Day 352 | Unnamed creek: somewhere past Bundock Creek
105 km | zzOz total: 9,588 km
Life is full of surprises and I had one today.
I crashed off the bike.
Maybe not crashed, as such, more just like folded.
Actually I was making real progress, first day over 100 km since dunno when, certainly nothing like this since I left Alice, and there’s a reason that didn’t have much to do with me, a major southerly tailwind, I’m heading more or less due north. OK, the road helped as well, after the rain it’s been beaten flat and is terrific riding for a change, those bleak days between Winton and Hughenden are now removing themselves from my memory banks, nice to be able to dismiss, banish those bad memories.
As for the arseup it was in a small creek crossing with a little water over the concrete causeway.
Being a usually sensible type of cyclist I realised that if I sped down the approach, bit tempting really due to the slope to get up the other side, I’d shoot spray everywhere even with those Margaret River mudguards, fenders, still attached. So I slowed, lifted my legs and on touching the water the front wheel just slid out from under me.
Whammo!
Once I picked myself up, checking for broken elements, I went back to look at what happened, gee, the water was only an inch or so deep and 15m wide, I came close to slipping over on the slimy surface, greased kitten shit came to mind, my slide was about 2 m long. No injury, although one side soaked and slimy, an elbow made itself noticed, but the greasiness had helped me skid rather than bash or graze the skin.
Back aboard, bike steering having been straightened, there were another two crossings, much wider, 60 m or so, and a little deeper, but no less slippery to negotiate. I pushed the bike through each time in bare feet, looking for the roughest surface for purchase by those size 13 feet, the front wheel just slipping and sliding around.
In retrospect it was sure lucky I didn’t go gung-ho through the first one, real pace ripping down the slope, it would have been messy and I might not have been so jovial after the event.