Covered in road dust and sweat, and eating shakshuka at the kitchen bench of a colleague wasn’t exactly how I envisioned rural life. A weekend ride to the foothills of the Snowy Mountains and an inclination for the scenic route came to a shuddering halt about 10km from the small town of Harden, in the New South Wales south-west slopes. My housemate Daniel’s motorcycle had cooked itself, oil-starved after hitting a particularly nasty pothole and losing a sump plug – we were stuck.
Rationing two cans of ginger beer for hydration, we walked up a hill in 40C temperature, to the shade and safety of a farm driveway. I knew the Rural Network columnist Gabrielle Chan lived somewhere in the area, filing from “near Harden” for years.
