Sunday 14th
October
Hay is home to the Shearers Hall of Fame. Imagine the prestige!
I don't know if the Aussies have their own tumbleweed or if this is an import from America.
In the strong wind they were up and tumbling.
"Galah" is a derogatory Australian slang, synonymous with 'fool', 'clown' or 'idiot'.
This particular old fool is cycling across a continent in a near permanent headwind.
Fighting the headwind across the flat plains
Afternoon fair weather clouds.
Hay is a nice old fashioned town with a reserve on the river
where we see lots of Brown Tree Creepers including several on the ground which
is confusing. We will up with fuel and set off after a quick look at the
outside of the Sheep Shearers Hall of Fame. If only we had more time to see it
open!
It is sunny first
thing but blowing a strong 15 mph headwind so I’m glad I did the extra 20 km
yesterday. It is all roughly north east on the B64 Mid Western Highway today
and I’m struggling to hold 20 kph and can only hear the wind in my ears. As I’ve
said before there is nothing pleasurable about cycling in a headwind.
Just north of Hay is what they bill as the flattest place on
earth. It certainly is flat but it has been flat for weeks now! The vegetation
is low salt bush again and due to the drought there is lots of bare earth and
little green on any plants. On the map is Smeaton’s Place but we see no sign to
pose by. We do see a homestead called “Old Galahs.” Galah, as well as being the
common pink parrot is an Ausie Term for an idiot so of course I have to pose by
the sign. Only a Galah would cycle east today.
We see an old meeting hall with outside “dunnies” for men
and women, just like you see in cliché adverts for Aussie beer. We get to Goolgowi
and have too many chips for lunch but at least it’s is over halfway. The land
use changes to arable and there is a lot of bare earth that we’ve seen on the
TV news. The farmers have run out of feed in NSW and a feature of today has
been a stream of tucks with loads of hay for the animals. It is usually green
round here in the spring and it might be soon as they’ve had some heavy rain in
the last week. For the moment though it is just puddles and brown earth. Our
guide was critical of the farmers who have over stocked the land and now expect
the government to bail them out whilst others who were more cautious have coped
without help.
Stops for birds and discover how bad the flies are for
pedestrians compared with cyclists. See loads of noisy groups of Apostle Birds
which explode away in front of my like noisy clockwork toys. Also see a new
bird, the first spotted from the bike – Grey Crowned Babbler which show well
especially after I play their calls to them.
It has warmed up nicely by mid afternoon so the gillet comes
off. The sky fills with small cumulus fair weather clouds which are less
rounded than we’d get in the UK. Not sure why.
Arrive in the very small settlement of Rankins Springs which
we are staying at as it is a useful place to do some bird watching from. Just
before I get here there is a pass in a range of hills (Sim’s gap) which is the
first proper hill I’ve ridden up since 28th September which was 1900
kilometers ago!
We are booked in the slightly grotty motel for two nights to
let us have a day off the bike tomorrow. No internet here so don’t know is the
forecast has changed from warm and windy. Probably not. We can’t drink the
water here so I hope I remember.
Pop out to “Nudges Dam” that we’ve heard about but not much
about other than Black Fronted Dotterel. Go to the hotel/pub next door for a so
so burger. The proprietor thinks I don’t have an English accent. Maybe I’ve picked
up the local speech patterns. Talking of which I actually heard someone say
Fair Dinkum the other day! I ask about the signs saying water over road –
apparently they had 3 inches of rain in an hour a few days ago and the water
comes down from Sim’s Gap which is the hill I came over on the bike.
143.63 km today in 6 hours 32 minutes – an average of 21.9
kph. Total so far 3603.47 km
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