Day 21 Denham to Hamelin Pool 103 kms

We did the reverse to the other day. We left Denham in the morning and had morning tea at Shell Beach. I was going to attempt the climb out of Denham on the bike, which I had walked up on the last trip. But when I revisited the hill, I changed my mind and withdrew my challenge. It's not a huge hill but it is a sudden steep hill, there is no run up, it is an instant climb. In other words I piked.
We stopped at the IGA for diesel and had to wait for a grey nomad to finish. Another car pulled up on the other side of the pump and could have jumped in before us but offered to wait until we had our turn. He had seen us around and had spoken to a couple of the riders, so knew who we were and said he didn't want the riders to have to wait too long for morning tea. This doesn't happen too often at petrol bowsers.
Shell Beach was as beautiful as ever. The speedway drivers were all pulling up and we chatted with the guy next to us who had a battered race car on his trailer. I couldn't work out what he had in the back of his truck so asked him. It was another full sized race car that his 10 year old daughter raced in. The other trucks also had similar cars and daughters with them.
Annie decided to stay and soak up some sun at Shell Beach so we left her behind and Woody said he would keep her company. Poor Annie had witnessed an emu being hit by a car earlier but hadn't told anyone so was a bit upset and just wanted some quiet time.
We got into Hamelin Station early in the afternoon and it was a bit like coming home. We settled in quickly and I got started on the salads for dinner and preparing the vegetables for roasting for the next bush camp. Collis and I walked up to the lake around sunset hoping to get a good photo over the lake but the sunset wasn't all that spectacular, so a little disappointed. Theo, Georg and Ben had ridden down to the stromatolites also for sunset photos but also disappointed.
Tonight we had $10 BBQ dinner packs with a vegetarian alternative for Joan. Everyone was expected to cook their own meat but Georg ended up cooking for Woody, Chris and himself. I made two large tossed salads and a potato salad. We cooked pancakes for dessert. Quite a few subdued moods tonight amongst the riders and not sure if it was something in the water or they were upset about leaving Denham or they were just driving each other crazy but a few of us had a quick game of cards and off to bed early.