In Pursuit of Smoko.

July 29, 2021

Linville to Blackbutt

Once again the weather didn't read the forecast (sunny and dry,) and we awoke to the patter of rain on the tent. This resulted in a) a mad scramble to put away our dry clothes and cover the bike seats and b) a man waving the BOM forecast at the sky and howling "Nooo! How can this be?"

Breakfast (and trauma) over, the sun came out and we trundled off up the Blackbutt range; or Roger trundled anyway, me being on the phone instead. When came my turn to trundle I realised that he had all the snacks, and launched a 20km very-slow-motion pursuit of my right to a muesli bar for smoko.

Livestock of the day: cattle in the valley.

Apart from being all tilted in one direction, the ride up the Blackbutt range was very pretty, climbing steadily beside the creek with bell birds tinkling in the trees.

Grass trees dotted the open grasslands. A strong wind gusted in the treetops but we were protected in the valley.

Looking back down the valley. 5km in and I still haven't caught up with smoko.

Finally! Caught him at the historic culvert which he didn't look at. So here is a picture of that rarest of things - a road engineer who DIDN'T look at a culvert.

And here is Paul, who lives in Harlin and regularly rides the trail in his recumbent trike. He was testing out a new trailer today.

He was one of many having a great time riding downhill on the trail. Which made me question seriously why I was pedaling a heavily loaded bicycle UP the hill. I still hadn't thought of a good reason for this by the time we topped the hill near Benarkin and rolled into Blackbutt. And let me tell you I rolled. I had earned my (paltry) downhill and no way was I going to waste it by pedaling.

We're spending the night at the Blackbutt Showgrounds which, apart from a small matter of inconveniently placed horse poo, is tidy, spacious, and had a sheltered area where we can sit to cook our tea.

Before we cooked tea we made sure to buy some muesli bars which will be equitably distributed across the bicycles tomorrow, ensuring that there is not a repeat of the great smoko pursuit of today.

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