Apr 13: Oh Hey, it’s Friday the 13th!

Nat had to work today, so I took the opportunity to take care of some stuff. I’ve been thinking my sleeping pad has a slow leak, but I submerged it in water and couldn’t find anything (curiously, I had the same issue with a Big Agnes pillow—a leak, but I could never find it. Ended up sending it back to Big Agnes, and they replaced it.). It could just be from the temperature changes at night, but...it’s never lost air to that extent before. The thing is, it’s not terrible. If there really is a leak, it is quite slow, and the mat does not completely deflate. On Tassie, I would just have to give it a few puffs of air during the night...maybe once, sometimes twice. So, I decided to get a Z-Rest pad to put under my shoulders and hips. That way, if it does lose air in the middle of the night, I will still have some padding. Also, it will add some insulation from the ground. I’ve been told, though the days will be warm as I make my way west, the nights will begin to get colder—even on the Nullarbor. I had a number of cold nights on Tassie where I would have welcomed the extra insulation from the ground.

I rode to the store where I got fuel when I first arrived in Melbourne. It’s called The Wilderness Store, and it’s similar (but smaller) to REI. It felt good to get back on Tilmann. It’s warm (80 degrees Fahrenheit) in Melbourne today, but quite windy. The store was about 6km away, so a pretty easy ride. I considered getting more fuel, but I still have some in the canister that I started with, and also another small canister. I’ll see if I can get to Adelaide before buying more fuel.

Since there was no hurry to get back, I also stopped to get more postage stamps so I could mail some postcards to my grandson. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but the cost of one international postage stamp is $3.00! At the rate I’m sending postcards, I will have spent a fortune on postage! I also have to mail my case to Perth, but Nat and I will do that tomorrow as it’s a little difficult to carry it on my bike to the post office. Of course, I’ve also picked up a few souvenirs for my kids and grandkids. I’m going to mail those home. 

I also did various other chores like laundry. I’m finding I’m a bit tired today. Perhaps the last few days of long days and late nights in Sydney has caught up with me. Ah well, soon enough I’ll be back to going to bed with the chickens (and getting up with them too).

Because a blog post without photos is boring, here’s a few from the plane yesterday that I forgot to put in the previous post.




That’s some rugged coastline there!