Waking up this morning, the mood was a little down. I’d stayed up late watching the footy only to see NSW lose. The others went to bed earlier, as they had little faith in their football team…except for Carlee, who goes for QLD-she watched it all, but Ruby didn’t even watch it even though she’s a queenslander through and through. We worked out a late night and early morning (to drive to our starting point) equals grumpy people.
As soon as we stepped foot on the road though, the thoughts were focused on the day ahead. We started off with our casual “walk the first few kms and then see what happens” approach and discussed the reality of that Proclaimers song “500 miles”…would you really walk that far just to be the man who walked 500 miles to fall down at someone’s door? We concluded a resounding “no”. After a few kms Mark had found us another “shortcut” through Jugiong. This shortcut had one key ingredient that yesterday’s one was missing-it was actually shorter! We explored the nice little town before long Joel decided that he’d had enough of walking and talking about songs about walking, so decided to run…so he did, and like the wind at that.
Ben and I continued the snail pace for a little longer, and even tried to find a shortcut within a shortcut of our own. It involved jumping a fence (bad move) then continuing parallel to the highway for a bit before hopefully linking back up. Unfortunately, the linking up wasn’t as straight forward as we’d hoped and came across a chest high barbed wire fence. Ben carefully boosted me up onto a post on the fence, however since I had fragile ankles and shins I was reluctant to drop onto the other side. This left me in a karate kid-like stance on the top of a post by the side of the highway. I finally bit the bullet and flopped onto the other grassy side with about as much style as fish out of water, while Ben found a way to slide under it. In the end, our shortcut perhaps made our route 50 metres shorter, but about five minutes longer.
The middle of the day went by as any other, and the rains were holding back at this stage, but would end up opening up briefly later on. Mark the Edge joined us for a bit and challenged us to lift the pace. We’d been holding back a little after getting injuries left right and centre last week, and Mark did his best at an inspiring speech about how to tackle this thing. Unfortunately (or fortunately) enough, Mark had a way with words and could deadset sell ice to an eskimo. He’d been getting us free accommodation all up the Hume, free food, donations with his charm even got Joel let back into an Albury hotel after Joel forgot his ID. Anyways…Ben and I realised for the most part, he was right, and got us picking up the pace substantially. It was the nudge in the right direction we needed. Before long, the Edge was sweating buckets keeping up with us, but I’m sure he thought it was worth it…We didn’t catch Joelo the machine, however we did get to our finish point earlier than usual which meant we had a free afternoon.
How best to spend an afternoon? Ben and I compared dream McDonalds meals again and this time followed through with it…we drove to Yass and I ordered $15.90 worth of dirty dirty Maccas…Ben only got $15.85…weak as. We all then drove to our caravan park in Yass (our home for the next two nights to relax) which is where we are now.
On the beard front, all is going swimmingly too. Joel’s beard is nearly long enough to need daily anti-dandruff shampoo treatments but he has no sideburns, Ben’s is quite even all over but still looks like it did on day 1. Mine is turning quite ginger, and the Edge told us that he was feeling “a bit more like Sean Connery” because of his mature (read: grey) beard.
The weather outlook is looking better for the next few days, however Macquarie Pass (between Robertson and Albion Park) is closed and may still be by the time we get there on Tuesday. If that’s the case we may have to take an alternative (and at least 13km longer) route…fingers crossed the winds settle down before then.
Cheers
Nick
Nick
PS. Tomorrow is the absolute last day you can sign up for our dinner at Tradies on the 16th July. $50 a head. To pay, transfer the money to:
BSB- 062164
Account No- 10405919.
Account Name- Run For A Reason. Commonwealth Bank.
The Edge's idea of a shortcut through Jugiong.
One of the three buildings in all of Jugiong- the pub!
Ben post-squirt
Ben and Nick talking about the rise and fall of the ancient Ngunnawal people, with a dash of business
No comments:
Post a Comment