Day 8 (November 10)

Today was our first full day ride.  We got up at 5am and were on the road by six.  I (Mattie) follow behind Scott, who does the navigating.  I am very grateful that I brought my florescent orange vest as it gives drivers time to slow down and move out of the lane.  And boy is that nice. The shoulders on the side of the road were about 1 foot wide today, with another 2 feet of soft gravel (which we rode into when a semi would drive by).  Other than the orange vest, my other task (other than making jokes) is to alert Scott of inbound semi trucks. 

And so the day progressed with decreasing traffic and increasing road killed kangaroos (we have yet to see a live one).  There are countless parrots, cockatoos, and other exotic (to us) birds that take to flight when we ride by.

A curious cat who came by for a visit while we were taking a roadside break

Today we rode from six till three, a nine hour ride.  We covered 112 km.  Our goal is to cover about 85 km a day.  We did well for ourselves today, but we count ourselves lucky: tailwind, minimal hills and favorable roads.  The major irritant of the day were the swarms of black flies (they don’t bite, but they keep pace with us).  The black flies, try as they might, failed to dampen our moods with the same fervor that hearing Trump will be our next president did.

Tomorrow we head for Corrigin, 91 km from Brookton were we are spending the night in the historic Brookton Club Hotel (Google it!).

Posted by Mattie