Day 22 (November 24)

Our progress, as of November 24, 2016

Today was Day 7 on the Nullarbor. We repeated our now normal routine – up at 5:00 am, on the road by 5:30, pedal against the wind all day, pitch camp around 3:00-4:00 pm, dinner, then bed.

We were on the road at 5:15 this morning, hoping the wind would hold off for a couple of hours, but unfortunately for us, we put only 9.5 km of road behind us before the wind came up. Once again, it was slow going against the 20 km/h headwind. We averaged only about 16 km/h for the day. If we had been going the other direction, our average would have likely been around 30 km/h. I guess the next time we bike across Australia, we’ll do it from Sydney to Perth!

Our main goal today was to cover the 60 km from our campsite to the Eucla Roadhouse, which we did by Noon. We were very glad to be across the Roe Plains, a flat, nearly treeless, wind-blown expanse some 200 km long, with long (50 km) stretches of straight road. While we’ve had lots of wind, the temperatures have been very mild – around the upper 60s to low 70s F during the day, with considerable cloud cover shielding us from the sun, which is certainly welcomed.

At Eucla: 1435 kilometers down, only 2522 kilometers to go!

Upon arrival at the Eucla Roadhouse, we got quick showers then had the typical HUGE hamburgers (with the lot) and a HUGE bowl of french fries, washed down with energy drinks (Coke). The roadhouse had a limited selection (although better than the previous three roadhouses) of food items that we could prepare on the road, such as noddle dinners and tuna, so we took the opportunity to replenish our stores.

We anticipated that the roadhouse would have Wifi, but that was unfortunately not the case. It looks like we’ll have to wait to post these entries until we get to Ceduna, about five days from now.

At the border between the states of Western Australia and South Australia

Mattie, doing her best joey impersonation

After doing what we could at Eucla, we got back on the bikes and headed another 12 km to the border between the states of Western Australia and South Australia. There was a nice BP gas station there, with a much better selection of road food, so we stocked up on more tuna, noodle, and ramen dinners, along with more junk food: cookies, potato chips, candy bars, etc. After filling all of our water bottles (11 liters for me, 12 for Mattie), we set out for the next roadhouse, 185 km and two days away. 12 km after leaving the BP gas station, we came across a scenic pullout overlooking the Southern Ocean – our first glimpse of it. Being it was 3:00 pm, we found a somewhat wind-sheltered spot among the bushes for our nightly campsite.

One of our many nightly camps along the road

Our first view of the Southern Ocean – nothing out there until Antarctica

Next on the agenda: Nullarbor Roadhouse
Total distance so far: 1,521 km

Posted by Scott