Rain, rain and a bit more rain. Everything was wet this morning, and we had to pack up that way. Not nice. We've run out of favours from the wind gods also, and on today's menu was SSW. Bugger! It made for a much slower slog for the most part of the day.
Look at those horrible clouds...and gee it's cold.
There were quite a few bigger humps on the ride up to the Madura Pass, and the road twisted and turned into the wind. There also seemed to be an endless supply of trucks today, going both ways. With the wind coming from our right back, or a little more side on, the oncoming trucks gave us a huge blast. Usually, it slowed me down by two or three kays per hour. It wasn't too bad when the wind was behind us. Also, today, the traffic seemed to be timing themselves badly, so we often had two way traffic of the bloody massive kind, which made us get off the shoulder into the brush, trying to dodge rotting carcasses and white posts.
Really? You only have to look out for us for 190kms?
The first twenty five kays, we were able to manage 20kms/hr, so I told myself, "One hour, and we'll be at Madura", but then we turned into the wind more, and slowed to 15kms/hr. So then at 15kms to go, we still had one hour of riding to do. Are you frickin kidding me? This is not good, I feel like we're going backwards. Ugh!
Finally, almost three hours riding down, and we see the Big blue sign of happiness. 5kms to Madura. That is three more kays upward, and then an awesome, super, speedy 2kms down to the roadhouse. This also comes with spectacular views across the Roe Planes. I scored the top speed today, of 51.7km/hr, without pedalling! Woo hoo hoo, it was great!
I've been looking forward to this bit, a couple of kays downhill.
A very surprising and amazing view, even at speed. Wow!
Even though the wind is buffering me, I am loving this. No pedalling, just speed rolling.
The plan today, was to get to this roadhouse, then try for another 60kms, then tomorrow, we could make Eucla with another 110kms. But with the wind the way it was, we just decided to do what ever we could. So after an hours break, a burger each and a cold drink, we topped up our water supply, and bought a bit more food, then continued on.
This used to be a common sight across this road, but not too many out here now.
It was a different view across the Roe Plains, with a ridge to the left of us and the plains to our right. The road was pretty straight, and we got some good footage on Gary Gopro of some trucks passing us. We also spotted our first Wedge Tailed Eagle. It was massive. We played, pick this tune, humming songs and trying to guess the song, to try and push through our bad attitudes and sore butts.
He was very cautious of us, and stayed a good distance from us. Full zoom.
We saw a rest area ahead, and agreed to have a break. We'd only done another 26kms, but it was cold, windy and we'd had enough. So we drank our cokes from Madura, and ate our BBQ shapes, then sorted a camp site. Will went in search of fire wood, while I got our soggy tent out and hung it over trees to dry so we could put it up. It didn't take long. This rest area is very popular, with at least 20 vans and campers here now. Lots of them came for a chat while walking their dogs.
Will found the mother load of wood, so we had a nice warm fire, cooked our Pasta and Sauce with tinned Shredded Chicken, then made ourselves a coffee. We bought some Nippies Ice Coffee, flavoured milk from the servo, as they didn't have any Longlife milk. It made a very nice addition to our instant coffee. No need to add sugar, it was pretty sweet. Great idea from Willsie. Tomorrows brekkie will be interesting, when we add Banana flavoured milk to our porridge. Yummo! The wind has dropped off now, and I hope it stays that way tomorrow. I would rather no wind than the wrong wind. Mundrabilla is about 90kms away, so that might be our day. Eucla will have wait another day.
No comments:
Post a Comment