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Busselton >> Leeuwin Naturalist National Park.... kinda.
After the struggle of yesterday, I had hoped for a better day today. My knee should heal, the sun should shine, and the wind could be from behind me. Sadly, that wasn't the case.
My knee was hurting as much as the night before, even just walking around on it now was painful. Me limping around packing up my camp from the night before wasn't what I had hoped for at all. Despite the pain, I made my way back into the Busselton town center, some 10km away, following the stormy beachfront where possible.
At some parts of this ride I unclipped my right foot from the pedal and powered along using only my left leg. This was actually a litter faster than me riding with two legs, however wasn't something I could see myself doing for very long - let alone all day.
Once I made my way into the town center, I had hoped to find a doctors surgery for an inpromptu appointment, hopefully for some hard drugs to fix up my leg, or atleast dull the pain. Unfortunately all the docs in town had been booked out all day, which was no help for me at all. No doubt they'd have just said take some Nurofen, give your leg a rest for a few days and see how it goes... May as well do all that myself anyway!
Luckily for me, I had planned to meet a friend, Daniel/Sentinel, today anyway. Thanks to his help we were able to load my gear into his little car and head at speed towards Margaret River. After a quick bite to eat and a supplies pickup for my next couple of days, we were on our way to the Conto Road campsite. Dan dropped me off and after making sure that I was set, drove back towards Perth for some other commitments.
Not much after Dan had left, I started to smell some smoke. Although it is the middle of winter, significant amounts of smoke in the middle of a National Park is never a good sign, so I made sure my bike was rideable and slowly(and still slightly painfully) rode my way towards the source. It wasn't long before I was greeted by the sight of a park ranger who explained the situation and controlled burnoffs to me. He was really quite a nice guy to chat to, especially once I told him of my recently started bike tour and the drama my knee has given me in the last few days.
After heading back to camp, I pitched my tent and when the ranger returned paid my nights stay in the park. Because it was still daylight, I felt that I had to do something contructive, or just keep busy somehow, as it was still atleast an hour away from dinner time. Deciding to collect some firewood from around the area was a good start, no doubt we'd be needing that for the next few days when the rest of the boys rock up here at camp.
After a quick walk, during which my knee gave me far less troubles, I decided it was about time I started cooking dinner. On tonights menu was some fresh steak, along with pasta served with a spicy curry gravy. Turned out pretty good actually, if you're into that kind of thing!
The rain has been attempting to get serious for the last hour or so, but has only really spittered and spattered a little.
With any luck over the next 3 or 4 days my knee will heal itself up nicely and I'll be able to start making some progress again. If it doesn't, I'm afraid that maybe my tour will be over not long after it has started. Perhaps with some physio work done on it I'll be able to start off from where my knee failed me. I'd much rather it just healed itself though, and I could continue on my journey as soon as possible.
I can hear some kind of animal cleaning up the scraps in my food bowl just outside my tent... I wonder what it is... Could be a 'roo, a fox, or maybe a possum... not sure.. Interesting listening to it though.
Day 6, 7 and 8 should be very quiet ones on the cycling front... Maybe on sunday I'll try for a ride into Margaret River, some 20km away. See how the knee holds up then I guess.
No official stats for today - I only rode about 10km, back into busselton, but my average would have been around the 15km/h mark and boy was it painful!
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