‘Rest Day’

April 13, 2020

But it was a hard work rest day

Pre-winter chores take precedence

Easter Monday public holiday was a beautiful mid autumn day and perfect for riding. But I didn’t ride. Why? I have only done two very short days on this ‘tour’, surely I didn’t need a rest.
That’s true. I didn’t need a rest from cycling, but a major difference between this hub and spoke ‘tour’ and a real cycle tour is that jobs at home still need to be done.

Canberra where I live is an inland, sub-alpine small city. This means there are a few essential jobs for homeowners to start in the pleasant autumn weather and finish before the winter cold hits. So that’s what I did today. Stacked firewood under cover, installed a new garden bed and then had a camp like dinner outdoors on the back deck.

So the day finished a bit like a real cycle tour with a dinner cooked on coals and on a Trangia.

The off bike day in pics looked like this:

Number 1 job today was stacking three tonne of firewood with the help of one of my sons. The hardwood will be used as supplementary heating and for the fire pit.

The new garden bed installed today. The design and plant advice was provided by my other son. Canberra autumns are ideal for planting, and this autumn is especially good. The soil is still warm, and cool night air encourages root growth before foliage growth. This helps plants survive the hot, dry Canberra summers.

The back deck fire pit. The luxury version of a cycle touring campfire.

The usual camping recipe. Use ingredients with a variety of colours, chop them fine and add a few chillies and spice.

The Cobb cooker in action. This highly versatile small stove is too big to carry on a cycle tour, but it’s ideal for home outdoor cooking.

Home made pasta (kindly made and delivered by my daughter) merrily cooking on the Trangia

The finished product. Home made pasta with sauce.

The good news is that the COVID19 situation in Australia seems to be improving with a slowing of infections, and to date comparatively few deaths and a low rate of community cross infection. Most recorded cases are from travellers returning home, and from cruise ship passengers.

Nevertheless complacency is still not an option and strict quarantine procedures are likely to be in place for many more months, and I am deeply concerned about the health of relatives and friends in other countries, especially the USA, UK and Indonesia where the pandemic appears to be taking a huge toll.

I haven’t turned on the TV for almost three weeks. This is partly because I don’t want to hear and see the inevitable incessant, repetitive coverage about the pandemic. Also I have had many more productive things to do in and around home, and I can easily obtain necessary news updates in a few seconds online.

My best wishes to readers of this blog. Stay safe and healthy through this testing time.

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