A night under the stars
I had thought I might stop in Falls on my way to Sydney but once I hit the road, I just rode and rode and stopped only for petrol, it was warm and I was loving the open road. It was late afternoon when I started to think about where I might spend the night. I was on the road to Gundagai and spotted a little place tucked away on the side of the road, a night under the stars was called for, it had been a while but the swag would come out again for tonight. First though why not check out Gundagai, a small town with a pub on every corner, I hadn’t eaten for a while so a couple of schooners and a pub meal would go down a treat. I was in NSW, Toheys country, I hadn’t sampled a Tooheys old for thirty years and it wasn’t long before I was having a yarn to a local farmer who just happened to ride a bike. The raffle ticket guy appeared and I bought a few tickets for a meat or fruit tray. Fed and watered I was feeling pretty good; they did the draw, which I wasn’t paying much attention to. The ticket guy came over, tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out I’d won a fruit tray, which was huge. Wow! I don’t think I’ve got room on the bike for that, is there anywhere in town that would appreciate the fruit? We decided on the old folks home which he would take care of for me, well! This is a small place and word got around the pub what had happened, so when it was time for me to ride up the road to my little camping spot, the whole pub was shouting… good onya mate… they all seemed to know I was going to camp out, even though I’d only told one bloke…watch out for them black fella’s. I walked out of that pub feeling 10 feet tall, what a fantastic day and I still had the stars to look forward to.
The following morning I ran into an old bloke, who had slept over the road in a camper, he had bought on the internet. He had got this far from Adelaide and the radiator had spewed all the water out. Another random act of kindness, going to get something to block the hole 20kl away and I was on a high for the rest of the day. If I ever need a place to stay in Canberra I’ll be ok.
Ah! Life on the open road, is there a better way?
I am….THE LONESOME TRAVELLER….travelling east….BE HAPPY!