hair and mind

I'm getting a few comments on my hair, not all complimentary. Comments on the current state of my hair: getting longer, looking untidy. It's okay, I have a good excuse:

Now that my hair is growing -- after it disappeared entirely -- I am loath to cut it back. I have hair again, I celebrate by letting it grow!

There's also a purely economic reason: I'll be scanned again in mid-September, the scans may lead to more chemo treatment, the treatment may make my hair fall out again... So why waste money getting a haircut? Not yet, anyway :-)

===

My mind is, apparently, as patchy as my hair: I sent this post to the wrong email address... It's now removed from one blog & posted to the correct blog. I hope.

Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper

...        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved

===

I'm not cynical… just experienced… per Ginger Meggs

===

Dying for you to read my blog, at https: // notdotdeaddotyet .blogspot. com. au/ :-)

Thu 20th: to Jurien Bay

We eat breakfast in the hotel dining room. It's a bit tricky: when we arrive we pay for breakfast and are given a key to the hotel. A key for the very solid lock from the beer garden. Let ourselves in and find the dining room. Food is waiting, we help ourselves.

I have cereal, more cereal, another helping of cereal. A combination of choc something and iron man food. (The ads only partly stuck in my mind.)

Deb has cereal then toast. She tries to make coffee... but fills it from the urn... which is cold. There are exactly as many cups as guests... and nowhere to empty the cold drink. Deb uses my cup for a successful second attempt to make hot coffee.
===

On the road again.

Another slow cruise on the back roads. Amongst broadacre farms with yellow canola or still-green wheat or whatever. Wildflower carpets in bush areas and wildflowers on road verges.

We pass a nature reserve and consider pulling over for morning tea, there is nowhere to get off the road. I spot a track going into the reserve, reverse to look again. It's a broad foot track, no good for us. We drive on.

Past the reserve, back amongst farms, there's a broad car-sized track leading to "cemetery". I don't want to eat with dead people. Luckily there is a clear area with the cemetery 100m away. We make tea, sit in the sun, wander round.

The cemetery is for three boys from the Tarbun Christian Brothers Agricultural School. From the info board this seems to have been a "good" CB school. At least one boy died in 1949, the school was sold ten years ago, the cemetery is still maintained though not spotless. Judging by signs further down the road the school is now St Mary's CB school for girls.

Another perfect spot for a break: sunshine, peace and quiet. With something interesting nearby.

Following the 4wd trail still... on to Coalseam nature reserve. Quite crowded here. We start to walk along the river... realise that the nearby geocache is at the lookout... at the top of a cliff. So we drive to the lookout.

We find the cache :-)  Deb checks the view at the lookout, I stand well back from any steep drop. Nice enough view from back here, thanks.
===

Next... a fairly straight drive to Mingenew. That's the end of one 4wd trail and the start of the next. We break for lunch. Oh yes: leaving Coalseam is a "river crossing". It had me worried. Turns out... we drive across a shallow puddle before we realise that tnis is the river crossing. Too easy :-)

We look for one cache just outside Mingenew, at the Pioneer Lookout. As we start to climb I think, We've been here before. It's a steep, rough track with some scrambling over rocks. Yes we were here a few years ago. This time... we get the geocache. Oh, and a view over the town.

We follow the 4wd trail to Three Springs. Just before town the trail leads off, following the edge of a lake.

We follow the trail. As far as we can tell, there are no trails leading off. We go through mud, across shallow water and plain sand. I try to drive over grass, it looks firmer.

It's not really difficult just not really a road. After a while, not even a track. Until we finally see a road... on the other side of a fence. Should we drive between the fence and a wheat crop, and hope for a gate? No. We retrace our steps.

Around the edge of the lake. Back to Three Springs. It's getting late, we decide to forget the 4wd trail and drive straight to Jurien. It's still a couple of hours away.

One-lane road, two lanes, one cache, down the Indian Ocean Drive. Arrive at our Jurien motel at about 5:30. The motel is -- as I expected -- a noisy sports bar sort of place. Our room is well clear of the noise and very nice.

