Sweating it out across the Mallee
This Christmas I had opted to take a bit of a working holiday. A newly purchased four stroke brush cutter and I had a date with the ample blackberries infesting my land. But as it turned out my body saved a whole years worth of illness and struck me down a few days before Santa arrived. My week and a half off of "working Holiday" was spent between bed and the couch with no sign of improvement.
I added another week to my leave and once I was on the mend assessed the weather and planned out which days I would be clearing the block and ear marked the Friday for a bit of a ride.
Jimmy was out due to illness (probably caught it from me) so the option of another solo Mallee mission was a no brainer. And while I was at it chock up a 1000km day on the Fat Bob.
Thinking It would be important to get a good breaky I made a late start after downing some porridge and the fact that I wasn't on the road til nearly 8am would later come back to bite me.
I made good time to Bendigo (1/4 of the way) and then once I was on the Mallee and within a 100km of Lascelles I knew that I wasn't as far ahead as I'd like to be.
Rather than eat at Lascelles I turned toward Swan hill earlier and sealed my fate, there would be no 1000kms today. After smashing Maccas at Swan Hill I snaked my way back toward Bendigo. The temperature fluctuated between mid to high 30s and although I was hydrating every 100km I began to feel it. Of all places I felt the fatigue in my rear, I put it down to the fact that this dyna has the smooth mustang wide tripper where as my old bike I ran a diamond stitched wide tripper. It sounds crazy but that little bit of ventilation makes for a far more comfortable squish for your toosh.
I kept smashing it but the hottest part of the day also provide no respite from the sun, theer was little to no places to pull up ion the shade so I just pushed on, stopped at road houses for water and drenched myself as regular as possible and after what seemed like the longest after noon the sun was low in the sky, the temperatures dropped and I had home in my sights.
I was home before 9pm, around 12 hours on the road and 920km on the trip meter. It showed me that my route for our up and coming Broken Hill trip needs a re-think. I had pencilled in 900km for day 2, may need to re-work that.
I added another week to my leave and once I was on the mend assessed the weather and planned out which days I would be clearing the block and ear marked the Friday for a bit of a ride.
Jimmy was out due to illness (probably caught it from me) so the option of another solo Mallee mission was a no brainer. And while I was at it chock up a 1000km day on the Fat Bob.
Thinking It would be important to get a good breaky I made a late start after downing some porridge and the fact that I wasn't on the road til nearly 8am would later come back to bite me.
I made good time to Bendigo (1/4 of the way) and then once I was on the Mallee and within a 100km of Lascelles I knew that I wasn't as far ahead as I'd like to be.
Rather than eat at Lascelles I turned toward Swan hill earlier and sealed my fate, there would be no 1000kms today. After smashing Maccas at Swan Hill I snaked my way back toward Bendigo. The temperature fluctuated between mid to high 30s and although I was hydrating every 100km I began to feel it. Of all places I felt the fatigue in my rear, I put it down to the fact that this dyna has the smooth mustang wide tripper where as my old bike I ran a diamond stitched wide tripper. It sounds crazy but that little bit of ventilation makes for a far more comfortable squish for your toosh.
I kept smashing it but the hottest part of the day also provide no respite from the sun, theer was little to no places to pull up ion the shade so I just pushed on, stopped at road houses for water and drenched myself as regular as possible and after what seemed like the longest after noon the sun was low in the sky, the temperatures dropped and I had home in my sights.
I was home before 9pm, around 12 hours on the road and 920km on the trip meter. It showed me that my route for our up and coming Broken Hill trip needs a re-think. I had pencilled in 900km for day 2, may need to re-work that.
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