Day 441 | somewhere on Dunbar Station: halfway along the Burke Development Road
117 km | zzOz total: 13,351 km
Hooray!!
In recent times it’s a rare occasion when everything comes together but today it sure did.
117km, huh?
On a dirt road.
Well, it was a terrific surface for the most part, flattened clay that’s had major quantities of water and been whacked flat by the few 4WDs that use this route.
Slightly downhill.
A tail, or no wind.
Temperature was in the mid 30s, that’s on the C not F scale, so nice and sweat rousingly warm.
A few clouds later in the day.
Best of all not much in the way of traffic, 8 cars went by, and for some reason 5 more once it was dark.
There’s lots of birdlife: a Rainbow Bee-eater, up on holiday from Victoria for winter; Brolgas and Sarus Cranes, I can tell them apart now by their charcoal and red legs respectively; a few Bustards; a white duck, or many, with a sartorially splendid black cape over its back; a flight of 24 Red Tailed Black Cockatoos on fly by, with a befuddled White Cockatoo screeching in the opposite direction; and most disturbing, a huge number of kites, 30 visible at one point.
It’s unsettling to bike along with their shadows zooming around like vultures close by.