We eat dinner at the motel. Fish. Delicious. We walk round the block after dinner then get back to our room for coffee. With a vanilla slice which we bought in the Mingenew Bakery. Yum :-)
===

Tomorrow, we plan to follow some of the 4wd trail. It's a long drive, when we've had enough we will get onto the nearest highway for a quick way home.

We'll have several good options for different trips along this 4wd track. In the future...

Nick Lethbridge    /    Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting    /   Problems? Solved.
   ===

When all else fails, have someone else read the instructions" … per Ginger Meggs
   

Wed 19th: to Mullewa

Breakfast is served :-)

We join the other two guests in the dining room. It's self-serve continental. We select unidentified cereal, yoghurt and fruit salad. The salad is fresh fruit, finely chopped, works well. Deb also has toast, I have more fruit and cereal.

The other guests are farmers living, for the last six months, in Burekup. Their farm borders on Evedon Ridge, an O map.

There's an interesting coat rack in the house. Coat rack as in, board to attach to wall, hooks on board to hang coats on. The board is local wood, the hooks are railway spikes. Must tell BrianA, he collects railway spikes.

We leave, not very early. Fine and chilly, 8 degrees. The day gradually warms to 15.

The roads are all in good condition, recently graded. Graders still working on one section. I find myself driving fast, I slow down, set cruise control to 60kph. We're here for the journey, there is no hurry.

We stop for morning tea. Just drive 20m off the road, get out the gas burner and chairs. Listen to the birds, enjoy the bush.

Further on, there's a named hill to one side. It looks interesting and there is a track leading to the hill. (The name starts with Cui... maybe.)

The track goes round the base of the hill, we follow about half way round. It's a good track except for the washaways and rocks. Easy driving but slow. The hill has a more gentle slope on one end, we park and walk.

We walk to the top of the hill. It's maybe one or two hundred feet high, not very high, easy walking. Of course there is a cairn at the top... we each add a stone.

The view is spectacular, in a very flat kind of way. Definitely worth climbing.

There are signs that kangaroos have been on the hill, and sheep or goats. The wind brings a smell of sheep but we don't see them.

Then we head down and I've forgotten where the truck is parked. That is, we go down a different path, reach the bottom, the truck is not there. Not to worry, we just follow the track in the right direction.

We have a gps which could have pointed back to the truck, we just forgot to carry it with us. Stupid, really.

Anyway... it was a great walk, most enjoyable. Our legs are stretched, we drive on.

There's plenty of bush worth watching, nothing outstanding. Just a very enjoyable drive. Easy driving gravel and dirt roads. A lot of the road is very flat, with some muddy puddles. We are able to drive on the edge of the puddles, no trouble.

We reach the highway... the Geraldton Mt Magnet Road. Bitumen. There's a cache ahead, we decide we will stop there for lunch.

It's a few km down a gravel road. The cache leads us to an old railway settlement. The big features are a dam and old railway tracks. Supposedly ruins as well but nothing is clearly old building. It's a beautiful spot. A couple of caravans have set up in the area.

Lunch is the leftover sandwiches from Mt Magnet, still fresh and tasty. Plus some bits and pieces from our supplies.
===

After lunch we drive straight to Mullewa. Straight? Well, via some geocaches.

One cache is just off the road -- amongst a lot of everlastings. Beautiful! We have finally started seeing carpets of wildflowers :-)

Another cache is called wreath flower, it's 10km off the main road. Also 10km off the highway is a wreath flower viewing area... We drive.

Wreath flowers -- leschenaultias? -- grow in a circle, a wreath shape. And they only grow in a very few spots. It's early in the season. There are plenty of green plants... and we find three or four flowering. Beautiful flowers :-) We also find the cache.

Okay, we check a few signs on an after dinner walk: wreath flower, leschenaultia something. Good.

A final cache before we hit town, at the "mass rock". The local priest gave services at a big rock near the old showgrounds, for the people who did not like to go into town. Another place we would never have heard of -- if not for a geocache.
===

The Mullewa Railway Hotel is (I'm guessing) a mid twentieth century version of the country hotels of 50 years' earlier. Standard brick, two stories, not too big, no fancy pressed iron ceilings. We eat in the dining room, we're first in but it soon fills up.

