The winds blowing in from the north last time that we had camped looked to be affecting the fruit trees more than I had planned.

I’d assumed that the prevailing wind would come up the gullies from the south and west and had planted down from the tank in the lee of the ridge. It seems that I hadn’t considered the hot dry north winds in summer and they were severly drying out the new citrus trees.

As a temporary step, I had found some pea straw bales going cheap and arrange for Pa to help pick them up.

Arriving in Clare from Adelaide reasonably early, I was reminded of a computer problem that Graeme had asked about and changed plans slightly. This also gave me a chance to have a look at his new shed and property for ideas.

Due to the dialup connection providing slow downloads, we were soon tight for time and struggling to get to the pea straw at Halbury for mdday. The vague instructions didn’t help but we met Richard at about ten past and it was then that I realised that we were to load the bales from the paddock ourselves.

Lachie had come along for the ride and I figured it might be good for him to drive the “Goon Mobile” while Pa and I loaded.

With two very full trailers and Pa’s Patrol loaded inside as well, we decided to just make it up and follow dirt roads home, rather than interrupt traffic on the highway.

Apart from one unmarked dead end, we made our way through to Kybunga and up the hill back to the Journey to unload.

After lunch we stacked a series of windbreaks on the northern side fo the trees in increasingly heavy rain.

Soaked to the skin we left the Journey heading to Halbury to pick up the last five bales of pea straw and head back home to Adelaide.

With the rain, what had been bulldust in the morning had turned to very slippery mud. Any chance of heading back uphill after loading the bales was lost and we again had to make up the route as the “Goon Mobile” flicked mud everywhere.

Justing and Lachie laughed as the mud flicked in the windows and onto the windscreen as I fought the wheel to keep everything in a generally forward direction.

Running late again, we returned home to meet Raph, Meg, Caro, Rod, Ralphie and Marilyn. Ralphie and I had the Tour Down Under ride the next day and nothing on my preparation list (including bike cleaning and prep) was done.

It was a full on night of cleaning, packing, mounting bikes and preparation before a 5:30am start in the morning.