3,635-3,885km, Days 198-208 Condingup to Ravensthorpe (almost!)

This is a difficult post to write... literally! I'm sprawled out in the shade on a 40 degree day, being swamped by about a gazillion flies, which means I have to keep pausing my typing to swat at them. Usually rest days are the best days, but not this rest day, oh no. It's survival mode 😑

Anyway, let's get back on track. This week as been a bit of a whirlwind!

Heading off from Condingup, Alex and I prepared to part ways. This meant that I had to get myself organised again to travel on our own. It took about 4 hours to sort my gear out and strip it down to the essentials. I tried to see if I could squish it all into the saddle bags on my riding saddle, optimistically hoping to leave the pack saddle behind now that we would have no need of all our winter gear for cold rainy weather... but alas, even my master Tetris skills could not make this possible, so pack saddle it was! Which also meant I could carry more luxury itmes (read fresh veg and chocolate!), so win win for everyone!

Huge thanks to Bruce in Esperance for basically being our very own private B&B 💗

And then back on the road it was. The universe was kind to us and eased us back onto the trail with three days of rain and gale-force winds - thanks weather gods! Tickles went a bit psycho for the first few days, but quickly got back into the swing of it. Big thanks to Ian and Nicki for hosting us in some wild and windy weather!

It was a strange feeling to be back on the road on our own again, without knowing where we would be camping or what would be waiting for us when we got there, we had got so used to rocking up at the end of the day to a perfectly organised camp and a waiting feast and cup of tea! But the easy times were behind us, so time to suck it up boyos!

Fortunately Alex eased us into our independence gradually, stopping by a few nights to deliver pizza and beer. But finally our last goodbyes were said and we waved Alex off one morning, following the long straight dirt roads that run north of the Albany-Esperance highway.

That day we got a nasty shock. My main way of route planning is to look a satellite images and work out where there is feed and water. On the satellite, this whole area is dotted with dams every 5km or so. Perfect. But what you cannot see from the photos is that many of these dams and every stream in the area are too saline to drink. It took a few days for the anxiety of not knowing where or if we were going to find water to settle, but finally it did. The boys really only need two or three drinks a day, and I can easily carry enough personal water for 24 hours. We pass a couple of farm houses every day, so if we don't find water beforehand, I just take the begging bucket to their door and ask for some water for my poor thirsty horses 🤣 I've also got a bit better at reading terrain. Clay soils seem to yield pure water in the dams, whereas more sandy soils seem to be saline... we'll see how long that trend lasts!

Did I mention it's been hot? And that the flies have been out of this world? People warned me about the flies, but I tend not to believe people when they say things are going to be bad (perhaps because unconsciously I believe I have a greater tolerance for suffering than most people 😂), but the flies are worse than anyone said. We've started getting up at 3am to avoid both them and the heat. The fun is basically over by 9am, when swarms of flies cloud around us and the heat starts building into an almost intolerable combination. But it does mean we have a lot of time to loll around camp in the arvos.

For some unknown reason I've been interviewed for local radio a few times this week - fun times! Highlight of the week was when a guy in a ute pulling a huge wheeled silo down the road wound down his window and shouted out "Heard you on the radio!"

The harvest is under full swing out here. It's an endless sea of wheat and canola fields, and a mottly selection of machinery has taken to the roads, from bouncing tractors to huge roadtrains... yep, no escaping the roadtrains, even off the highway! But it's definitely nicer passing a roadtrain on a quiet dirt road than on a highway. For one thing, you hear them coming. For another, everyone is much more likely to slow down on a back road. No one slows down on the highway. So here we are, sitting in a corner of a wheatfield, with a nice dam close by, waiting for the heat to drop tomorrow and wishing there were no such things as flies!

We should make it to Ravensthorpe tomorrow, then keep on trucking west towards Ongerup 👍🐴🦋