Day 493 | Leigh Creek Caravan Park: good for 3 nights
rest day
Someone out there described me as a hard arse. I disagree, I’m as soft as they come.
It’s taken the combination of a broken seat, requiring a new seat, together with the rather chunky Birdsville Track to find this out. Most of the trails I’ve been blazing have erred on the soft side, Cape York, the Great Central Road, Oodnadatta Track, or the genuinely firm, South Gascoyne, Mt Augustus. The Birdsville hasn’t quite been that rocky Gregory National Park traverse but it did take over twice as long.
The post mistress at Leigh Creek seemed relieved that someone had finally come in to pick up that rogue parcel, addressed to someone unknown, not a local, thrown into storage two weeks previously, I had to sign twice but she could sense my euphoria mixed with relief, oh happy days, Peter had come through with the goods: my new black shiny new Brooks B17, the standard non-springed saddle.
Well, to be truthful not quite new but that surely wasn’t an issue, someone had gone to the trouble of breaking it in for me.
I’ve quickly dispensed with the plastic version bought in Mt Isa, in that case rather than breaking in the seat you tend to break in your posterior to the saddle: the heat, the bumps after four weeks I was getting accustomed to sit minimising the chafing.
Almost immediately it all feels better, I might have really needed the leather model as I came down that rocky Birdsville but eventually the scars will heal.
I’m sitting around for another day, the washing, changing and adjusting those jumping gear cables, buying up on food, slow progress in not doing much, all takes time.
Thanks Peter, basically I’m sitting pretty again.