After our windy intermission over night, I slept quite well until Will and Rob woke me with blinding head lamps. Ugh, gees guys, what the hell? Time to get up and beat the wind. It was dark, no sign of the sun yet, and the odd bird making first noises. This is not my kind of morning, no lying in, relaxed brekkie and coffee or tea. Instead, we all race around, scoff some food, make coffee, but don't get a chance to drink it (in our flasks, save it for later), pack our shit and rush the morning "duty", before heading off just before seven.
No, I'm not a morning person.....
Almost got everything together now.
By the time we left, the sun was making an appearance, just, and it was quite cool. We all had our jumpers on until we got to Freeman Hill, where we stopped to disrobe, as we had warmed up nicely. Actually, it was a lovely ride, with mobs of kangaroos off in the fields, enjoying the dawn peace. About halfway down the hill, we turned off on Calca Bluff Rd, to cut off a few kays. Max decided he wanted to go on to Calca road, so he could see Murphy's Haystacks, which are rock formations, and sound interesting. The rest of us just wanted to get as far as we could before the imminent head wind caught us. So we split up and carried on.
It really is quite a magical time of day, and the soft light did cheer me up.
Here she comes, the sun I mean.
Bit by bit, the sun emerges for another day.
We can see you Max, glowing in the morning light.
There were quite a few long hills, but with glorious runs down, before slowing up fast. We rode past paddocks of feed and wheat, some sheep, who would run off in formation, in a big loop, only to end up a few meters further away from us, turn and check out if we were chasing. Nope, guys, still here on the road. With the hills came some awesome views across the valleys. It was a bumpy, firm dirt road, but we were actually making good time. Rob was cruising along, but breaking away from us up the hills, his experience showing. He waited at the top of a couple and took the chance to take some cool pictures.
At around the 25km mark, we were at the peak of our last hill (118mtrs) and looking down on the glory run, which turned out to be nearly 8kms all the way to the Flinders Hwy. woo hoo hoo, we were cranking out 30+ kilometres an hour. Then we turned onto the sealed road and into the head wind. The Peloton began.
Ooh, a nice reward for those few kilometres of hills we just rode up. Fun!
Rob waited often for us, he is so fit.
Here I come guys, just keep going.
Rob started out the lead, then Will, and then me. Every ten minutes the guys would swap, with me behind. Doing this, we were able to maintain 20-23kms per hour, all the way to Port Kenny. The guys were cruising, but I had to push a bit harder to keep up so the drafting worked.
We had a quick look around Port Kenny, didn't take long, then road to the roadhouse for a break and a snack. Part of the plan was to wait and maybe Max would catch us, and carry on, but Max didn't come after about half an hour, so we carried on. Only 15kms to go, and the wind had picked up, and after about 7, we turned into it head on. But the peloton continued, and before we knew it, we were there.
Cute old Post Office in Port Kenny.
Port Kenny Pub, it's for sale....any takers?
Really nice and unusual area, with some big sand dunes, odd shacks and new houses. The bay is varying tones of blue and turquoise, with giant Pelicans and pacific gulls. We found the caravan park, and the general store, and checked into the park. Only two unpowered sites in the whole park, on shell grit, in the full sun and howling wind. Oh well.
Venus Bay at last.
Pretty good view.
Hiding from the wind in the camp kitchen.
All set up, and off to the camp kitchen for vampiring power, and chatting. We did some shopping for dinner food, and then settled ourselves in the camp kitchen. Lots of other campers came and cooked their dinners while we waited our turn, then out of the blue, a large family table of people asked us if we liked fish curry, and gave us their delicious green fish curry and rice. Amazing kindness. It was enough for the three of us, and we then continued to drink beers and red wine, chatting to many other campers. Another great experience, in an unusual place.
No comments:
Post a Comment