Cycle day 71 - BC Balladonia to BC 70km along straightest road - Far too much luggage

July 31, 2024

Cycle day 71 - BC Balladonia to BC 70km along straightest road

Cycle day 71 - BC Balladonia to BC 70km along straightest road = 88km. 5606km cycle toured so far on this trip.

A little bit of rain last night but nothing to worry about. The mornings are getting lighter earlier and by 6am we no longer need the torches to have our breakfast. It was about 4 degrees when we had brekky so just a tad cooler than previous mornings. We got on the road at about 7.15am and the temperature had probably dropped a bit lower as the fingers felt frozen.

The traffic was lightish for a while and then slowly built up. The road still had a few more crests to climb but nothing too strenuos. At about 20km we reached the sign where you just have to get a selfie!

I have been looking forward to this part of the Nullabor!

Last night I put the worlds longest straightest road but apparently that no longer is held by Australia as Saudi Arabia now holds that record so I will go back and amend that on yesterdays post.

This will certainly make over taking us easier as there are no blind corners for all and no crests really and if there are crests they won't be as steep!

It is bit strange not having a curve in the road, we have ridden lots of long straight roads in touring but none this long. The road from Winton to Hughenden certainly has some long straight parts to it but not 146km long!

and looking behind me - yip it was definitely straight

So first I have to say we have no shoulder now, it is at its widest about 10cm along this road and then there is a 5cm drop of onto the dirt or soft shoulder. So we ride on the road and one of the most important things for us to do at the start of this Nullabor was let the trucks know our routine - we will move into the shoulder if it is there, we will move off the road completely if you overtake us and you/we cannot see ahead due to a corner or crest or someone is oncoming to you and if possible we will let you know our intentions well in advance - this routine has served us well in outback cycling and clearly today it just all came together. Clearly we do not see these drivers daily but obviously they sure do tell each other on their radios what we do as the amount of wide berths, positive toots and waves we are getting is just phenomenal -that my arm is tired of waving that at the end of the day it was just a lift of the hand! Caravaners ... well they are in a world of their own out there on the road - we got run of the road twice today - once on my watch and the other on Neils!

2 lots of wide loads today the first was a little one that I managed to get a selfie with (it was a bit more cooperative than a Quokka was!)

and the other was an escorted one that had 2 trucks together ...

more wide loads throughout today - look at these 2 loads!

Neil reckons they were swimming pools! but they are giant pooper scoopers for mines

certainly got off for those one!

So our winds were to be from the north north east today and for the first 60km we had light winds coming from the north so a cross wind for most of it and since the bulk of that 60km had roadside foliage we didn't really feel the wind until we were out in the open, which was only for small bouts. From 60-80km it was still from the north but it felt like it had a westerly element to it but after 80km - OMG the roadside became treeless and we really felt the wind that had picked up to about 30km per hour and blowing from the north east so it was a cross headwind and it was blowing us into the middle of the lane so we perservered until about 85km until we got to a mobile tower, checked to see if we could get reception and then decided that we would start to look for a camp as since we could get reception we looked at the radar and could see that rain was possibly coming!

Neil walking in looking for a suitable campspot

yip a good spot - look at the sky and how blue it is looking southwards

but looking northwards the sky was building up with clouds

So within an hour of stopping we were set up, washed and in the tent boiling water for a cuppa as the rain began. It wasn't heavy just off and on showers. The wind died down but you could see that there were rain bands all around us so we decided to cook dinner in the vestibule tonight and that was my job as it was one of the freeze dried meals - not that they are hard as you just add boiling water but we also add cous cous to our meal and that is the same - just add boiling water but coordinating the 2 with our limited supplies of equipment required me to do it for the first time as we have 4 more of these meals to eat!

tonights dinner - freeze dried Tandoori chicken

this is what it looks like when it is dried and you just add 2 cups of boiling water to this pouch, stir, close up and leave for 10-15 minutes.

while waiting for my dinner an effin rainbow appears and we all know what that means!

Yeah there is that damn rainbow - fingers crossed the rain (if any tomorrow) is not too heavy for us not to ride as the winds are from the west again!

So dinner was ready and yeah the colour is a bit bright and we added some yoghurt to it and boy was it yummy despite the colour and definitely adding the 1/4 cup of cous cous to each of our meals makes it a bit more filling as the meal in itself (although it does so for 2 people) isn't enough.

but it tasted delicious despite Neils eyes!

So we gulped down this meal as we are starting to feel hungry more often (well I am!) and to finish it all off we had some white cardboard that we picked up at Balladonia Roadhouse yesterday and paid $8 for it .... yeah we finished of some really stale white bread with nutella on it!

Tomorrow we should reach Caiguna Roadhouse which is a few kilometers after the end of the straightest road in Australia. We won't stay there as again it doesn't have water in its camping fees so we probably will have to buy some again and then bushcamp a little further on.

Today's ride: 88 km (55 miles)
Total: 5,606 km (3,481 miles)

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