The Cormanus Chronicles: The Wintersun Run 2018

[Cormanus]

Thank you all for the kind words. Stichill, the comparison to Patrick O'Brian is flatter indeed. Of the three British fiction writers on the Napoleonic navy that I'm familiar with—CS Forester, Alexander Kent and Patrick O'Brian—he was the best, I think. It's interesting because something came up about him recently and I learned of the controversy over his early life.

I'll have to go back to Broken Hill and spend some time there. There is lots to see and Pterodactyl and I saw very little of itas our riding trips tend to be about riding not sightseeing. If one were doing a bucket list visit, the time to go may well be early September when the [url=https://www.bhfestival.com/]Broken Heel Festival, celebrating all things Priscilla, is on. Friends of mine are going this year so I might see if I can get a report from them. Mid summer might not be so pleasant out west.

The Woolshed is pretty good. As an adolescent I spent a couple of days helping in working shearing shed. The Aussie shearer was a tough bloke and worked hard and long for not a lot of money. Manhandling heavy sheep all day is, as they used to say down here, 'hard yakka'.

On the question of winter, it is heading to the coldest part of the year now, but we're pretty blessed on mainland Australia in being able to ride pretty much all year round. Sure there are high bits that get covered in snow, but snow rarely falls anywhere near sea level on the coast, even in Tasmania. The temperatures don't get below freezing the way they do in parts of North America, so, if you're prepared to wear the right gear, all-year riding is no problem. As you can see from some of the photos, the weather can also be magnificent—clear sunny days mean you can go from multiple layers to manage wind chill on the bike to shirt sleeves if you can get out of the breeze. Except for the Friday to Sunday in Mildura where the weather was uncharacteristically gloomy, we had lovely weather.

In some ways, like those of you, for example, in Arizona and other warmer parts of the US, I'd prefer to ride in winter when I can rug up against the cold. When the temperatures get much above 32ºC the pleasure of riding starts to diminish.

I forgot to mention in the report that, while Pterodactyl and I were on the ride, water reached Lake Eyre where Donald Campbell set a land speed record of 403 mph in 1964 There's usually not a lot of water about; but, when there is, you get to plan for it way ahead of time as the water that flows into the lake lands 1,000 kms away and then runs along various ancient natural watercourses to get there. Birds come from all over the place and fish and plants that can lie dormant for years return to life. A possible bucket list trip for me is to go to Lake Eyre when the water arrives. If you're interested, there's a report [url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-26/lake-eyre-and-the-ancient-rhythms-of-our-red-centre/9864010]here.