May 19, 2021
Serendipitous Day
Balladonia to Fraser Range Camp
The highlights of today were meetings on the road.
First with Trevor from Nowa Nowa. Then with Gary Woods and Mark Dunstan from Canberra.
We’ve met a few other long distance cycle tourers over the past few weeks, but Trev’s story is the most unusual so far.
Trev is from Nowa Nowa in beautiful East Gippsland. His partner Grace lost her house and property in the catastrophic S.E forest bushfires 17 months ago, so she’s decided to move back to Perth.
Trev helped Grace move and drove the long haul car trip with her to Perth, but now he needs to return to Gippsland and leave the car with Grace in Perth. However Trev does not want to risk being caught up in the risk of cancelled flights, and he especially does not want to be locked-in by any surprise two-week hotel quarantine if there’s another Covid outbreak.
Trev’s solution?
He bought a basic, off-the-shelf Malvern Star treadlie in Perth, made some panniers and racks and is well on his way to Gippsland. Trev turns 70 years old later this year.
More serendipity layer in the day with a wonderful chance meeting while I was pedalling along a remote part of the Eyre Highway (100 km from Norseman) was the other highlight of today. A grey Peugeot with hail damaged panels and A.C.T. plates pulled up, the passenger leans out and says, “Hi Graham”.
Out stepped Gary Woods, a friend and work colleague from when I worked at Questacon about 10 years ago. With Gary was another Canberra acquaintance (Mark Dunstan) from when I was a teacher many, many years ago. It really is a small world. Gary and I worked together for a long time. It was wonderful to see him.
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3 years ago
Today we are expecting a bad road with sandy shoulders and mining trucks north from Norseman. Fingers crossed there will be less trucks working on a weekend.
3 years ago
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Today's ride: 91 km (57 miles)
Total: 2,970 km (1,844 miles)
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