August 2, 2024
Cycle day 73 - BC 20km east of Caiguna RH to 52km east of Cocklebiddy RH
Cycle day 73 (Friday 2 August) - BC 20km east of Caiguna RH to 52km east of Cocklebiddy RH= 100km. 5806km cycle toured so far on this trip.
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We just couldn't drag our bodies out at 5.30am this morning as it was too cold at -1.5 so we waited until it was light and got up at just after 6am when the sun started to pop over the horizon to marginally warm us up. I knew it was a cold night as I had to put my beanie on in the middle of the night! It was a clear sunny day and a bit warmer than forecasted - not sure exactly how warm but I am guessing around 17 degrees.
The tent was frozen but soon defrosted once the sun was on it. Inside the vestibule was thick with ice – the condensation from our breathing! And the bike pannier bags, seat, mirror and handle bars all had ice on them.
We were on the road a little later this morning around just after 8am. The wind was very light and blowing every so slightly from the north west. It was forecasted as a south westerly (which would have been a very cold wind) but for most of the day the wind blew from the north west and by the end of the days ride it was blowing from the north and almost non existent. You could say the wind aided us today by not being an easterly! It was gentle compared to yesterday!
It was a 48km ride to Cocklebiddy roadhouse. Where we didn't need any water but thought we would see if they sell bread, preferably frozen bread. Not all roadhouse sell supermarket type food, but all sell takeaways/meals! Balladonia sold supermarket food like biscuits, jam, salt, sauce, spaghetti etc. Whereas Caiguna and Cocklebiddy didn't sell anything like that. But we did manage to get a frozen loaf of multigrain bread – the 9 grain one and one of our favourite breads and it was only $6.50 compared to the white/shite cardboard we got from Balladonia for $8 (I am absolutely scarred by that bread experience now!) I remember when we resumed cycling touring and we were cycling some where in Gippsland (in Victoria) and we came of the railtrail to a small shop to pick up a loaf of bread and we got an Abbots bread and had to pay $6 and we thought that was just unbelievably over the top to charge that much for bread when it is way cheaper at the supermarkets! We have come a loooooong way since then with regard to what we pay for bread now!
It is quite an interesting roadhouse and has 2 wedge tailed eagles that were rescued injured on the highway – Samantha and Bruce
It is quite interesting their stories, both were to badly injured to be released once healed – Samantha is blind in 1 eye and would never survive in the wild again and Bruce can't fly. So they were housed here in their big cage at the roadhouse. So good to see them really up close without them fearing they need to fly off.
Another 2 birds – swifts or swallows (not sure which) were sunning themselves on roadhouse roof
So after the toilet break (showers are in the public toilet cubicals and are token operated but not sure how much they cost but the shower/toilet looked nice and clean) we loaded up the bread to defrost on the top of my trailer as we ride and I saw this sign about drinking water for sale
Initially before we got here we knew they sold water cheaply and we thought it was $2 for 20 litres and we couldn't carry another 20 litres on top of what we picked up yesterday so we weren't going to get any but we saw it was $2 for 10 litres and we had 10 litres of bottle space empty so we got some. Although when we went to ask and pay she said for us to bring our containers in as it would be easier – we think this water system is set up for hose to a caravan not hose to a coke bottle!!!
In my last blog post I mentioned that we have hardly seen any wildlife well now I have to eat my words as this morning we saw a small mob of kangaroos about 200m off the road so they were hard to spot but they saw us and certainly popped up to watch us ... not too worry Dad they didn't throw rocks at us! Then later on in the day we saw about 6 emus on the side of the road but they were too quick for us and took off by the time I got the camera out but I did manage to get a slightly blurry photo of the last one before it took off
Maybe wildlife sees us but we don't see them!
It was quiet on the road today, hardly any trucks both ways but what we did have alot of through out the day were motorbikes. We suspect they might be a club as they were in pairs or singles spaced through the day, some were loaded with trailers, one had a side car passenger, most had luggage on their bikes. So they must have a set destination where they meet and then leave in dribs and drabs the next day.
Because of the late start we didn't get to our 100km until after 3pm. By the sun was loosing its warmth and by 3.30pm the temperature had dropped dramatically. Our camp spot is close to the road, maybe 30m but behind a bushes and trees. We are hoping to get some shelter from the trees if the night is cold like last night.
Last night our sunset was a 5pm and sunrise is at 6am. So we have to have everything done by 5.30ish before it is too dark to do anything. Luckily dinner tonight is a Freeze Dried one!
Beef Bourgingnon – basically beef stew and mash potato with our added cous cous to it. It doesn't look nice but it is lovely to eat if you are starving! Not sure if the meal would be enough for both of us if we didn't add the cous cous to it. But in saying that we demolished it along with 2 pieces of bread and jam each and we had a pre dinner meal of a cuppa tea with 2 cookies - anzac and chocolate chip each plus a slice of bread, so by the time we got in the tent we were full.
Tomorrow we only have 40km to Madura roadhouse. If the winds are too strong for us tomorrow we will stop there but if we are ok to ride on we will continue. We have decided that we will continue riding each day until we find we are kaput (hopefully when we do go kaput we are near a roadhouse!) It is really hard to decide when to take a rest day as we feel ok riding and we most certainly don't want to take a rest day with ridable winds (whether they be head or tailwinds) and then have a riding day that has atrocious winds for us. So we will just keep going. And yes this is our 5th day without a shower, but our washes are ok as it is only our own company!
Today's ride: 100 km (62 miles)
Total: 5,806 km (3,606 miles)
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