song

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Working on a Psalm on Pilgrimage…(strength & heart) some reflections on a passage of the Judeo/Christian scriptures which my lady sent me the other day…

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Soon after 1:30pm a German Backpacker passed me on the way to carnarvon gorge, but he pulled up behind me and when i per-chance turned back he motiins as if he wanted to talk. I happen to be in the left side of the road at the time and he ran across the road with two chocolate bars waving to give me, and  asked me about what i'm doing and why and then he tested how heavy the trolley was. um it was lovely. 

Simon gave me his phone number for me to text him my blog spot when i get online. He said he had done a lot off hitching, so he knew what it felt like to be acknowledged, & given some little treat. He hit the nail on the head. He knew what I felt like, and was doing what he could to encourage the best side of me. Thanks Simon. That’s the spirit I want to get into me, & encourage when I see it in others too. 

He was in hurry, & i had to get somewhere so we parted but i now had two chocolates, how yummy. He ran across the road, tooted the horn, and we waved goodbye.

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Another Psalm-one walking…

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At about 28km, I stopped and made camp, just 30 m off the road.

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Day 17 from 86km.. to ~58 km (from Rolleston)

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Moving with trolley about 8am.Overcasy day, no frost or dew! A beautiful valley. High sides. White gums.trickling stream. I feel like singing…

“The song of the walking wonderer”... 

Then another cattle grid. Slowly slowly, right at the edge…

At 8:38am I find out I'm a bit over halfway:

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Amazing escarpments to the right…

(ahh… the photo shrinks them, so you an get the bigger picture, but they're actually close and big… photos aren’t the same. You’ll just have to come along and see for yourself..

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I love the phenomena of distant things appearing to move at a different rate with respect to closer things when you move) - parallax (if I’m understanding that word rightly).  Sometimes I watch the trees having races with each other..

If you didn’t already know which tree was further away than another, who won in a tree race would tell you which one was further! The same with mountains in the distance.

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Must have run out of blog-consciousness here.

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