The facial hair gets serious.

Munglinup Road House. January 30th 10:55 am

Breezed through Ravensthorpe, road train country; more on that later. I pushed a hard 20 km that afternoon into an east wind towards Munglinup. Still clouds. A very shallow bush camp. Gray skies passed me and the wizened looking fingers that stood in for trees on this bushy plain. I pulled my jacket out. It was getting surprisingly cold. I made another fine meal and cleaned up. To my slight dismay, a spattering of raindrops began to appear. They were of the fine consistency that could increase or stay light all night. I hoped for the latter.

I was pleased to find out my bivy sack and tarp worked exactly as I imagined. They kept me warm, but were a bit stuffy. Tonight the ground was hard. There were no leaves to add to my pad’s light cushion.

I woke at five again, then slept in till six. I had the unclean feeling that lifts with the light that reveals world and purpose.

I broke camp.

60 km to Munglinup, and I was in no mood to stop. The rain picked up as did the wind, and then the hills. This 60 km was hard fought, and it was not with a little relief that I pulled into the roadhouse. I ate a ham and cheese sandwich, half a quart of milk, a cappuccino, and a bacon and egg burger with a beet.

Fueled up and this being the last stop till Esperance, I thought about what I could do to make this 110 km more comfortable. Perhaps a shower, a change of spandex? This idea had some merit. I also decided to do a little beard maintenance. There is nothing like a shave to make one feel renewed. In the shower, which had most of the cast of "A Bug’s Life" showering with me, I decided that if I was going to beat this next 110 km of road, hills and wind, I better look the part. Only the chin was going. The beard would stay. I left sideburn to the corner of my mouth, up over the top of my lip and mirrored on the other side. This seemed appropriate. The road had no idea of the fury I was going to bring it. Water fun. Sunscreen was optimistically on and the beat of "Jessie’s Girl" rocking in my ears from the road house as I got back to the road.