Wednesday 15th December 2010 – Next day Nick continued to guide me through the back roads of New South Wales to Deniliquin. There were huge plagues of locusts everywhere and we both ended up covered in insect splatter as we rode through the swarms. At one point I nearly drove off the road when one of them got up under my visor and started buzzing around in front of my face!

The day before Nick had commented that I tended to lose speed in the bends, so I made a concerted effort to keep up with him and noticed if you keep your power up and lean into the bends, you don’t lose any speed. Now I know this might seem pretty obvious to most bike riders, but I’ve never really got the hang of this before. Anyway, just when I was busy congratulating myself on my new found skill, we came riding into floods all over the roads. The first couple were okay, but when Nick dropped down a hole and barely made it through to the other side we really had to pick our way very carefully. I think we both felt we’d earned our “river crossing endorsement” at the end of it.

We camped at Deniliquin that night and despite Nick buying a mosquito net for his houchie, still couldn’t get the thing to work so slept at Motel Maden again. The ironic thing was that I was the one who ended up being eaten alive by mossies while he never got a single bite!

This morning he had his own bit of hilarity when I walked into a spider’s web and went completely berserk. Not long after I found a huge spider on my boot and had a girlie screaming fit. Luckily he came to my aid and disposed of it.

Nick was missing his family, so today he decided to start making his way back to Canberra. I was really sad to see him go as I’d really enjoyed his company and felt my riding had improved greatly by following him. We parted ways at Barham and I rejoined the Murray Valley Highway to Swan Hill. As this meant passing Lake Boga I turned off and took a run up to the house I’d sat a few months ago. Nobody was about, but it was nice to see the place again. I then proceeded up to Mildura where I booked into a motel, had a swim and smothered myself from head to toe in Stingoes to try and stop the itching of my mossie bites.