With only a month to go until I leave the Mitchell Plateau I'm slowly building up the distance on these rocky roads and aiming to run the 45km in the next few weeks hopefully. I'm starting to wonder what I was thinking.
I mis-judged the timing on this one and ran out of light at 31km. It's not a great idea to be running these roads in the dark so I walked the extra 4km to get home - probably the longest 4km of my life. And just to make matters worse I couldn't find the water bottle I strategically stashed at 31km. I had been looking forward to that water for about 15 kilometres. Lesson learned the hard way.
On a more positive note the run is made all the more enjoyable thanks to the wildlife that makes a fleeting appearance along the way. Occasionally there is a dingo, feral cattle on the road, beautiful red-backed fairy wrens, clusters of 20-30 grass-yellow butterflies and my first close sighting of a Wedge-tailed eagle in the area - the biggest bird of prey in Australia. These are the moments that bring a welcome smile in what can otherwise be a bit of a slog.
All up, it was a good reminder the 45km is probably going to be the hardest thing I've ever done, especially in these conditions.
While the world's attention has now shifted to the unfolding disaster that is the Coronavirus (you know it's serious when the Irish close the pubs!) there's still a massive bushfire recovery effort underway here in Australia with a lot of work still to be done. If you're interested in sponsoring a few dollars to the 45km 'fun run' you can still use the link below:
