Monday 6 October 2014

After my two big days, I had a rest day on Friday – both Ruby and I were in need of some TLC. I hadn’t actually done any maintenance on Ruby since I’d bought her in Adelaide – mainly because I couldn’t get her onto the centre stand – so it was time to put things right. Once I put my mind to it, I got her up on the stand straight away and spent the next hour lubing her chain, checking her oil, pumping up her tyres and giving her a bit of a clean. I then went off to the Pharmacy to get some bandages to wrap around her handlebars to pad them out a bit so that my accelerator hand didn’t cramp up so much. I had tried my Cramp Buster from my last trip but because I had to have the accelerator on full lock to keep her at top speed, it meant I couldn’t position it properly. The bandages were my next best bet but didn’t really work.

On Saturday it was the long ride back to Port Augusta from Coober Pedy. I set off early again and thanks to a good tailwind managed to get my speed up to about 90-100 km/h. But by lunchtime the temperature was 36 degrees C and I needed more stops to recover from the heat. By 3.45 pm I’d covered the 532 km and was back in Port Augusta. There was a couple unloading a giant Triumph Tiger Evolution from a trailer so I went over to say hello. Mark and Kim were a lovely couple from Perth and I spent most of the rest of the evening talking to them.

On Sunday I headed over to the Tourist Office to get some information on riding across the Nullabour. I’d forgotten there is a golf course that runs the length of the Eyre Highway, with a hole or two at each road house. I decided this would perhaps be a good time to take up the sport and that I should attempt to strike my way across the desert.

I set off this morning with every intention of doing just that but the universe had different plans for me. As soon as I joined the Eyre Highway an almighty wind got up and almost blew me off the road. I had to bank the bike right over to keep it going forward. I got about half a kilometre along then realised I would probably die if I continued so did a U-turn and went back to the junction with Lincoln Highway and headed south to Whyalla instead, thus regaining the tailwind. As I rode along I remembered that Walshy, one of the guys from the Postie Bike Challenge, lived in nearby Tumby Bay and texted him to see if I could drop by. He was in even nearer Cowell and tracked me down at the Bakery. He had some very upsetting news – Greg, one of the guys on the Challenge that got injured, had died. It really shook me up to hear that and made me really question what I was doing.

As it was still another 2 hours ride to Tumby Bay I agreed to meet Walshy there as he had things to do. But by the time I got back on the road, the wind had changed direction and was now blowing a gale across the road. I got 20 km out of Cowell and had to give up. I pulled into a rest area and texted Walshy to let him know I probably wouldn’t make it. I waited for 4 hours before the wind subsided enough to let me return to Cowell.

The day’s events made me realised that crossing the Nullabour is not a feat to be taken lightly and that if I was to do it, I would have to be prepared to stop when the winds got up – I simply didn’t have the power to combat them – and if I did have to stop, that I’d better have plenty of food and water with me in case I had to wait out a storm overnight. I had the capacity to carry 4 litres of water which was enough, but only a tiny amount of food. I needed to re-think how I could increase that.

Returning to Cowell I couldn’t face the thought of a night in an expensive, windy foreshore campsite. There was a hotel nearby which was only a few bucks more. It was a no brainer, I checked in. Tomorrow I’ll continue down to see Walshy then, winds permitting, tackle the Eyre Highway again the day after that.