Day 470 | Near Yappo Creek: on a farm track near the road

77 km | zzOz total: 14,615 km

The wonders of the internet: I had two offers of redundant but near new Brooks saddles, Peter with a B17, no springs, and Victor with a Flyer.

I’m not complaining about the life of my Brooks Flyer, it had an extensive workout on my travels, I concluded 30,000 km wasn’t far from the mark, not a whole lot in the scheme of Brooks longevity, but I’ve figured out it was my unique pushing technique, herculean shoving on the saddle wasn’t such a great idea on those impossibly steep slopes of the Bloomfield Track, or all that unrideable sand on my way up and back Cape York, exacerbated by the seat post not being central on the rails, basically just excessive rail on post leverage. No wonder the rails finally succumbed.

I mourn for the old saddle, it had become so comfortable, totally moulded to my posterior, I have never had an issue with comfort except for, I forget now, maybe the first two weeks, it was certainly OK by the time I returned from my month long 2008/9 circuit from Melbourne to Canberra and back, the wearing in process aided by bigtime humidity to start, ie, showers, followed by 40ºC days down the Murray, ie, err, sweat.

Today the new plastic seat was starting to be noticed as the afternoon progressed, I hadn’t started early, a 20 km incline to get to a cutting and then another 13 km before I realised I was sailing along in excess of 15 km/hour, seems once you are over the divide, ie, water flowing to the Gulf or else heading off to oblivion in the interior of the country, it’s all downhill, however slight to Marree, or at least Birdsville, that’s in my case of wishful thinking.

It has to be pointed out that the prevailing winds are SE with some direct south for variation and I noted this observation accurate for most of the day.

If there’s anything from the north I’m told the temperature will increase significantly although when I think about it with my week in Mt Isa it’s already been up around 38ºC, ie, nicely hot, most days.

I’ve crossed my fingers that the rural delivery system is up to the standard of its quality assurance accreditation, unlike in Alice, and that a large leather package awaits me in Leigh Creek for the final rumble up to Jindabyne and somewhere beyond, Melbourne.

Thanks Pete.