8 September 2010-New chains on, and we are rocking. Didn't get out of Kalgoorlie till 1100. Got to Merreden at 1600. It is only three more hours to Perth, but the critters come out in about two, and my best description of a kangaroo would be "a dumb deer." So we stopped for the night. Came back from dinner in the motel restaurant to find my MC cover off, and half of the windscreen snapped off. And this is a small country town! Back to reality. Just very glad it didn't happen before now. So surgery tomorrow with duct tape. I refuse to let it get me down. Everything else has been too marvelous. Sue talked with Reg, her Dad, and he and Shirley have invited us for soup at noon, so that is where we will be, one last stop before ending in Bruce and Di's garage, the start point.

One thing I have been meaning to mention but keep forgetting to is the incredible number and variety of birdlife - birds as small as your thumb, and as large as a woman standing; water birds with long skinny legs, land birds, carrion eating birds, seed eaters, eagles, crows, flocks of pink and grey galahs, flocks of white silver crested cockatoos, parakeets, emus, magpies, kookaburras, willy-wagtails - and on seemingly ad finatum. And it seems they all love to sing, so the air is filled with music more than it is quiet. In the states Sue tunes in the Australian Open, not to watch the tennis, but just to hear the birds. I understand "why" a lot more now.