Day 49 | along the Bundaleer Channel: but first a few hills to get over

57 km | Heading west total: 1,861 km

My father, Douglas, warned me about the abundance of snakes along the empty 1926 irrigation channel that I spent much of the day riding beside today.

He’s the only one taking a particular interest in my travels at the moment. We must have read the same website so his Googling is coming on.

I’m not sure that my eyesight is really that bad but I didn’t see any slithering reptiles.

I did, however, chase a few roos down on the track alongside the channel. They couldn’t jump the ditch because it’s up to 10m deep and probably 20m wide. No water in it now with the drought going on here for as long as anyone can remember. Trapped between the channel and fence I gave the roos a bit of a workout as they vigorously hopped along.

It was great watching them soar effortlessly over the fences. They look quite strange when they are hopping along directly in front of you. You can’t really see that they are bouncing on only two legs until they turn.

It’s the floppy ears flapping up and down that had me just about falling off my bike. It’s quite a sight.