Cycle day 72 - BC 70km along straightest Rd to BC 20km east of Caiguna - Far too much luggage

August 1, 2024

Cycle day 72 - BC 70km along straightest Rd to BC 20km east of Caiguna

Cycle day 72 - BC 70km along straightest road to BC 20km east of Caiguna = 100km. 5706km cycle toured so far on this trip.

Warm but windy night last night. A little bit of rain but not much, by the time the system gets this far inland it has already dumped all its rain on Perth and towns before here! The wind was strong though and rattled the tent for a great deal of the night. We woke at 5.30 and checked the radar and weather report and there was to be rain coming at around 9am so we slept in a bit as at 9am we are on the road and didn't want to be an hour in and it pours with rain, so we just laid in bed with the tent door open looking at the sunrise and seeing if the incredibly grey skies were going to rain!

Sunrise this morning - view from the tent door

As you can see it sure was pretty to watch. We slowly got out of bed and had to have brekky in the tent as we really thought it was going to rain. However it didn't and after looking at the Radar again we could see the rain was going to drop down before getting to us so we hit the road at about 8am. So not that much more later than we normally leave.

The wind is still blowing strong from the north with an incy wincy bit of a west direction to it (we are suppose to get North westerlies and then westerlies). So it was aiding us and for the first 20km we had cross winds and slowly the wind began to swing and by 30km it was more a cross tailwind than a crosswind.

Funny enough though you never think that you would be able to experience the exact time when the wind changes from a north west to a west south west - well it happened to us on our 40km cuppa break. A strong gust of wind blew and all of a sudden the wind was coming directly behind us when on the bikes and it was strong! We went from 18km per hour with out cross tailwind to a 23km per hour tailwind! The wind was around 30km per hour.

It wasn't long with this wind that we were at 60km and having lunch! and just up the road from our lunch break was that rest area you remembered Dad.

Dad we think this is the rest area that you remembered with the large shelter, water tank and rock throwing Kangaroos - it is 20km before Caiguna.

So we couldn't top up with washing water. And there were no kangaroos there throwing rocks at us Dad! In fact there is no wildlife at all. We often remark that we have seen hardly any wildlife at all on this trip. We haven't even seen dead ones! We did see the remains of 2 dead camels today that probably were hit by trucks a long time ago!

At the 80km mark we reach the end of our long straight road and it was a nice way to end it with a tailwind for the last 40km.

our first road bend in 146km - it is just after Caiguna roadhouse pull in

We were hoping to pay for a shower here but unfortunately they don't sell showers to the public - only to truckies. That was ok but a shower would have been nice as it has been 4 days since our last shower - we do British bath each day to get the road grime of us!

Caiguna roadhouse motel accomodation - this looks like it should be somewhere in Mexico not outback Oz!

So instead of having a shower Neil got a 10 litre bottle of water for $15 which is what we have been wanting to get rather than the expensive 1.5 litre bottles at $6 each.

He also ordered some hot chips and they were lovely to eat and we scoffed them down. While at Caiguna roadhouse it began to drizzle a bit and became quite cold and after a series of showers the strong wind became lighter but still there to aid us along.

$10 hot chips and really worth the $10 they were delicious and freshly cooked.

Just before we left the roadhouse area a couple began chatting to us and offered some homemade cookies and Neil being a guts took 3 anzac biscuits and I took 1 but she made me take another 2 macadamia and 2 chocolate chips. So I put them in our sandwich bag and squashed them in one of my carry bags. It was so nice of them to offer it to us and it is much appreciated and will go down well with our cuppa tea at the end of the ride between british bath time and dinner time!

So 5 minutes out of Caiguna you see this time zone change and I am not sure if it is legit as my tablet hasn't registered the change so I think it is just the 2 people that live in this area that abide by it. You have to wonder why the different time zone was created. You can see it on the map, but why? as it doesn't extend up north up in Halls Gap and Kununurra area.

5 minutes past Caiguna Roadhouse - there is a 45 minute time change that is only for this region up to the border. Not sure if it is recognised as my tablet is still showing Western Standard Time.

So with our full bellies we continue on for another 20km to a bushcamp to take advantage of this tailwind and the area immediately after Caiguna has nice Ti tree type scrub to camp in but unfortunately where we are only has these beautiful flowers which offer us no cover!

bushcamp tonight - bit out in the open but there is not much coverage around at times!

As you can see we are out in the open with a few taller shrubs to shelter behind from the cold strong wind but not much from the passing traffic. Surprisingly very few of the traffic realise we are here as we watch them while having our cuppa and lovely homemade biscuits - half today and the other half tomorrow!

2 on the left are macadamia, middle are anzacs and 2 on the right are chocolate chip.

We think we might be in for a cold night tonight as we both have on our parker jackets which we haven't used since before Norseman as the weather has been warmer.

We think tomorrow is our last day of westerlies before we encounter easterlies! Hoping to be somewhere between Cocklebiddy and Madura.

Today's ride: 100 km (62 miles)
Total: 5,706 km (3,543 miles)

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