It was time for a stress relief ride. West, I thought, dirt roads. I took the \u2018Strom. North of the Great Western Highway, west of Lithgow. Places have great names out there past Curly Dick Road at Meadow Flat.<\/p>\n
I stopped for petrol before Richmond. \u201cAnd where are YOU going today?\u201d the woman behind the counter asked me.<\/p>\n
\u201cMount Horrible\u201d, I told her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo steal the Orb of Sandor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh\u201d, she said, and gave me my change. \u201cGood luck!\u201d she called as I walked out.<\/p>\n
I rode the Bells Line of Road and the highway, and turned north at Meadow Flat. Out of Sunny Corner, I took the Dark Corner road, and then turned on to the dirt at Cupits Lane. A sign said watch out for everything, including bad roads, log trucks and animals. There are people who don\u2019t?<\/p>\n
Cupits Lane looked like a logging track. It became Eskdale Road, which didn\u2019t. On a downhill section covered in stones the size of strawberries interspersed with stones the size of oranges, I thought maybe I should have told someone where I was going. I was glad of the knobby tyres. I wondered what would happen if I hit one of those big stones and fell off and impaled myself on the sharp branches sticking out from one of the fallen trees. I bet there\u2019s no mobile reception. And I didn\u2019t have any water.<\/p>\n
About midday, I saw a lone big kangaroo hopping through the trees ten metres off the road. They\u2019re supposed to be asleep during the day.<\/p>\n
I pressed the \u201cCities\u201d button on the GPS, and it said Limekilns was nineteen kilometres away. I kept working the road. It would have been better on a proper dirt bike, with less weight and a bigger front wheel. I figured I could handle it getting a bit worse if I dropped the tyre pressures, but I didn\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n
I turned left at the Mount Horrible Road to get to Limekilns and buy some water.<\/p>\n
I was in open farmland when the GPS said Limekilns was 0.1 km ahead. I thought there had to be a cathedral for it to be a city. Limekilns didn\u2019t even have a building.<\/p>\n
I turned around and went back to the Mount Horrible Road. The altimeter in the GPS said I was well over 900m above sea level. A couple of times it went over 1,000m. I guess one of those was Mount Horrible. There was no sign.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a bad dirt road. It\u2019s curvy and quite scenic in places. It ends on the Dark Corner Road: more dirt. I rode back to the highway and headed for home.<\/p>\n
I stopped at the same service station at Richmond and got some fuel and water.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you get the orb?\u201d the woman behind the counter asked.<\/p>\n
I pointed over my shoulder with my thumb. \u201cIn the topcase.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yokel. As if Sandor would leave the orb in the middle of nowhere.<\/p>\n
I got home an hour later. The girl-child was watching some J-drama on Netflix. \u201cHi dad\u201d, she said. \u201cWhere have you been?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMount Horrible\u201d, I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow was it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHorrible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell duh.\u201d<\/p>\n
She is an unsympathetic and sarcastic child.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know where she gets it from. I suspect her teachers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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