Day 290 | I didn’t find Newman Rocks in the end: just stayed there
99 km | Heading west total: 13,924 km
There’s the early morning smell of smoke around but I don’t think I’m the culprit with my fire from last night.
For some reason I find my mind drifting back to my days biking outside Melbourne on the mountain bike trails on Mt Disappointment. I headed up there about 10 times during my last bachelor days. I usually followed a particular 40 km circuit with plenty of single trail: ie, narrow tracks where 4WDs don’t go.
One time I came across a 4WD convoy on a fire trail where the second vehicle had become bogged in a wet patch. I watched on while the owner opened the door and rancid mud flowed inside his brand new Landcruiser: quite some baptism.
Mt Disappointment was at the centre of the major Victorian bushfires the day before I departed Melbourne.
The smell of the smoke makes me think back to how lucky I was to be somewhere else then.