Cycle Day 20 - Mary Pool Rest Area to Bushcamp - Far too much luggage

May 18, 2024

Cycle Day 20 - Mary Pool Rest Area to Bushcamp

Mary Pool RA to Bushcamp = 105km. 1427km cycle toured so far on this trip.

Todays high is going to be 33 degrees with last nights low at Mary Pool RA registering 18 degrees on my thermometer. Still needed the sleeping bag last night and I suspect for the next few nights until possibly Broome (which is about a week away!).

Winds are still blowing from the east today and with the road going predominantly west we had a strong tailwind about 30km per hour and lighter in the afternoon (20km per hour) but we had finished by lunchtime.

A few days ago I posted a photo of our markdown bargains we picked up at Halls Creek IGA and in that haul were 2 tins of SPC cheese and tomato spaghetti. Now I am not a fan of baked beans and if push comes to shove I will eat spaghetti. But there wasn't much to choose from for a touring cyclist in these size IGAs so Neil loves the spaghetti so we got them. Little did I know that he intended to eat them cold and not heat it up, I thought shoot I have never eaten it cold only on cold pizza that Aunty Pat use to make but that was always cooked before hand - crikey this is something had to get my head around. He offered to heat up mine but I said no that will only create dishes to wash. Then he says he is going to eat it straight out of the tin .... I'm thinking oh my god I am about to hit rock bottom in feralness! FFS I have never eaten it cold let along straight from a tin - what would my mother say! With absolutely not sense of decorum I ate my 99cent tin of SPC spaghetti cold and straight from the tin (I am not proud of myself as I feel I have entered a new stage of feralness on this trip - I need to draw the line somewere and this is it - I will never do this again!)

At least we only had 2 spoons to wash!

So this morning we set the alarm for 3.30am and were on the road at 5am. Had to have the lights on but we could see form and by 5.15am we could clearly see everything. The wind was also up at this time and gently blowing again from the east so we quickly set the pace around 20km per hour with the wind adding a few kms to that average. Basically our day was determined by this wind and this is how it panned out:

5am - start

7.15am - 40km done and coffee/biscuits

8.30am -60km done and fruit and nut break

10.00am - 80km done and time for lunch

11.30am - 105km done and finished for the day!

By 8am the wind had really picked up and was pushing us along that we could comfortably sit on 25km per hour without too much effort. The problem (and oh what a first world problem to have!) is with a strong tailwind it is very easy to get carried away with pedalling for speed and so you crank up the rotations per minute and next hour or by 70km you've over done it and had it! So I find it easier to just sit on a comfortable rate of rotations with just a little bit of resistance on the legs so they can last longer.

This is our road for about 50km it is almost dead straight and heading west

I feel sorry to those going in the East direction to Kununurra - it is a strong headwind for them

So it didn't feel like long between snack breaks but this lunch break which was around 10ish was nutella and bread - man that was delicious. We carried jam and that was just shite to eat, we got given a honey before the WA border and that was nice honey to eat and so we picked up honey at IGA Halls Creek and we got Capillano and that is ok but marginally better than eating the shite jam. But you can't go wrong with a nutella - even the generic brands are nice!

our lunch spot - got sick of sitting on our bum mats so we put the chairs up!

After lunch the legs are feeling pretty good and there seems to be heavier but not Bruce highway heavy!

At about 85km we reach the Ngumban Cliff Rest Area although we didn't stop it looked good and had a lovely outlook. But from there you go down hill and it is a cracker of a down hill for us - 7km pure down then and extra 3km of just gentle pedalling but still definitely going down - have no idea where we did the up to get this down hill - probably done 3 days ago!

not sure which one is Ngumban Cliff itself but this looks as good as any to be called Ngumban Cliff

After comin through the gap the area is open with lots of scraggy rock formations but they aren't that red that we are use to seeing - they are more black or black and red - and unfortunately they are all on our right which is where the sun is travelling so the photo hasn't done its justice

It wasn't long before we were stopping for our 100km break and we guesstimated that due to the down hill that was probably the quickest 20km we have ever done ... in our lives!!!

From here the road is starting to turn north west and felt ok in the legs to keep going if we couldn't find a camp spot and then Neil finds this one at 105km on the left side of the road. It wasn't midday yet but it was getting hot and this spot was easy to get in to and had trees we could shelter under from the sun and by mid afternoon the trees provided shade in the track in which is where the tent will go later on this arvo

shade is really important for the afternoon

you can see where we might put the tent later this arvo, but that would mean it is exposed to the road so it might go further down the track to the next tree.

Tomorrow is a shorter day of just 80km but we will have to set the alarm at 3.30am as we need to do the 80km and be in time to get to the IGA to get food as it closes at 1pm!

Today's ride: 105 km (65 miles)
Total: 1,427 km (886 miles)

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