Our room is a donga, small, neat, complete. A sign near the door reminds us to lock the door -- especially when going to sleep... hmmm. Ah, but with the luxury of an ensuite :-)

There's a tv which occasionally loses its signal. There's free internet with a weak signal which regularly falls out.

Okay, it's not great. But it's warm and comfortable and fine for one night :-)

Nick Lethbridge    /    Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting    /   Problems? Solved.
   ===

When all else fails, have someone else read the instructions" … per Ginger Meggs
   

Tues 18 Aug: to Melangata

We spend the night, Monday night, at Kirkalocka station stay. The room is spacious, comfortable, not flash. The only problem is that the kitchen is on the other side of the house and the toilet is on the other side of the verandah.

There are electric lights but... It's lucky I brought in a torch, for the dark crossing of the verandah. The night is pitch black.

Deb says that she had trouble getting to sleep because of the noise of trucks on the highway. So she counted trucks. And reached ten before falling asleep. Mind you, each truck could have been worth 500 sheep.
===

Breakfast is our cheese and crackers in our room. Plus some fruit cake which Deb baked especially for this trip. We eat, pack and leave by 7:30.

It's a simple drive to Mt Magnet. There's steel emus and a geocache at the town entry. The cache sets our standard for the town...

We don't find the cache. In town, we look but don't find another cache. The town is an uninspiring dump. That's our impression.

We circle the town, getting very uninterested in any of the town caches. We visit the information centre. It's good but tells us nothing we want to know.

We continue to circle the town, looking for fuel. We finally find a roadhouse on the far side of town. We fill the tank and stop for brunch.

It's good, simple, truck stop food. We buy sandwiches for lunch, they are white bread -- of course -- thick sliced with plenty of filling.

The roadhouse is the highlight of our visit. We're glad to drive out of town.

Just clear of town -- a geocache. Well placed, easy to find. We shake off the bad vibes from town. Ready to drive to the next point of interest, 88km down the road.
===

The next point of interest is a meteorite crater. It has a name, I forget it.

It's not as big as Wolfe Creek... this crater is 21m across and a few metres deep. A good size to appreciate what it is, to see the complete picture all at once :-)

As we arrive, a couple of people are setting up to scan the crater with a drone. We leave them to it -- then realise that there is a cache at the crater. Oh well.

We passed a cache on the way in, we drive back, it's less than a km.

What a beautiful spot! A few rock surfaces, standard sparse scrub, red soil. Just off the road and so peaceful. The weather is perfect: mostly sunny, cool. A chill breeze, we shelter beside the truck. Time, we decide, for a cup of tea.

The new gas cooker works well though slowly. We relax... then decide to stay till lunch time, that's just another half hour.

Just half a roadhouse sandwich each is enough for lunch. Plus a bit of kitkat and an iced coffee. We're 50m from the road, only one car passes while we relax. This is why we drive in the bush :-)

I think, a little caravan would be nice, just enough to shelter in. Oh, plus lights to read by at night. The CoolBeans vans we saw at the show would suit us, absolute minimum features with no set-up. Almost seems like a good idea...

Finally, we leave.

Back to the crater, where we find the cache. Then on to Melangata, where we stay the night. It's not far, just a dozen km or so.

It takes us a while to figure out where to go. The camp grounds are well signposted. The homestead seems obvious. Where we check in is less obvious. We go into the house and start calling Hello. That works.

We settle in. Drink tea, eat sausage roll (part of the service:-). Go for a walk... past "the old rubbish tip". Certainly a lot of old rubbish. Past a scrappy lot of pet sheep and a few buildings. Good to stretch our legs.
===

Now it's time to go to dinner. Chat with host & guests first, so we are not rushing. Still, food is part of the package... time to go.

Nick Lethbridge    /    Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting    /   Problems? Solved.
   ===

When all else fails, have someone else read the instructions" … per Ginger Meggs
   

Monday 18th: Kirkalocka

We wake up for breakfast at 7:30. Breakfast, we were told last night, starts at quarter past seven, or whenever the girl gets here.

