Breakfast at the Motel is of a pretty good standard, just the Continental fare, but enough to fill the belly. 7.30am, I step out the door, the skies appear "meh".....recheck the room, no items left behind...step back out at 7.40am, into a very heavy rain shower!
Nope, I can't retreat back inside....climb in the Jaffa, strap on the rain cover and.....let's get wet 😒
The first 3 to 4km were pretty miserable 😕 quite a strong Southerly crosswind was driving the rain and road spray directly into my face. With my glasses covered in a fine, misty, grunge it wasn't that easy to get excited about being on the move after such a nice rest day yesterday.
The first overtaking road train absolutely covered me in "yik" 😫
I had to pull over and clean my glasses, wipe the rear view mirrors and set off again.
Fortunately today is Good Friday, so there isn't a lot of traffic to contend with, one small plus 👍... the sky was seemingly beginning to clear... another plus 👍,.. the gradient of the road wasn't all that bad, I could keep a fairly regular speed .... the first hour was slowly improving 🙌 😌
Before long I had passed the 2000km distance from Fremantle...woohoo! I feel pretty chuffed ☺️ !
The crosswind was gusting to over 35kph, which was annoying, but I was able to get along at over 25kph for most of the next couple of hours... a very nice change from the low gear climbs of 2 and 3%. I was able to hold enough momentum to get most of the way up most of the time. Before I knew it, I'd actually done over 70km without taking a break!....that thought immediately triggered a bladder response 😯🙃
I must've stopped at the start, of the hilliest part of the day's ride... there was climb after climb of 3 and 4% again, and it was difficult to get the rhythm back that I'd had earlier where the hills just rolled into each other 😕
I eventually completed the 90km to Wirrulla to find that the General Store was closed for the Easter period and wouldn't be open until the next Tuesday 😢..no coffee!!
But! In thinking that this might be the case, I had planned for just such an eventuality.
Coffee and Lunch in the Bus stop shed...as yet another heavy rain shower passed through.
As it was only just after midday when I had everything repacked, I decided to press on another 46km to the township of Poochera.
This involved some long slow climbing....
"I HATE CLIMBING!!" 😪
But with some good downhill riding, all be it still with a strong persistent crosswind, which when riding at high speed, tends to make the Jaffa jiggle if there's an extra strong gust.
On this section, an overtaking car pulled off the road about 400m in front of me. I noticed the driver got out and was getting his phone camera ready....I decided to stop and chat.
It turns out, that they had seen me at Border Village roadhouse, but didn't come over to talk....they were going to Perth for a few days... and now, were amazed to see me still riding along as they passed me again...on their way back home! 👀 👀 🤩
On reaching Poochera, nature called again ... it seemed like even less was open here, than there was in Wirrulla....just the public toilets 🚻
I stopped to rest at the rotunda near the Art Gallery. I remembered the "Dinosaur Ant" display from my 2014 ride...so wandered around what appeared to be the Outdoor part of the Gallery.
While sitting here and contemplating where I was going to bush camp tonight, unbeknownst to me, (the Curator of the Gallery and Museum) came over for a chat about what I'm doing & that now would be a good time to find camp.... I agreed ... he immediately offered that I could set up where I liked 👍
Toilets, water tank....help yourself. Electric BBQ if you want as well...pity I don't have a bunch of snags or steak!
Decision made 👌
Camp Poochera, set and ready.
Thank you Sir. 😊
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