The Great Race.

Was reading a few pages of a book when the WM rang at 7.15am yesterday to say the race at Bathurst was to start in 15mis. Flew out of bed, dressed for riding, grabbed my bag and shot up to her house and what a start. Pole position car stalled on the track and dropped to 24th! Half the house was up and half still asleep so had to be reasonably quiet in our enthusiasm, LOL. A muffin, a cup of coffee and an hour later, I was off again to go riding - just a quick one I thought - and 3 1/2 hours later.....

We turned left as we left the horse yards and went down through the property, across the road, past the cemetary and quite a ways up the track before we decided to go through some closed gates in an effort to find the salt lake we could see from the top windows up in the boarding house. We found ourselves in a wheat field which was really two together with some wheat already golden and another lot still green. We started to ride round the perimeter of the field which went on and on and on and on, looking for a gate to head in the direction we still thought we should be going in. At last after riding around what seemed to be 3/4 of the area we finally came to an opening in the fence and ended up in scrub and what appeared to be river bed and the salt area we were looking for (which happend to be at the back of the shearing shed which we could have ridden in a direct line too and taken an hour instead of two!) We eventually ended up on the track we had ridden into the paddock on and headed back to school having done a complete circle and 15 - 20k. Saw lots of birds and finally a small kangaroo leapt across the path as we headed back, though we saw heaps of tracks out in the wheat field. I did see a tiny brown lizard scurry into the undergrowth and only because it was scurrying at speed and the movement caught my eye.

For the first time I rode with a fly veil over my helmet and I will not be without one now. I had already swallowed two flies and nearly breathed one in (and think I only spat one out!) before I had even got on the horse yesterday so was completely over the whole fly issue by then. I must get a photo of me when they just settle on you like a blanket. They were our constant companions on the ride and every so often there would be a huge swarm you would ride through other than the hundreds who wanted to be your friend on the whole ride, LOL.

It was reasonably breezy to begin with but by 12.30pm when we got back, there was some warmth (30o again) to the sun. Some of the staff children wanted a ride so left the horse at the yard and fast walked back to the WM's to watch the remainder of the race. It felt very wierd watching in during that part of the day and was great to be able to see the end of the race without being cut into by the news (would have finished about 7.30pm in NZ last night). It was nail biting stuff as Murph passed Steve Richards with very few laps to go, especially as his car was starting to overheat through being so close behind SR's car. Barely breathed over the last 9 laps in case something happend to Murph's car and it was great to see him get 2nd place after the hassles at the beginning of the race that had him way down the field. The WM reckons we will all have to see it live next year so who knows, LOL - it is on my list of things to do.

Shot home for a shower and more talking on Skype and then it was back up to the WM's for a farewell dinner for her parents who have left this morning to return to Philip Island which is where they live. They have been over for just under 6 weeks. We watched 'Dancing with the Stars' which had been off last week for Telethon and this time Stefano of NZ fame was eliminated. He was partnered with 'Martha' from 'Home and Away' who had improved a lot but did not appear to be inherently a dancer. Stefano seemed very stoical about being eliminated but you could see it was hard after the success he had had previously. The smile was dimmed somewhat, nonetheless, there was still a smile or was it a grimmace, LOL.

Am about to cook myself mushrooms (my own) for breakfast to fortify myself for the day ahead. A good amount of the girls will return later today and I will be up at school by 8am! so had better get a move on. It was cold last night and put a blanket back on again - crazy spring weather I guess and it is windy again this morning. Will be up at school before the heat comes up.