Two firsts today.
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| Free power, free wifi, good beer! |
I left Mundubbera as planned yesterday at about 1630, and it started raining on me just as I hit the intersection with the A3, about 1.5k out of town. No much mind you, but enough to make me wonder if I better stop and set up the stay-dry equipment. Hiking wet kinda sux, but biking wet sux more, chafes more and is a lot more dangerous....
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| Gorgeous trees all over town. |
There's a rest stop about another half k down the road, and i pulled in there to wait out what hoped would be a few drops. Turned out it was gonna be an all night thing, so I decided to stay the night. Covered hardstand, picnic tables, water, toilets; not bad really. There was also a nice couple there in a towed camper; Richard and Meredith are pensioners in their 70s, and they literally live on the road. They have no house or possessions other than what's in their Tojo and trailer; they get power from solar panels, they fill up with water at free stops and they dump their sewage at free dumps. Expenses = petrol, LPG gas, food, car registration and an occasional night in a restaurant. They live how they want, on their pensions alone. They're rich; not because of how much they make, but because of how little they spend.
Anyway, so today it has rained all day, and that's a first for this trip. I decided to spend the day in Mundubbera, since I know there's power, internet, and a free shower at the sports complex. I hurriedly packed my stuff up, threw it all into my trailer and headed back into town. I didn't even put on my helmet - just packed it in the trailer. It's just 2.5k after all.
The shower at the sports complex was awesome; spacious, free and all the hot water I wanted. I washed my clothes and myself, shaved and was feeling like a new man, and as I pulled all my stuff out of the trailer to repack it, I encountered the second first for this trip.
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| The hitchhiker |
If there's been one constant, it's that everyone - American and Aussie alike - wants to tell me all about the spiders and crocs and snakes and other crap that's gonna kill me. The road trains are more dangerous, for the record, but nonetheless I've been on the lookout for some of these creepie-crawlies. When I pulled my helmet out of my trailer this morning and flipped it over, I found that I had acquired a hitchhiker during the night. Lucky me I decided not to wear that guy for the short 2.5k ride into town. That would have been a thrilling ride. Lucky. That's me!
