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  • Day 40

    Good Friday in Inverloch

    April 10, 2020 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    I have to admit that it looks a little weird. Easter time in Inverloch is usually one of the busiest times of the year. The caravan parks and B&Bs are always packed out. The main street is full of happy holiday makers, enjoying al fresco dining at one of the many eateries. Not so this year.

    Since the weather was so perfect, Maggie and I took the opportunity to get out on the bikes again. We decided to ride out from Inverloch on the road to Korrumburra. At peak times this road can be quite busy, and it would not normally be a road that we would feel comfortable riding along. Today there was barely a car in sight. We could have been riding on one of those beautiful back roads in rural France. We might have been the last people left on earth.

    After riding about 10 km, we decided to turn back to Inverloch. The same scene of complete solitude was replayed everywhere we went. It felt sad to ride down the main street and not see another soul. For many businesses, Easter is their last opportunity to make some profit before the off season begins. This year their turnovers will be close to zero. I wonder how many will survive.

    In the middle of all the focus on the coronavirus, I guess that Easter has almost been forgotten. Yet the story of Easter is all about hope rising from despair, joy being born from grief and new life coming from death. If ever we need such a renewal, it is now. It seems that the entire population of the earth is suffering together. It is hard to recall any other time in history when all the nations have been united in their struggle. This is made all the harder when the common enemy is invisible and can be imagined to be lurking everywhere.

    Some people think that the planet has its own way of defending itself. If that is the case, then maybe it has finally got tired of us pouring our rubbish into the oceans and our filth into the atmosphere. If no other good comes out of this, it is clear that the world has had a little time to recover from some of this destruction. I guess time will time if we ever learn anything permanent from this.

    After returning from our bike ride I settled down to read some of the collected works of Arthur C Clarke. This guy really was a genius. The story I read today was written in the same year that I was born and yet it is still scientifically accurate.

    Tomorrow the weather is predicted to take a turn for the worse, so I suspect that our cycling might be over for the time being.
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