Day 54 - A good day at the office

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Gulgong - Mendooran 92km

Following Louise's soapbox thoughts, I was tempted to call today's post "9 to 5" referring to the famous Dolly Parton song (and movie) of the same title. But the parallels kind of stopped with the lines "pour a cup of ambition" and "yawn and stretch and try to come to life".

But 9 to 5 it was, on the road, between packing up a soggy tent and rolling into the free campsite in Mendooran. 

Not alone in the morning glory

The day started with the good feeling of not being alone. A group of travelling cyclists (doing a multi-day trip around the Mudgee area) were staying at the same campground, and battling the same issues: to pack up wet gear caused by a cold night and heavy condensation. We stretch to life while the gear is drying in the early morning sunshine. 

The cup of ambition is paired with a cup of instant coffee, maybe not as good as the one in the office, but still. Once we are on road, things are rolling along nicely.

The first two hours until morning tea, fly by and we get things (kilometres) done. There is no glitch in the systems (brakes, gearing) and the intranet (our partnership) runs smoothly. The lunch break is in the wide open and while we enjoy leftovers from the previous night's dinner, we dry the tent under the blue sky. The post lunch sluggishness is shaken off by a stretch of red dirt road. Luckily, the ROAD CLOSED sign was pushed off the side.

Red dirt, blue sky

Once the time has come around to start wrapping up our day "at the office" we need to reshift our focus one more time to cover the last 11km on a nasty stretch of the Castlereagh Highway into Mendooran. A few bumps (copy machine jamming) and a too close of a call with a B-double (boss wants something done last minute), we arrive 'home' for the day.  A beautiful free campground on the Castlereagh River.

Home after a good day at the office

Content with the day's work and with a healthy appetite, we wander to the pub across the road for an honest feed and a chat with the locals. I can hear Dolly singing in the background "...and the tide's gonna turn, and it's all gonna roll your way..." 9 to 5 (Dolly Parton on Spotify)

A toast to the 9 to 5'ers at the Royal Hotel


 

Location: Mendooran NSW 2842, Australia

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