3,885-4145km, Days 209-219 Ravensthorpe to Gnowangerup

Can I call this Hell Week? Stuff it, I'm GONNA call this Hell Week. Seems like we're about due for one, I guess, and besides, it sounds kinda catchy.

After surviving a weekend of 40 degree heat, we were facing down another 10 days where the daily average temp was the low to mid 30s - fun times! So setting the alarm for 2.30 every morning, saddling and on the road by around 4, giving us a few pleasant hours before the heat and flies kicked in.

Heading up from Hopetoun, we stumbled across the Ravensthorpe-Hopetoun Rail Trail, which looked as though the last person had been down about 5 years ago... but it was a lot of fun, dodging low branches instead of roadtrains and plunging down washed-out culverts. Ah #railtraillife 😊

We arrived in Ravensthorpe for a quick reprovision and rest up at the Equestrian Club grounds, then back on the road nice (read: terribly depressingly) early the next morning. Luckily we found some really nice bush tracks to avoid the highway here, then a few days along Old Ongerup Road, scrounging for feed and shade, then skirting around to the North of Jerramungup.

Because yeah, there's no feed around Ravensthorpe. I knew this section would be lean, but I wasn't really ready for the scarcity of feed to be coupled with the heat. But it was. Luckily we're surrounded by literally hundreds of thousands of hectares of wheat, which the boys seem to be doing pretty well on, although I feel like a criminal every time I sneak them through an open gate to graze on the crop 😐 Dear farmers, please know I never open gates... I only go in if I find a gate open... sorry!

Every morning I wake up to the ground and the panniers covered in earwigs - gross! They got into my fruitcake, which was kind of lucky, because I fed it to Micky and in the process discovered his favourite food - earwig cake 🤣 He literally spends 10 minutes licking his lips after gobbling a piece up - what a cutey!

We had another 40 degree weekend - yay! Fortunately we found a nice shady spot with water nearby to shelter, and then back on the road... oh my, I feel like this section is taking forever! Dry mallee scrub bands around dry white-gold wheatfields... I asked a local farmer how much longer the rough country lasted and he said all the way to Boyup Brook. Then literally the next day we left the mallee behind us and were walking between verges lined with trees and waist-high grass and I thought "Gosh darn, you really can't take anyone's word on anything, can you!"

And then today I thought Mr Richard was going to die. He started off this morning extra grumpy and depressed, and deteriorated into a sweating, shaking mess by midday. I called it a day just shy of Gnowangerup (goodbye sweet shower, laundry and phone-charging!), pulled over in the shade, and am watching him improve. I think he must have eaten some glastrolobium, which contains the toxin used in 1080.... because yeah, it's not enough that the mallee scrub has no feed, it also contains deadly plants. I have been super paranoid about where they feed and where I tie them up, but obviously not paranoid enough.

There's still a chance Mr Richard MAY die. He seems better, and is no longer sweating and shaking, but there's no cure for 1080 poison once it's absorbed (horses can't vomit and a vet is hours away), so it's just a waiting game, keeping him cool and chilled in the shade (1080 affects the Krebs Cycle, which is interesting but not particularly useful). Maybe it's not glastrolobium. Maybe I'm just being hyper-reactive.

Anyway, I guess we'll know more by tomorrow.

So that's been Hell Week. Great stuff.

But on the bright side, guess what?! Only 307km to go... not that I'm counting 🤣