Cycle days 64 & 65 - Southern Cross to Coolgardie - Far too much luggage

July 21, 2024 to July 22, 2024

Cycle days 64 & 65 - Southern Cross to Coolgardie

Cycle day 64 (Sunday 21 July) - Southern Cross to Boondie turnoff = 105km. 5001km cycle toured so far on this trip.

I have lost my journal part of this day on Wordpress and I am just too tired to think about what happened yesterday so I will make it a short and sweet summary of Sundays ride -

The tent was nice and dry last night since we were under the tree. It was quick to pack up.

We had a roadworks escort for the first 11km of our ride. It was predominantly a gentle climb which lasted for about 15km before beginning to go down.

Winds were predominantly behind us all day.

We had to reach the 104km so we could reach the 5000km mark.

celebrating our 5000km mark with Tim Tams

Cycle day 65 (Monday 22 July) - Boondie bushcamp to Coolgardie = 83km. 5084km cycle toured so far on this trip.

Coolgardie Tourist Park = unpowered $25

Neil woke this morning and he is always first out the tent and always looks at the thermometer and pipes up that it is 2.5 degrees and the tent is dry, in fact there is ice on everything. I think nothing of it and thought that is strange having ice at 2.5 degrees. So I drag my sorry arse outside wrapped up nice and warm and we have breakfast. It is cold but not wet damp cold. Everything we touch freezes our finger tips but all good and I get the enjoyable job of doing the brekky dishes in our quota of 1 cup of water but it is hot water left over from the coffees and thermos so that warms up my finger tips.

We begin packing up and my gosh it is slow as there is the constant fubbling as the finger tips are frozen. Neil gives me the thermometer to pack away and I look down and I see the minus 2.5 degrees - Neil the blindo missed the minus sign - now I understand why everything is frozen and we did have condensation but it just froze! I did manage to get a photo of the temp at minus 2.2 degrees.

yip that is definitely a minus 2.2 degrees this morning!

It was an early start but wasn't an early start as we fought with everything - the fly was all frozen and no matter how many times we rolled it up it wouldn't fit into the dry sack. The front panniers just wouldn't roll down to close and clip in as the material is not malleable enough when it is this cold and the fingers just wouldn't cooperate with the buckles. Don't even get me started on the damn ocky cords as they just wouldn't stretch enough to fit anything!

Finally we got on the road. Neil is wearing everything - beanie, leggings, woollen jumper and his down jacket and long gloves - me I just have my beanie, long gloves and woollen jumper on while cycling. Because we did alot of gentle climbing today we stayed warm and were able to start taking the layers off at about 20km mark.

The winds today are coming across from our left so a north north west direction for most of the day. Fortunately we have alot of foliage cover so it is giving us a little bit of protection.

Our shoulder has disappeared considerably and for most of the day it is about the width of our bikes. The shoulder is rough in places and it is really hard to stay in the shoulder when the road has a lovely smooth strip caused by the trucks driving on the bitumen in hot weather. So we duck into the road when there is no vehicles coming and we dutifully retreat back to the shoulder when something is coming up behind us! There is about a 3km per hour difference between riding on the smooth bit and riding in the shoulder.

fortunately our traffic behind us wasn't as much first thing as the towns are quite far behind us and it wouldn't be until closer to lunch time before they reach us.

shoulder is narrow again - like this for most of todays ride.

I am not a vain person and generally don't really care what I look like clothes wise but when it comes to my hair I most certainly don't like it when it is like this ....

It has been over 3 months since I have had a haircut and I really badly need one and didn't have time or the knowledge on where one is when we were in Fremantle so I am going to get one in Kalgoorlie!

... that seems to be getting worse as the day progresses ...

... until I take a look in the mirror at the end of the day and I can't believe Neil let me walk around with my hair like this!

Yeah Dad I will put these 3 in a special folder for you and get them printed off!

What seemed like an endless day of gentle climbing we finally had a lovely down hill run about 20km out and the wind had swung a bit to a west north west so it gently pushed us along.

Coolgardie is alot like Mt Morgan (just out of Rockhampton in Qld) but no where near as hilly. It is a historic gold town of yesteryear. There are alot of old buildings (some for sale too) and not much of a population here. Looking at the mean waundering around they look like gold miners or prospectors that are weathered, aged and look 70 but are probably only 30! Just joking! Yeah not alot going on for Coolgardie. But here are some photos for you

this is for sale and Neil reckons we could fit all the O'Briens in it and he also reckons you would love sitting on the top verandah sipping your Lady Grey Sharon!

The streets are really wide ... historically so the camel and bullock trains could turn around.

Like with alot of towns out this way - the caravan park and town look old and ragged and this is probably because in Summer this place would be a hot place to live so no grass grows here and it would be very dusty and dry. This sort of appeal is not conducive for people who like the lush greenery around Perth and surrounds. I actually don't mind it as it just adds to the charm of the place.

The caravan park has a unique camp kitchen that is long and narrow but has everything that we need to make our dinner (sausage, cheese and onion wraps) and brekky ...

a long narrow kitchen with 2 bench tops, microwave, toaster and jug so we are all set

... the only thing it doesn't have is a glass window for where the window should be!

just one problem the window is open and it is not great if the prevaling wind comes through it!

We think the rain is coming at midday tomorrow and we might be able to get to Kalgoorlie before it comes if we get up early! If not and we wake in the morning and the rain has already begun then we are staying put.

Today's ride: 188 km (117 miles)
Total: 5,084 km (3,157 miles)

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