adelaide river-jam and buffalo

writing to you from adelaide river-100km S Darwin! Be and i have been hard at work for the last 3 and a half days!! true!! we have felt less pressure to make ground since we left Katherine, and have had some fun adventures......

Been camping out a lot and loving it. Have been riding on the old Stuart Highway which is windy, hilly, narrow, in the process being burnt off (riding past flames with fuel in my pannier is a bit scary) and has creeks with water in them...woah (water is still a novelty, expecially water we can drink!!) swimming after a hot day (average is about 33 degrees) in robin falls 4 days ago was bliss.we ended up staying the night there and in the morning i got up and walked upto the water fall, climbed up the falls and found a little pool of calm water being fed by teh second fall...soooo tempted for nudie swims! instead i explored further up the falls and was annoyed at myself for wearing no shoes (shuddup!) cos it meant i couldnt trek further down to the stream before it flowed over falls...so clear and pristine. haha, so instead i got my kit off and slid into the first pool i found and watched the sun turnm everything golden and sparkly as it poked its head over the hills...ahhhhhh. walking back down to our little spot there was another spot perfect for mel with no clothes on, so i went for a secon dip!! oh my goodness!! 2xnudie swims plus an explore, climb and sunrise, all bgefore breakfast and coffee. YIPPEEE!!

that day we left late and cycled the rest of the track to adelaide river, as we saw the current highway we also heard brass music and saw balloons tied to the old gate of a railway house thing...we looked at each other...yep, lets check it out! treddled on in and smelt sausage sizzle, hed the brass band playing and stalls set up, poeple hanging around, how cool! i approched a jam stand and before i could even look at the jams the lady took hold of my arm...are you passng through?! me: yes... her:do you want a few days work? i'll feed and water you... me: oooo that actually sounds great, but i ahve to check with my friend be cos we're travelling together... her: no worries

and so me and be ate devonshire tea and talked to the tuba player and decided that yes, we'll stay to work for one and ahalf days

haha!!

anyway, to cut the long story short, we've been here for 3 and half days now, not working but volunteering our time. Patsy and her husband tommy have treated us so generously and the jam that patsy makes is incredible. it's called rosella jam, not the birds, but native little red flwoers that we heldped her go find in the bush, and really really long grass! its been a hoot and we feel like theyve really taken us under their wing. tommy and his sons now own a trucking company that runs iout of adelaide river, but his major love was buffalo catching and thats what he did for the majority of his working life.patsy cooked for the team out bush and my goodness, they have some stories to tell!! the rosellas are hard work and normally patsy does it all on her own (the kids and grandkids and tommy have had enough with rosella's....ha till seh found us!!) but its been an awesome change for us and we feel well rested (and far out does patsy cook!) we've spotted them, cut them, trimmed them off the stem, then washed them, then cut them up for jam, fiddly work...but so good. (chrsitmas time...yum!) we feel totally in awe of their hospitality and are thinking about next years harvest...(patsy's eyes light up!) we call patsy mad (for the jam) and she calls us crazymad (for the bikes) we're a good trio and have also enjoyed beer and spas after a hard days work :)

alas, im rambling on. i feel pretty sad that its almost over. riding has become the wy of life, as has living in one spot for a day or two ata time, notlooking forward to footpaths and noise, busyness and obligation.
we're averaging 100km a day and feeling good.fitness has kicked in. no more highway for us, backway to darwin via litchfield and mandorah-the ferry to darwin!!

i'll leave you be. (haha, not Be as in mole BE-sorry...)
the support and interest shown by you guys has been so encouragng-seriously dont underestimate it.its been so GREAT to see comments and have people ask us wheere we are and the rest.TAHNKYOU!
oooh-and ive been converted to elvis! teeee!!

much loving MEL xxtoad (-not cane-GROSS)