This morning I was in low spirits. I realised late last night I couldn't find my good luck charm. This is a small horseshoe that's about the size of a fingernail. This was something that's meant to bring luck and I received it off my late Oma. I was devastated when I thought I lost it. This initiated a mixture of feelings, mostly anger that I could be so disorganised to lose it. The anger was followed by sadness, as it was the only possession I had from my Oma after she passed away. I've carried this thing everyday on all my travels and in this time I'd love to have it more than ever. The second I couldn't find it, where I thought I put it last, I looked everywhere. I emptied all my stuff, went through all my pockets and all my bags. I thought it was gone. The wind was so heavy, blowing all my things away and my tent flying around, all I wanted was my Omas horseshoe.
This morning waking up after having the dingoes circling my tent all night I was really in low morale. When I woke up and walked out of the tent there were two dingoes just staring at me. These are astonishing looking animals, when contrasted with the Australian landscape. It's incredible to think these are native animals and that they belong to the land. They have a distinctive appearance and almost glow in the dark. They have a bright shining white strip through their chest, followed with a bright yellowy beige colour on the rest of their body. They both stood there, the same as last night, just gazing into me. With the reflection of the moon you can imagine this was a very surreal spectacle. The open treeless shrub plains with two big eyes glaring off the full moon. These were clever buggers, having wits somewhat similar to a fox. They would get close, then do a semi circle around me, then within a few seconds get even closer. It's hard to believe this is a native animal, yet I still have trouble believing they were introduced 15,000 years ago or whatever it is, through south east Asia. It just adds even more to the miraculous diversity of the Australian environment. Now that I feel safe I can say it was a very good experience to see these in natural conditions.
After I packed all my stuff up I realised two things. The first was that my horseshoe was stuck to the back of a fridge-magnet I bought for my mum. This made me very relieved. The second that my bike sandal was missing. I looked all over and realised it was gone. I then thought of the dingoes and whether or not they would have taken it. I started looking through the shrubs and after about 30minutes I manage to find it. I'm very lucky about this as I wasn't looking forward to riding the next 1500km in a pair of thongs.
The weather was very cloudy and the next roadhouse was 20km away. After this it is 190km, which will be the W.A border. I thought due to the conditions I'd better take the day off in the roadhouse and avoid today's wet weather.
After pulling into the roadhouse the rain picked up more and more. It ended up raining the whole day until now, late at night. There are a few caravans here at the roadhouse but they are all at the front near the road. The unpowered tent sites are at the rear of the roadhouse, practically in the shrub land. In this part of my ride I'm not expecting to see other tents, as these parts would only have vans or caravans. There are even more dingoes around this roadhouse as apparently they come here for all the foods scraps from the travellers. It's pouring rain, extreme winds, my tent full of water and plenty of dingoes circling my tent again. This is the most I've been pushed by the natural elements so far.
I just hope my bags are safe outside of my tent and that the food in my tent doesn't attract the dingoes inside. I actually asked an old couple in a big camper van whether I could put my small backpack, that has my food in it, inside their caravan. The lady mumbled like a real miserable old women and exclaimed "If I put your bag in here then I'll have to move all my stuff off the table and then put it all back in the morning!!". Not only did her remarks illustrate her insensitivity to other people but it made me feel somewhat cheeky for even asking. As I was standing there in the rain she continued rambling on with negativity, so I decided to walk off. I am now in my tent and it's full of little puddles and my sleeping bags soaked. I'm hoping to leave early tomorrow morning but in these conditions I don't know if I'll be able to get out of here.
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