Day 97 | Mt Augustus Station: and just over there, ie, 25 km away, that mountain

72 km | zzOz total: 4,617 km

I stop at most of the bores, if they are close-ish to the road even if I don’t really need water.

When there’s water about there’s inevitably a heap of thirsty birds flying in: Little corellas, which I don’t regard as particularly little, and in any case what they lack in size they make up for in noise; the slightly smaller Galahs, similar but rather than being dirty white with the red ring around the eye, too many late nights I guess, are attractively liveried in pink and grey.

The parrots all just bundle in, jinking around like a Spitfire pilot with the controls shot away, and when they see my human form behind the water tank either don’t care, maybe they are overly thirsty, and go through their cute drinking ritual, bobbing away, or, only occasionally, fly off with startled enthusiasm, screeching raucously.

They are almost human in being so highly strung.

There’s also plenty of smaller birds: Magpie larks, Wood swallows, and a host of small brown honeyeater, or finch types, too non-descript, and flighty, to determine the species.

At lunchtime I heard a new birdcall and eventually worked out it was an azure winged Kookaburra attempting the standard laugh and failing completely.

These are the things that keep the average long distance bike tourer amused while not sitting aboard the Brooks, and really, when I think about it, what makes it all worthwhile.