Day 96 | hitting the Stuart Highway to Erldunda: thankfully that's over
77 km | Heading west total: 3,760 km
You get older, you get wiser.
Well, some do.
One thing I remember from walking in the hills of the South Island of New Zealand is that if you climb up a hill even a short distance and are able to get a view you can get a completely different perspective on the area. I’ve been climbing some short little bumps next to the road, well, since at least Blinman. Even as far back along as the Coorong. I couldn’t really classify them as hills but was surprised to discover some I’ve been up recently are actually named mountains.
For the last few weeks the ground is generally flattening out and I’ve been getting off the bike 2 or 3 times a day. For some reason I don’t worry about seeing the road disappearing endlessly off to the flat horizon.
Last night I was talking with some Grey Nomads, these ones were verging on the white variety, (and being more talked at) and they were saying how boring the drive they are doing is.
How come I haven’t been getting at all bored? Well, I try not to ride too much more than 5 hours a day. And I go up those bumps, or look for animal tracks in the sandhills. I suspect the caravanners tend to get in the car in the morning and drive for the day. They stop to have lunch, go to the toilet or buy a coffee but that’s about it.
True confession time: I did have my own 4WD a few years ago but now I realise car travel over these distances is like being trapped in a highrise lift watching a TV screen all day.
Destination travel.
It would send me mad now.
I like my bumps.