Damn wind!!! 165km from campsite to campsite, with what felt like a 15-20kmh headwind from the Sou'east "commin' in off ye starboard bow, Cap'n".
The day started calm at dawn, 6am...but only lasted til I got mobile at 7.30 ...hmmm where's that breeze coming from??
I did ask nicely for the weather gods to keep the breeze down... No luck.
The sou'easter kept blowing for the full 50km to Madura. Just as well there's a downhill run to the roadhouse, the wind wasn't doing my morale much good. Even with aerodynamics!
The view from the lookout at the top of Madura Pass IS spectacular! Looking out over the Roe Plains. It did appear rather flat in the distance.
The run into the roadhouse is good, as is the actual driveway in as well.
There in lies the catch... downhill in = uphill out!!
After the demoralising headwind so far today, the short sharp climb back to the highway felt particularly steep..especially as they had NO chocolate milk!! DAMN!! :-(
On the bright side, I did get a pic of the "bottle tree" LOL :-) just before our lunch stop today.
On arriving there I had the thought of "why am I doing this ?" The damn headwind was really kicking up and the 100km so far had been a pretty tough effort.
Cheered up by "Thelma & Louise" at lunch, & a cold soft drink, I set off to tackle the last 65km to Mundrabilla.
I had the support crew stop every 20km as we moved on, their support (& a can if soft drink) at each 20km kept my morale up as I forged on against the wind.
It seemed that with every bend in the road, the wind was always ready to keep changing direction and stay as a headwind.
The last 20km into Mundrabilla were a real effort, as the sun was now getting very low on the horizon, ready to set at any minute.
The final rest area is 12km out from the roadhouse. By this time the battery on my rear flasher light had died... It had lasted 6.5hrs to this point.
The "T&L Wagon" was now running shotgun behind me, keeping the road trains at bay.
We finally pulled in to Mundrabilla with about 15mins of daylight in order to set up camp.
Showered & watered...nose bag time!!!
...and finally that chocolate milk !!! :-D
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