Oh, slow, slow, too much red wine! I hear motorbikes starting up, and panick a little. They can't be leaving yet, quick, get up and get outside, I need photos of the group. First a shower, a cuppa and then go outside. They aren't even leaving just yet, just doing bike checks and stuff. Phew, so now I am standing out here in my bike pants and fluro top. Do you think anyone will notice me?
Most of the bikes lined up, ready to get moving.
Here we go, here we go, here we go.....
See ya Hugh, have a great ride across the Nullarbor, make sure they're ready for us.
So we chatted to a couple more guys from the bike group, who seemed quite interested in our trip too, and after some cereal, more talking and a couple of happy snaps, they all got going, heading to Esperance, then Norseman, 720kms in one day. Big day. Now we need to get going, it is our day to meet up with our support team.
Just as we were heading off, Louise came and gave us some delicious cookies for our ride, thank you very much, so we were finally out of town by 9:30am. Straight up, there was a blue metal bike/walk path, going out to Wave Rock, so that was a nice relaxing way to start. After about 4kms, we hit the road. It's a fairly narrow sealed road, but we had no problems, and only saw a few vehicles. It was cool, but sunny, and we had a nice old tail wind, which helped us crank out 15kms in no time.
Nice little start to the ride....off the road until the knees warm up.
238kms of dirt! No worries, at least there is sealed road for the start.
Flying over the salty flood ways, with a nice westerly breeze blowing.
That's when we came across Barry, Nicole and Lizzy (the red healer), our support crew. They were heading into Hyden to get fuel for Melba (their 1990's Hilux ute), and beer etc. so we unloaded the unnecessary items, well almost everything, and we carried on, light as light. No Fat Betty today!
That's Bazz, driving Melba, catching us before we knew it!
Team yellow and the unloaded kids....this is going to be fun.
Bazz and Lizzy getting us back underway, so light.....cool!
There were lots of rolling hills, but with no luggage and a 30km/hr tail wind, we were flogging along. It was a great ride. We were flying up the hills at 18km/hr, and rolling down the other side at 45km/hr without pedalling. Woo hoo hoo, this is great. We can do this shit all day long. After 45kms, Melba and the crew caught up to us, so we stopped roadside for a ham and cheese sandwich, a chat and came up with a destination, 20 more kilometres on. Pack away lunch, and we all took off.
Trying to get a pic of the silly galahs all over the road.....
Lovely rolling hills and an awesome tailwind.....and no luggage!
Nice little lunch stop, at the side of the road.
We've hit the dirt, but we are just cruising right along...
We've reached Forrestania Plots....great spot!
It only took us an hour to reach Forrestania Plots, and locate the camp. We totally surprised Barry and Nicole, as we all thought it would take longer. What an awesome day riding. Loved the westerly winds, hope we get some of those across the Nullarbor.
Wow, there's even a pub here, damn it's shut!
Our support vehicle and crew, we're home for tonight.
The scenery is really lovely, and we spotted two kangaroos hoping off in the bushes. Lots of gorgeous wild flowers, red dirt, and rolling hills. The dirt road is in pretty good condition, considering the rain, and we may have seen 10 vehicles all day.
Our little house is sorted, and we're ready for dinner.
Barry and Will busied themselves with collecting wood, Nicole was sorting out the kitchen stuff, and I just chilled out with Lizzy. We were quite early, so we tried to spread our chores out, but couldn't resist a beer while we did it. Barry got the fire going, and got some coals for Nicole to cook up our risotto for dinner, and we all had an awesome night under the stars, by the fire. The boys, and Melba, managed to find a very big solid tree stump, and get it over to the fire. The four of us bullied it into the fire, and we were set for the after dinner relaxing and marshmallows.
After dinner fire is on, it's getting cold.
Funnily enough, we were all pretty tired, and were into bed by about 8:30pm, it was going to be a cold night, and we were in for another awesome day tomorrow. Great start to Part B, the supported ride!
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