August 8, 2024
Cycle Day 79 - BC 10km west of Nullabor RH to Yalata RH
Cycle day 79 - BC 10km west of Nullabor RH to Yalata RH = 105km. 6327km cycle toured so far on this trip.
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Woke up to a very warm morning - 11 degrees at 6am. The wind blew gentely for most of the night. We were expecting a tailwind to get us to Yalata RH today but we only had one for the first 35km as the road became hilly and the road swings and the south westerlies became a cross wind.
We were on the road at 7.45am with very little traffic around. It was flat and at 11km we passed the Nullabor roadhouse.
We were cruising along and a few kilometers after the roadhouse we had a truck run us of the road - there was no oncoming traffic and we heard a truck horn and it was a continuous one which means they want us off the road, so we got off just in time and as they passed us the horn was still going and continued on for a bit after passing us, the truck behind just moved over to the other side of the road to over take us. It shook us a bit - the pure aggressive nature of the first truck, clearly they don't think we should be on the road - and this is just the start of the day from hell for us on the roads today.
We brushed off the aggressive truck driver as as always the other trucks give us plenty of room and lots of happy toots and light flashes - even from trucks coming in the opposite direction to us.
At about 35km we enter hilly country, it is not hard cycling, just you are going up or down these crests, like in the photo below, but it does make for hard going for all when going over the crest - hard for us as we know we are slow but there is no where for us to go. Hard for vehicles as they have to decide whether to squeeze through (alot do), wait behind us or overtake and hope like hell nothing is oncoming. To make matters worse we see that they have graded the sides of the roads so now instead of bare earth then piled up gravel it is now all powdery and gravel mixed in and we don't know how deep it is so we have to be very careful when getting of for trucks near the crests.
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Now I have mentioned before that alot of vehicles don't give us the required 1.5m when overtaking us and we cannot figure out why. So I am coming to the conclusion that they don't know why it is 1.5m. There are numerous reasons for that distance - It allows enough room for us if there is bad road on the part that we are riding on, it allows enough room for movement with crosswinds, it allows for enough room for when snakes are on the side of the road and spooks the shit out of us, it allows us to move around obstacles on the road like dead animals, pot holes, gravel etc and most importantly it allows us enough room should we get of the road or be run of the road and our bikes slide out from under us and we land on the road - this is what happened to me today. Going up a crest and I can see a mobile home is coming up behind us, I also see there is a truck on coming in the distance, we are near the top and if all stays the same speed they are currently going the mobile home will clear us fine if they have been paying attention to what is oncoming. the mobile home slows down alot and as we come up over the crest they are sitting on my tail and I am thinking they are going to squeeze through so I yell get off and I quickly get off and next thing I know my bike has slid out from under me once I hit the gravel and I have landed on the road and my head is about 20cm from the mobile homes front wheel - they were passing too close to us. I quickly got up, the mobile home slowed even more, the car behind slowed and the oncoming truck all passed as I picked myself up but listen to this - no one stopped!
Neil panics and checks to see if anything is broken and we pick up the bike, clean up my knee as I landed on it.
this photo shows how deep the gravel was and what can easily happen when we have to get of the road to quick when vehicles decide they don't care about any other road users.
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But that is not the last of it. Crikey we had another incident where we are going down a hill, a nice long one too, and we are about a 1/4 of the way down and we see in my mirrors a caravan flash its lights as it starts its decent, meaning for us to get of the road so it can pass us without having to slow down as there was a car coming up the hill on the other side of the road - not sure what road code this person uses and I suspect it is one alot use and that is the "I have the sense of entitlement road code". We ignore it as have no intention of getting off the road at this speed, as christ knows what will happen with us this time with loose gravel! So this person decides to move over and be half in the lane and half on the other side of the road just so he doesn't have to slow down and the poor car coming up the hill sees what is about to happen and has slowed and pulled over and then stopped - I shit you not. I bet he would not have done that to a truck but the sheer arrogance of this person beggars belief.
I have to say I was just beside myself by the end of the day and I am really questioning whether or not I will ever cycle tour here in Australia again. I aim to finish at home but anything in the future - yeah I'm not sure. Tasmania is definitely out! I do know that international cycle tourers do comment that we do have very aggressive and bad drivers towards bicyles and I have always known this but just today spooked the shit out of me and just far to many frequent incidences now have made me question - is this worth it? Don't get me wrong I still have the passion to cycle tour - but here in Australia? yeah dunno?
Anyway we got to Yalata RH in one piece. This is an Aboriginal community led business (run by 2 Italians!). It is a fantastic park, great camp kitchen, free washing machine and dryer, drinkable water on tap (no hook up for caravans) and cheap prices on everything!
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The 2 hamburgers were $12 each and $7 chips - alot cheaper than NT or WA. We also had to buy jam and that was $4 (it was $8 at other roadhouses) we also saw, not that we need it, 1.5l bottle of water for $4 (as you know some of the bottles we have paid $6.50!) Not many staying here which is strange but this is by far the best facilities along the Nullabor so far.
We are about 200km from finishing but we don't have favourable winds for the next few days so we think we will do it in 3 easy days.
Today's ride: 105 km (65 miles)
Total: 6,327 km (3,929 miles)
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Yeah I would give up on Oz cycling & head to Europe, everyone has a bike!!!
4 months ago