I had a very restless night, with an aching body, and woke feeling very tired. Will was awake and keen to get going. He tried his best to help me, with cups of tea and the promise of a Bacon and Egg toastie. After a lovely chat to my sister in England, I was all sorted to get going. The wind was picking up, and was coming from the right direction. But first I need my toastie.
As we were parking our bikes at the front of the roadhouse, two more cyclists rode in. Wow, they got up and going early. They were Steve and Katie, who have ridden all the way from England to here, over almost 14mths. They are riding to Melbourne for the Melbourne cup, then to Sydney to fly to New Zealand where Steve is originally from. They are seriously hard core. They had ridden 40kms before we have even started.
Steve and Katie, they are seriously hard core.
So we all went inside, ordered some food, and coffees, and had a great chat. Finally, we thought we'd best head off and make the most of the winds, they had to fix Steve's tyre, which kept going flat. We reckoned they would catch up to us at some point today, and wished them safe riding. We were all aiming to get another 100kms down the road.
Will had a brief look in the free museum, and said it was cool.
The wind gods had obviously decided I needed a good kick up the bum, and we're howling from the west. We were screaming along at over 30kms per hour, without huge effort. There were a billion vans, and lots of trucks, and before we knew it, we'd pumped out 60kms. Holy crap, this was great. We'd been riding on Australia's longest straight stretch of road for about 30 clicks, so thought we'd break for lunch. We found a rest area off the road, set up our chairs for a good break, and started lunch. That is when we looked around and noticed the black clouds racing in towards us. Oh poop, quickly scoff lunch, pack everything up, toilet as quick as you can, then get back out there and pedal like mad.
Luckily no cars coming behind us and we didn't have to get off the road. It's big.
Coming up to the first of a couple of bits of the highway used for the Royal Flying Doctors aircraft to land for emergencies.
I'm coming in to land, we did feel like we were flying a bit today.
This bit will send us mad apparently. Bit bloody late for us I think.
The winds were beginning to change direction a little, but still pushing us, we out ran that bit of rain. The temp was not very high, and dropping, so we just kept pedalling. Caravans, campers, trucks, all zooming passed, looking out for us. At 93kms, this was our plan A for today, the spot looked rubbish, and it was starting to rain, so we ripped out the good old blue tarp, and made a rough shelter. Luckily there was a phone tower in the distance, and we got reception, so while we waited for the rain to stop, we checked out what was ahead for camping.
Come on Jen, we can outrun the rain........bloody hell Will!
See Jen, I told you we could outrun it. Ok Will, you were right.....ugh!
By this stage, I was ready to stop. I was tired, and I'd had enough of riding. Betty wasn't doing any work, and Will and Yellow Dawg just seem to be flying along with ease. But the next good spot was another 22kms. "You up for that, Jen?" Will asked me. In my head I told him what he could do with that idea, in no uncertain terms, what I said was "I can do that, but I can't keep going as fast as we have been. Nothing left!"
We're sort of staying dry, well mostly.
So the rain stopped, we started, and just pushed on and on until we could see the big blue sign of joy! Yay, we did it. Baxter, you little beauty (John Baxter, a convict, explorer and offsider to Edward Eyre, of this highway fame). There were already a few caravans parked up, it was 3:45pm, but just after we'd picked a spot, a billion more vans pulled in. There are still people pulling in, and it is after 6pm and pitch black.
Poor Jen, she is over it, but not far now.
Big blue sign of joy! Home for the night.
No fire tonight, wood is scarce, but we cooked up a delicious Spag Bog, with two minute noodles and a huge tin of Spag bog sauce by Leggos! Two good things about this meal. It was very tasty, and now I have 680gms less to carry tomorrow. Woo hoo! Betty, we're loosing weight! We are about 67kms from Caiguna Roadhouse, so we should get there for lunch. And then ride a bit further to camp. Westerly winds prevailing! I honour you Zeus, Ancient God of the Sky, may we have clear skies and favourable winds.
Stretch and then let's get cooking. "The 1 finger is for 1000kms Jen" !
Spag Bog, yummo, but can someone help me up, my legs don't work anymore.
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