Day 119: Bush camp to Balladonia

September 23, 2022

Start: 7:55am
Distance: 76km
Ride time: 4:14hours
Average: 18km/hr
Max: 31km/hr
Finish: 1pm

I had a peaceful night's sleep in the bush. There were a few trucks that went past so I put in ear plugs. I was only 50 metres from the road. A bit silly of me but I was very tired when I made camp last night. Next time I will go a lot further away from the road.

I am heading east and the wind was coming from the north east so it was a little taxing.

The weather was a perfect warm, sunny day.

On the side of a cutting I saw a lizard made from rocks.

It guess it would have taken a couple of hours to make and it was in the middle of nowhere.

It's hard to tell from the pic that the lizard had different coloured rocks for it's claws and glass bottles for it's eyes.

The rocks weren't local so I'm guessing it was made by a road worker when they were doing some drain erosion maintenance. I was very impressed.

This pig face hadn't fully opened to face the day's sun yet. A very vibrant colour.

This plant took some time to identify. Bill gave a detailed response and I further contacted the Parks and Wildlife Service. They identified it as Disphyma crassifolium.

While I was taking the photo, Craig rolled up.

Craig is from New Zealand and is riding from Perth to Ceduna. He has a Surly long haul trucker. This is a classic touring bike and I don't know why they stopped making them.

I was happy to see Craig was sporting an Aussie flag on the back of his bike.

Craig and I had both camped in the bush last night, only 2kms apart from each other without knowing it until we met today.

I liked Craig straight away. There is a strong connection between Aussies and Kiwis.

We didn't ride together and we leap frogged each other during the day.

The terrain was similar to yesterday with lots of gentle inclines and declines.

Tonight, Scott and Craig are staying in rooms and I'm camping.

Balladonia is a roadhouse/pub/caravan park. The pub is closed for a function.

There are no water taps in the caravan park and there is a sign at the servo saying they wont give out water, so I filled up with water from the wash basin in the toilets.

There is a small museum. Their claim to fame is that a piece of Skylab crashed here in 1979.

Skylab was America's first space station. The local shire gave America a fine for littering. You can read an article about it here.

He is from the Czech Republic and is riding from Perth to Adelaide. He is doing it very lightweight and is doing about 200kms/day!

You can see some of his photos here.

It makes me happy to meet other cyclists on the road.

Today's ride: 76 km (47 miles)
Total: 6,813 km (4,231 miles)

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Dan PengraFYI, Surly still makes a disc brake version of their classic Long Haul Trucker, it's called the Disc Trucker.
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1 year ago

Vince McCarthyHi Dan,

Thank you for the info. I guess most people want diac brakes these days.

Cheers
Vince
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1 year ago