I woke up in Charleville, I had spent the night in one of the local doctors hospital flats. She had reached out to me a few months ago and offered me a bed for the night so I took her up on the offer. She was on call all night so I didn’t actually get the chance to talk with her. When I left in the morning she had written a nice note for me.
Before I headed out of town I went back to the coffee shop and got an iced mocha, It was caramel slice day, so the small gooey slice came free with my coffee! From there I went to the local flower shop and got myself some big bright sunflowers. I decided that as I’m on a main highway now I should get something so I’m easily seen on the road, now I could have got one of those big orange vests but I decided that flowers would not only make me visible but might put a smile on someone’s face too! My final stop as I was leaving was the fruit shop. I got myself two mangos and a bunch of bananas then rode off out of town heading east! It’s an odd feeling for me being on the road, I’m not 100% sure if I actually enjoy it.
It’s really nice to be able to ride fast but the struggle has changed in this new environment, it’s still beautiful but I feel as though the wilderness is most definitely behind me. The sides of the road have fences and the farms are small. Death is everywhere, literally every 20m there’s a dead kangaroo, pig, emu or bird.
I sped along covering about 20km an hour for most of the day. To my right was the railroad that dad was on the day before. I imagined him looking out and feeling greatful for the time we had together on the bikes. The day was going so fast as I was lost in the world of music singing and dancing as I went. At the 92km mark I reached a small town called Morven where I stoped for a ice cream and a cold orange juice. As I rode out of town my body was sore, I didn’t eat properly today all I had for breakfast was that caramel slice and throughout the day I ate two mangos and 3 bananas. I had a bit of a headache and my body kept cramping up.
I was quite indecisive about where to camp that night as everything is beginning to get populated and it’s not as easy to just pull off the road and pitch my tent. Not to mention there is a total fire ban in Queensland which makes cooking quite different and takes one of the most enjoyable parts of this life away from me. However My camp dinner was pizzas cooked in my pot over a very safe and contained fire! The spot I choose to camp was under the shelter of some small trees well off the road. I looked up as I arrived and the half moon was directly above me. As the sun set all the birds began to fly around and catch the last of the bugs. I took some deep breaths and told myself that today was a beautiful day almost immediately after I heard a crack and a boom in the distance a huge tree had fallen over sending dust high into the dusk lit air. I enjoyed my cheese and tomato pizza before crawling into bed on my Kathmandu air mattress that dad had been using! I was excited to finally not have to sleep on the ground.