A break for birthdays, the mid-tour mark and another heat wave

Hi all,
It's been a really busy time on the tour and I've been finding it tough to get time to update this, but we have a little downtime today between performances in the lovely town of Stawell. I had a really great birthday in Halls Gap - the crew made it really special with midnight pancakes and beverages to kick off the day and then hiking, swimming, kangaroo spotting and even a "Tim Tam" cake that a handful of people baked from scratch with no recipe. Tim Tams are these really strange biscuits covered in chocolate that you bite opposite corners off of, then suck tea through it and shove it in your face as the whole thing starts to melt and mush. It's a little intense, even for a chocolate lover such as myself. We had another birthday a couple days later, so we've been stuffing oursleves with cake for the last three days. Not sure if we're biking hard enough to quite work off those eating habits!

The Grampians (called Gariwerd by indigenous people) were beautiful and we spent a lot of time exploring, hiking up to "The Pinnacle" and enjoying a swim in the "Venus Baths" - natural rock pools that have formed from running water. A highlight of the weekend was visiting the Brambuk National Park and Cultural Centre and learning a lot about the geology of the area (amazing sandstone mountains that were originally coastal and now a high-elevation mountain island in the middle of a sea of farmland, home to over 50 endemic plant species and a handful of animals that occur nowhere else in the world!) and about the culture of various indigenous species that live in the area. We got to hear the "Dreamtime Creation Story" that different aborignal groups believe explain how the area formed and a lot of the artwork in the area is reflective of this story's themes. (If you want to read it, you can find it here: Gariwerd Creation Story). We had a few days to enjoy the park as we have hit the midpoint of the cycle tour and had planned extra time for the group to recharge and reflect on how the tour is going so far. It was a really great chance to gather up some of the energy I may have left behind on the hills we climbed rolling into the area!

On to Stawell yesterday where we are presenting our skit three times to different groups and giving workshops to a year 11 class at the secondary school. We are staying with a family in town which is so nice - again, enjoying the luxury of beds!

The crew has been safe from the bush fires that have been roaring through Victoria. Luckily, our path has been completely clear, though there are areas that have been hit that are in our future path. We're all keeping a close ear to the news and checking in with worried family members as often as we can. It's been really hard on everyone to have been out of touch from news and television for so long and to arrive and hear about so much devastation. Over 180 people have died in the fires, thousands are homeless and number of communities have been completely destroyed. A number of crew members are from small towns in Victoria and I think that it is especially hard on them to feel so connected to it, but so distanced by travelling in this community that is rather cut off from family and updates.

Hope all is well at home and keep in touch!
Candice