Sunday 24 October 2010 - Riding across the Mallee Highway from Tailem Bend to Ouyen involved travelling through what is obviously flour country - miles and miles of wheat fields criss-crossed by railway tracks and flour silos at each station. But as soon as I reached Swan Hill this changed into fruit country – vineyards and fruit farms for as far as the eye could see. Australia has been suffering from drought for the last 10 years, but this winter, the drought finally broke and the country has been experiencing flooding in a number of places. Lake Boga, where I’m staying, is now full for the first time in 10 years.

As I rode into Lake Boga there was a sign saying “Pull over if locusts impair your vision”. At first I thought I’d mis-read this, but my hosts assured me there are indeed plagues of locusts everywhere and even pointed out some hatchlings as we took the dogs for their first walk. Within the next month these should grow into huge swarms capable of stripping whole fields so the council is doing what they can to kill them off as soon as possible. Hopefully I’ll be long gone by then.

Tuesday 26 October 2010 - I’ve been left in charge of 2 dogs and a cat. The dogs need a lot of attention and I practically broke my toe as I fell down the stairs last night to let them out in the middle of the night. The cat, of course, only needs fed and patted and that’s enough for her.

While I was in Adelaide I got news that I’ve got a 3 month house-sit in Northern Queensland from 10 January. As the one before it ends on 1 January and is in Whyalla, South Australia, this means I’ll have almost 4000km to cover in 9 days to get there in time. As this is cyclone time, I’m seriously considering selling the bike and buying a car.