As far as we can tell, the breakfast girl never arrives. Breakfast is being set up by a woman who looks more manager than breakfast girl. Not to worry, she makes good coffee and the rest is continental self serve.

Our room is pleasantly warm, the washed clothes are all dry, we had left one air con running all night. We pack, load, leave.

We set the gps for Dalwalinu, it leads us across several rivers, till we hit the main road, the road to Goomalling.

We are in the wheatbelt though half the crops are yellow canola. It's a beautiful drive, 10 or 11 degrees C but warm in the truck. A mix of fine, sunny, and occasional light rain. Hardly any traffic, gently rolling green countryside, all very beautiful.

We stop for morning tea -- a break, to stretch our legs, really -- at Wongan Hills, a very pleasant town. We have coffee and a slice of "rocky road" cheesecake which tastes like delicious Turkish delight.

I read and enjoy the local newsletter.
===

A pause in the story: Deb is knitting a jumper. How can I measure 26cm? she asks.

We have no ruler but we do have an orienteering map. After messing round with the scale line... I decide that the map is printed on a4 and a4 is 210 x 296 cm... possibly. Problem as good as solved...
===

We pass a few wheat silo locations. One has a few deserted buildings, only the silo is still in use (though not at this time of year). One has a row of derelict houses and another row of new houses. I wonder why some silo "towns" survive.

Next stop is Dalwalinu.

We eat lunch in a cafe, hamburgers. Solid, meaty, excellent. This is our main meal for today, we want hearty.

We also look for our first geocache -- and fail to find it. Not to worry, we do find a few caches as we drive further on.

We also find wildflowers... so our trip is a success :-)

It's two or three hundred km to where we stop for the night. On the way we stop for some caches and just for a break, to enjoy the country.

The only "town" is Paynes Find: tavern, shop, fuel, accommodation.We buy iced coffee and drive on. Deb starts to worry that it will be dark before we stop. I have a more accurate idea of the time. The sun is still well and truly up when we reach Kirkalocka, at 4:30.

The "old homestead" where we stay the night is old but not ancient. Clean and comfy. Cool and getting colder. We settle in then go for a walk.

The station ran sheep but has been destocked, years ago. It will be restocked with cattle. First, the fences need to be fixed, lots of work to be done. Meanwhile... it's income from rented accommodation (tonight just us and one other couple) and the farmer works fulltime off the station.

We walk to the creek, across bare and barren land. There's only a handful of "pet" stock animals but they must do a lot of grazing. It's a permanent creek with a large pool -- now with a couple of olympic pools' worth of water -- just 100m from the homestead. We enjoy the walk.

Back inside, we eat dinner. Deb made cheese and gherkin sandwiches for post-orienteering lunch but we ate in a Northam cafe instead. So the sandwiches are our dinner tonight. Delicious :-)

We're 100m from the highway and it sounds as though the passing trucks are much closer. Plus, the power generator is noisy. I expect that Deb will have trouble sleeping. I expect that I shall sleep like a log.

Now it's time to press send... but actual sending will wait... until we have internet again.

Nick Lethbridge    /    Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting    /   Problems? Solved.
   ===

When all else fails, have someone else read the instructions" … per Ginger Meggs
   

a bit more

We have a bedroom with ensuite. A second room is kitchen and lounge. I open a door -- and there is a small courtyard: grass, table, chairs and cane lounge. Duke's Inn, Northam, very nice.

Very efficient, too. We check in, move in. I test the free wifi... One new email: invoice and receipt from the Inn.

We eat in the Inn, pub meals. I have barramundi and help Deb eat her enormous pile of roast beef. Back to our room for plunger coffee.

I tackle the two cryptic crosswords from today's paper, one is notoriously weird. I find that it helps to be tired, my mind is confused, I think of ridiculous answers -- that are right. Tonight I must be exhausted... I easily finish both crosswords.

I check the news, nothing interesting. I read a bit then stop, don't want to finish too soon. Deb watches murder on tv.

