2,910 – 3,185km, Days 149 – 159 Eucla to Cocklebiddy

Ticked over 3,000km this week – yee ha! And what a speedy, lovely week it has been! Trotting along the lovely track that runs along the fence line only 200m from the highway, it's easy to feel like we are the only travellers out here.

From Eucla, we had series of early starts as the days began hearing up, rousing myself in the sad cold hours of predawn to be on the road by first light. Fortunately the boys don't mind early starts, so I was the only one moaning. We've started going a bit faster too, trotting along quite happily, especially in the cooler hours of the morning. The boys hardly break a sweat when it's cool like this. As Alex says, they're fit enough to maintain a steady jog for hours - it's only me who feels sorry for them and let's them mostly walk! On the days it's been really hot (and by really hot, I mean around 35!), we spend the afternoon huddled under some shade, killing horseflies. They drive the boys absolutely WILD, especially Mr Richard, who simply cannot conceive that something would want to hurt him.

A few days out from Eucla, we were heading in to Madura, when I got a message from a local station, just checking in that I was OK. Apparently word had got out on the bush telegraph that someone had seen two saddled horses without a rider and had reported it to the police. Let's just make a few things very clear. If the horses had no rider, then I either had them tied up whilst I was having lunch, or else was walking along beside them and one of them was blocking me from view. Out here, it would take AT LEAST two hours for the nearest police to arrive. If you see a riderless horse, it's really good of you to be concerned.... but why the hell wouldn't you stop and check that everything was OK BEFORE you called the cops? //eye roll// When the patrol found me, I was definitely more incensed at the wasting of police time than they were!

A few more days had us rolling in to Cocklebiddy as a welcome cool change came through. We set up the boys, Alex settled in for a few days’ rest, and I hit the road to run Brian up to Kalgoorlie. Big thanks to Rob at Keys Depot for hosting him for a few weeks. Then it was a very easy hitch back down to Cockles, being picked up by legend Les, dairy farmer from Vic who had ridden from Melbourne to Canberra years ago for the opening of the new parliament house. Needless to say, many horsey yarns were exchanged!

Huge thanks to Troy and Trish at Cocklebiddy Roadhouse for hosting us so well – you guys are legends!

And now it's back on the road towards Balladonia!