8:30pm, Vanders & I are going for a night fang through Westerfolds Park on MTB's.  I've got my HID, he's got an array of halogens.  Clearly I have the advantage ....

We spoke of wombats and how one would not like to hit one at any kind of speed.  There's often one or two near the bridge over the Yarra.  Not tonight .. we clean the first few sections of singletrack without incident.

After the bridge we turn left through the sweepers, often a wombat here too .. nope .. through the little dipper, through some tighter stuff, then BANG something low to the ground and black thuds into my bike somewhere around the middle, THUMP it charges into me again (I'm still upright!), and WHACK it hits my front wheel (I think) and I'm lying on the ground, wondering exactly what made a wombat charge into me from the side not once, or even twice, but three times.

Bastard!  Vanders was just behind me, laughing!  Brush off the dust and check for damage between laughs.  I'm ok, a little bruised and dirty around the right shoulder and side, but my front wheel is taco'd.  4km we'd ridden, so it's a 4km walk back to Vander's car.  He scoots off for some more fun while I roll & carry my bike back to the car.  *doh*

They're a protected species, right?  Hrmmm ...