Two air conditioners are running, heating. Orienteering gear hangs from hooks and handles, drying. A long drive tomorrow.

Time to sleep.

Nick Lethbridge    /    Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting    /   Problems? Solved.
   ===

When all else fails, have someone else read the instructions" … per Ginger Meggs
   

Holiday: O and Northam

Saturday 16 August 2020

Should we go for a run? Or should we prepare for a week away... So of course we go for a run. Forty minutes jogging plus warm up and cool down walking.

Time to pack. Every so often we think of something and get it ready to pack. Late in the afternoon I start loading some stuff into the truck (ie the Prado). One item is the small gas cooker.

I test the one that I bought ten or twenty years ago. Insert the tin of gas, turn the gas on. Flames blossom all over the cooker, I blow them out. We buy a new cooker.

Sunday 17th

Finish packing clothes into suitcases, finish loading the truck.

Loading the truck is a bit of a challenge: we have stuff for the driving holiday -- plus stuff for today's orienteering. The O gear has to be accessible for the event.

Orienteering is at Peterdine, an hour and a half's drive. It rains all the way.

There is a time of sunshine as we prepare to run... excellent. Then it starts raining again. I spent more than twenty minutes circling round to find the first control. I find one more control... cut off most of the course... find a few final controls.

Deb finishes her course :-)  The sun is shining :-)

It starts raining again. We do have a picnic lunch -- but drive to Northam for lunch in a cafe. Sitting indoors watching the rain over the river. Much nicer than a picnic in the rain :-)

The gps has trouble finding our motel... Who would have thought that Northam would have Duke St, Duke St E and Duke St W!

We check in and relax, it's two comfortable rooms with air conditioners. Which are now on -- heating.

We wash our soaking wet O gear. The motel dryers are broken so running gear is hanging all over the rooms.

We relax, waiting on dinner time.

Nick Lethbridge    /    Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting    /   Problems? Solved.
   ===

When all else fails, have someone else read the instructions" … per Ginger Meggs
   

double dreaming

I wake up from two dreams. Or, perhaps from one dream in two parts. Whatever...

First, I am with a crowd of people, friends and acquaintances. Our grandson is there. He says to me, You don't enjoy being here but you need to be polite and friendly. Smart kid, I think.

Now the dream changes. I am sitting next to a camel. I am scratching the camel's throat, the camel enjoys it. The camel says, Really, you can't see the lines of x-rays? Then I do. See them, that is.

My dreams can be confusing. There is some obvious and accurate insight, the significance is clear. But I have no idea about the first part, with our grandson...

Nick Lethbridge    /    Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting    /   Problems? Solved.
   ===

When all else fails, have someone else read the instructions" … per Ginger Meggs
   

a sort of holiday

There's a 24 hour rogaine down at Grimwade, near Donnybrook. Our first rogaine since corona-lockdown. Time to pack for a night in the bush... not.

Friday, we drive to Donnybrook, to the Donnybrook Motel. Why do we choose that motel? It's the only one in town.

It's a very nice motel: clean, comfortable, warm. It's Winter, warm is important.

We eat dinner in Donnybrook. There's an Indian restaurant across the road, we avoid it. Neither of us can stand Indian food. The Riverside sounds good: steak or fish with salad or veggies. We walk.

It's a cold walk! Deb likes to walk after dinner so, too bad, we walk.

To the Riverside. Where we are greeted by an Indian(*) waiter, the chef is Indian, the background music is Indian. Deb has fish and salad. I try the special, butter chicken. Which is spicy, not too spicy, and delicious.

(*) Maybe Indian. Maybe Pakistani. Probably Australian.

We walk back to the motel, where we sleep in comfort.
===

The event site is a half hour's drive, we don't need to rush. I fill in some time letting the butter chicken rush through. Twice. Yes, I tell Deb, it's still spicy.

We drive to the event. It's a beautiful drive, through rolling forest and farmland. The car gps tracks our route, to be followed (yes, in reverse) when we leave.

It's a perfect day for walking, cool but fine. There are plenty of tracks and rumours of blackberries. I spend a quarter hour planning a route to follow (mostly) tracks and to get back before sunset. Before sunset but after the Hash House has started serving food.

