29-31st May: West Wyalong to Grong Grong via Mirrool along Newell Highway
I left West Wyalong with a big heart full of gratitude for the wonderful people I met during my two day stay at Alex and Leslie Maitlands. To be honest West Wyalong felt like a meeting up with old friends more than making new ones. I felt so incredibly welcomed wherever I went. On Saturday morning I rode for two and a half hours into town to the Pony Club jumping day. I was met along the way by Les Warner who is a retired but sprightly 80 odd year old drover who knew my Dad Kevin Luxford years ago. It’s a small world amongst drovers especially out here in the Central West and Riverina. Les rode with me in the rain/showers I might add into town to the Pony Club. I then spent some time there meeting up with people and low and behold was greeted on my arrival by someone who looked familiar and turned out to be Jody Williams from almost 30 years ago when I was rodeoing in Victoria. Jody used to ride Kirby Crosses horses barrel racing. It was a blast from the past! I also caught up with families I met from Parkes Pony Club who had kids there competing in the jumping in between downpours of rain. I set sail again about two pm with Richard Maslin who had ridden with me last week for an afternoon. Richard had bought his ripper horse Duke in and rode off with me for about 10kms in the rain out of town and along the Newell toward Narranderra.
I rode out of town about 14 kms to Linda and Alan Clarkes place and paddock the horses for the night and stayed with the Clarkes who very generously hosted me and my horses for the night. I was on the road by 8.30am and rode in the pouring rain all day. It didn’t let up until late afternoon when I was about two kilometres from Mirrool and a weak sun finally broke through the grey clouds.
The Mirrool Hotel publicans, Kev and Claire, very generously donated my accommodation, dinner(an absolutely fantastic homemade pizza, probably the best I’ve eaten! thank you Claire!!) and a couple of very well savoured XXXX Gold’s on Sunday night. Kev also organised a paddock for the horses which I’m grateful for. I spent some time in the bar yarning with customers who kindly made donations to ride4acure, yesterday raised over $150 which is awesome considering the weather.
I am in both Narranderra and Grong Grong Primary Schools tomorrow visiting schools to present “Mela-What?” of course travelling by car to get there! My horses are holed up in a paddock now for a couple of days having a well deserved rest. It’s been hard riding for them since last Tuesday as it’s been wet each day and mostly riding in very muddy conditions. Yesterday was so muddy that I couldn’t get off the road at all or they’d sink in red mud! Plus the rubbish along the highways was phenomonal! I was thinking how different it is to the bike ride where I was finding interesting things all the time. Yesterday I saw a ‘ganvel’ and a block and tackle and a wrench type tool! But of course I left the whole lot on the side of the road as I wasn’t gonna add to the load I was already carrying! I am again amazed at the car and truck parts that litter the roadside, so many electrical cables, leads, drums, bolts etc….I wonder how there aren’t more vehicles broken down on the side of the road! The constant rain yesterday was tricky. I was damp and cold, almost straightaway, as everytime a truck went by, the horses and I were ‘showered’ by a massive wave of water off the road and couldn’t get off it because of the mud. I was frozen too, and the only part of me that was warm was my neck as I had my fancy neck/earwarmer on with my Akubra! I’ll take a photo next time, it’s a pretty impressive bit of gear! I bought it in a camping shop in Armidale and am ever so grateful I did. Yesterday I was blowing into it and breathing the warm air down inside myself imagining it was a warm fire warming my bones up! How sad is that! I was so glad to actually get to Mirrool and warm up. I slept like a log all night. Have been having no trouble sleeping at all.
