BLOG YEOVAL TO PARKES: DAY 1 –Tuesday MAY 18 : 37kms DAY 2- Wed. 19th May 31kms to Parkes
DAY 1 Yeoval to “Spring Park” 37kms. Yeoval is a ripper little town and definitely lives up to its reputation as being the ‘best little town in the West’. I’ve had the good fortune to meet some wonderful, generous people two of whom are Alf and Sharon Cantrall who have ‘Ye Old Trading Post’, which is a general store, collectables, tourist info shop and also ‘home’ to the attempt to have the world’s biggest billycan collection. This collection now sports an addition from ride4acure, my sorry little billycan out of my packsaddle that has a hole in the bottom, no lid and no handle(used the handle to make a wire tool to fix something! But it is ‘curious’ and has a story! I have to add Alf gives away a new billy for each one donated! So I’m now feeling very flash with a shiny new billy in tow.
Alf & Sharon Yeoval
I got away from Yeoval about 9am and had 37kms to ride to get to night camp which was with John and Marina Hanstock at ‘Spring Park’ half way between Parkes and Yeoval. I had a small crew of local pony club riders who rode out of Yeoval with me for a few k’s. It was great to have some company. These guys also came to meet me when I came into town and on Sunday I had lunch with them at their Grandparents home Deb and David.
Leaving Yeoval with Pony Club Girls.
My horses were very happy to be in a big paddock for the night, and Marina had a delicious meal ready for us. Esther, who was on her way from Wagga Wagga back to Kempsey called in and stayed the night too. Esther had her big horse ‘Titan’ with her, and she pulled up in mid afternoon at ‘Spring Park’ then cantered/walked the 10kms back to me and rode the last couple of hours with me. We arrived right on dark to be greeted by John’s working dogs, who bought the roof down barking at us as they’d never seen horses before, I figured they thought we may’ve been giant sheep! We were in bed pretty early as Esther had to be up at 4am to get on the road to pick a horse up at Stroud. It was absolutely fantastic to see and hold Esther, I miss my kids like crazy! Will have Joe in a couple of weeks for a visit for a week, which’ll be great! He’s flying to Wagga on 2nd June for the week.
DAY 2: ‘Spring Park’ to Parkes 19.5.2010 – 31kms. I woke up with Esther at 4am and helped her catch Titan and load him (not that she needed any help of course, he’s a legend of a horse, has been turned out at Quambone for the last six months and was like he’d been every day in work!) Esther was on the road by 4.30am and I went back up to the house but was wide awake, so made a pot of tea and settled in by the wood fire in John and Marina’s kitchen. Marina got up and we sat around yarning for an hour or so then I was down with the horses by 7am. It takes me a couple of hours to get on the road of a morning with all the stuff I have to do, feeding, un-rugging horses, brushing horses, cleaning hooves, massaging horses, rubbing liniment, applying ointments, treating bruises, saddling up, packing packs/prioritising gear (making sure I can get to gear I may need during the day), balancing and weighing loads-I use luggage scales to weigh each bag to make sure everything is even. Then of course putting on the packs, tying things down to make sure it won’t move. Putting my signs up, making sure everything’s right! All this takes time. And I’ve learnt it’s critical to take the time getting ready to make sure everything is good to actually save time. ‘Take the time it takes so it takes less time’, is a hard lesson to learn as the temptation is to hurry to get on the road. The issue is that daylight is limited and if I’m not on the road by 9am at least I’ll be in the dark at the end of the day. At present I’m staying under the 40kms a day mark to not overtire the horses and myself. I’m going really well physically, but I tell you I’m looking for my pillow by 7.30pm. Last night after I got to Parkes the beautiful people Norma and Barry Garment that I’m staying with took me out to the club for a delicious dinner, they’re retired and meet up with a group of other retirees each Wednesday night. I was really happy to go with them after I’d got the horses settled in and had a welcome hot shower and got cleaned up. Acutally blow dried my hair and put a little make up on! Hardly recognized myself in the mirror!! At the club after a well enjoyed scooner of XXXX Gold and a yummy dinner I was sitting at the table with about ten other people (all 70 years plus) chatting away about ride4acure then, promptly fell asleep! Thought that was a laugh…. Norma Bless her, woke me up and suggested she take me home! I agreed!
Today I have a ‘rest’ day, slept til 7am, tended my horses, then went into a Parkes Primary School with Norma and presented “Mela-What?” to the Catholic and Anglican scripture classes from years 3-6, what a fantastic group of kids and staff. Now I’m back with the horses and have a farrier from Dubbo coming to re-shoe the crew. Clarkes Shoes from Wingham have couriered over shoes and tungsten tipped shoeing nails for me to a farrier in Dubbo who will be here at 2pm to hotshoe the horses. He’s going to heat the shoes on his forge and temper them in warm engine oil in pursuit of a longer shoe life as at the moment I’m only getting two weeks out of a shoe! This is a ‘trick’ that carriage driver who work their horses on bitumen use. So fingers crossed it’ll do the trick for this trekker and her equine mates. I realise now what an unusual work situation my horses are under at the moment. The majority of their walking is on bitumen. Probably they’ve only had about 5% off tar. These days this is a very unusual work situation for horses.
So tomorrow will be on the road to Forbesby 9am and I think I have a few pony club riders with me for a few kilometers, and staying with people just out of Forbes.
I AM OFFICIALLY HALF WAY TO MELBOURNE! WOO HOO! I’m thoroughly thrilled with this…..and couldn’t have done it without the generous help of so many ‘friends’ i’ve met along the way who have helped me out with things. Bless everyone…..
