Day 52: Texas

Day 52: Wednesday 31 August
Texas (97 kilometres)

I decided on a shift of course last night, as Tenterfield, Guyra etc was looking like a very hard work. I have come out to Texas today, just on 100 kilometres, and will go to Warialda tomorrow, then Narrabri, and then Coonabarabran. This will save a day and be flatter, although tomorrow still has a few heavy bits.

I left about 8 this morning, tired, with everything hurting. It took about 20 kilometres to warm up, but since then things have been OK. It's been rolling country with grades to 10%. I walked a couple of short climbs, but it's clear that the grades going through the range (GPS not set up properly) must have been much much steeper!

The up and down has been constant; I felt a bit like an ant crossing a fallow paddock at right angles to the furrows! But traffic was light, rain didn't happen, and the body was in good shape, despite yesterday. I could feel my calves the three or so so times I walked up a slope, so it must have been very hard work yesterday!

How you remember your mates around here.

I saw a few abandoned farm sites today, an old mine site near Texas, plus a new one. The country is very lightly settled. Texas itself is a pretty little town, although the name would always put me off.

I arrived about 3:30, but I'm way too tired to update my blog; I haven't even opened the trailer. It's been a cloudy da,y and it's quite dark at 4:30 now, so I'm anxious to see the weather for tomorrow. Part from the rolling nature of country was the number of running streams. And the wattle is out, and often quite stunning.