The rogaine starts at noon. We follow a horde of people to the first few controls, then we move to a less popular route.

And the butter chicken strikes again. Yes, that was me, squatting in the bushes in a quiet spot... though not as quiet as I hoped. The passing team carefully avoided making eye contact.
===

The rest of the day is less... exciting. Of the butter chicken, only gas remains. Deb keeps clear.

We follow tracks and have no problems. In fact we make good time and go to a high-point control which we had marked as "optional". It's off the tracks, well into the bush. But no worries!

We are doing so well that we add two extra controls and still get back to the HH before dark.
===

At this stage we should be eating dinner and settling in for a night in the tent. We do eat dinner... then drive back to the Donnybrook Motel. Buying food for breakfast at the 24-hour bakery. (Bakers are baking, it makes sense to be open to customers.)

Aahh! the comfort of a motel. Aaahhhh, the warmth :-)

After a very comfortable night -- including hot showers -- we drive back to tbe rogaine. To start walking just after sunrise.
===

Three emus wander across the road!

Another fine day for walking. Temperature (in daytime) is 10 to 15 C. Chilly till we get moving. There's a patch of light rain, late in the morning. Again, we mostly follow tracks. Yesterday we walked past some blackberries, today we see none. We see maybe a dozen other competitors in the four hours we are walking.

The final leg is three controls in an almost direct line back to HH, through bush. No trouble with the first two. I set the compass to the third...

This third control -- our last for the day -- is on a creek. We reach the creek. Is it to the left or the right? Left, I say. Right, says Deb. I'm the navigator so we turn left.

Turns out, we should have turned right.

We miss the control by 50m. We find a track, identify the bend we are on, turn back. And miss the control by 50m. We give up and head back to HH...

It's a sure sign that I'm getting tired... Walking to that control I always aimed off a bit -- then forgot which way I had aimed off. So didn't know which way to turn at the creek.

Not to worry! It's a low-point control. The only control which gave us a problem. We continue on, back to HH with ten minutes to spare. A very enjoyable rogaine :-)
===

We're tired, wet and cold. Deb is damp, mostly from rain, before she put on a raincoat. I've been dripping sweat for hours, as I always do. (I walk in shorts, thermal and shirt and accept that I will be hot and wet. Then cold and wet when we stop walking.)

We have no tent to pack up. We don't wait for the presentations. We leave just a few minutes before the event closes at noon. I've changed into dry clothes... but we drive with the heater on full. Aaahhh, bliss!

We stop... somewhere... for lunch. I'm sure we stopped somewhere, I just have no memory of where(**). No memory of stopping, either. Which is why this journal should be written as soon as possible, before the memory fades...
===

So we arrive home, satisfied but tired. After much walking -- and several hours sitting still while driving -- legs are stiff and tired and aching. "Recovery" the next day involves an hour and a half splashing in the pool with our grandson. My legs no longer ache but... no surprise... are still tired. So the day after... we're back to running. Forty minutes... Not recovered but feeling better :-)
===

On the two days of the rogaine we walked 22km and 15km. If we have a secret, it's to keep... on... walking. I find it hard to believe -- the country seemed to be flat or gently rolling -- we ascended 2000m. (And went down the same...)

Results are not yet on the web but we have heard that we won our category. At worst we came second, with only two teams in our category: male/female and all team members over 65. It's a great sport for getting old.

I overlaid our gps trace over the competition map. It all looks good -- except for the ridiculous effort round that last control.

And good news for Deb: I hardly swore at all.

A good weekend all round.

===

(**) I'm doing the obvious check: looking at credit card payments. We stopped at Boyanup, the Old Boyanup Bakery. We drove via Dardanup & Boyanup, quieter and more interesting than the main highway. A light lunch at Boyanup followed by a quick dash back to the truck as heavy rain came pelting down. It was a *mostly* fine weekend :-)

Nick Lethbridge    /    Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting    /   Problems? Solved.
   ===

When all else fails, have someone else read the instructions" … per Ginger Meggs