July 26, 2024 to July 27, 2024
Cycle days 67 & 68 - Kalgoorlie to Norseman
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Cycle day 67 (Friday 26 July)- Kalgoorlie to 8km before Widgiemooltha = 88km. 5211km cycle toured so far on this trip.
We had 2 almost 3 rest days in Kalgoorlie and the body felt good to go this morning. Our first rest day was sort of wasted as we had rain but that cleared for day 2 where we were up early and had our laundry hung out by 7.30am. We then went into the town center and got the bulk of our food from Woolies for our Nullabor crossing – 2 weeks worth basically for brekky, lunch (with the occassional top up of bread from the roadhouses) and 11 dinners (of which 5 are dehydrated meals and a packet of dehydrated mince that will do us 2 meals which will go in our Heinz pasta meals). It was a big shop and it is very heavy! Neil has to carry some of the food as well and I will just remove from his bags as we go. I would expect our first week the bikes will be constantly heavy until we get rid of at least half this food! All this food was unpacked, repackaged into bike carrying bags all in the arvo of rest day number 2. Rest day number 3 we went to the super pit on the edge of town.
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Fortunately when we were there watching the activity Neil just happens to ask the man (also watching with these ginormous binoculars) if they use driverless or drivers and this man said it is still drivers that do the work and then he just was a font of information about this mine and has watched the progress of this mine for years – he works in the lab as an analyst of the rocks that are blown up to say which area has gold and which hasn't. We spoke to him for about at least 30 mins. For me there was just too much to remember and it went in one ear and out the other!
It was a nice caravan park although Neil had a bee in his bonnet about the 3 French young men that would always leave the kitchen in a real pig sty – Fortunately the kitchen was big enough that you could work around their mess that they always left and I must admit they really are pigs and lucky for them my menopause is ok at the moment as they each had a tub of their stuff in the kitchen with a padlock at one end ... I commented to Neil that not are they only pigs but stupid ones at that as the lock is only at one end .... all I have to do is rotate the tub and open the other end which is not locked! I did ask Neil – you want me to do it and take things out and put them around the kitchen so it looks like someone has used them! He said no! Party pooper!
So we left at around 7.15am and it was a cloudy day and we were not sure if it was going to rain or not, but the forecast was a very low possibility of showers but as the day progressed the showers didn't eventuate. No rain but it was a bitterly cold wind for us today as it was blowing from the south west and for the bulk of todays ride we had a headwind – particularly after Kambalda. It was hard going as the bikes are really heavy and it will get a little bit more heavier once we leave Norseman as we will have a few more kilos of water than what we are carrying now.
The roadside to Kambalda looks remarkably like the roadside around Bendigo – typical gold country with no arable land in sight!
There is lots of mines all along here both sides (most are gold) of the road between Kalgoorlie and Norseman.
There was alot of traffic – mining utes and trucks to Kambalda. There was a wide shoulder for most of it but like the shoulder from Coolgardie to Kalgoorlie it was shit and very rough to ride in – I am worried that with such heavy loads that the constant rattling will make something break and then we would be up shit creek!
Fortunately after Kambalda the traffic eased (as there are 2 massive mining accommodation camps there) and by the time we got to the junction where we rejoin highway 94 from Coolgardie the traffic was incredibly light – no mining trucks at all!
We took a break at the junction and took this photo
Not sure why – maybe it is here that we have our last chance to chicken out of doing the Nullabor as if we turned north we would go back to Coolgardie and Perth. But not to worry we turned left and continued south towards Widgiemooltha (I absolutely love that name – must be Aborignal). The wind was still a headwind and once I saw the 100km sign for Norseman I thought tomorrow is a forecasted northerly so we might as well pull over and take advantage of the tailwind tomorrow rather than slog it out with a tailwind and by now I was tiring so we found a spot pretty easy
One thing we noticed is that the ground is really soft from rain but there is going to be an explosion of wildflowers very soon. Some of the wattle has already begun to flower and bloom but we noticed the small spring flowers are budding and just showing colour but not quite open – a few more days to go and they will open and we are hoping the Nullabor will have some wildflowers for us to spot and enjoy.
Cycle day 68 (Saturday 27 July) - 8km north of Widgiemooltha to Norseman = 100km. 5311km cycle toured on this trip so far.
Acclaim Norseman Caravan park - unpowered $33 (with a seniors discount!)
This morning it was 0 degrees but not a frost. The hands were very cold to work with and so it was slow going but we were still on the road around 7.30am. While having brekky we could see through to the road where the trucks were and a whole heap came through from about 4.30am to about 7am and died off just before we got to the road. But we did see 2 fire engines go through while it was dark as we saw the flashing lights (but no sirens) so we assumed there was an accident further down the road that we should come across today. About 45km down the road we came across this burnt out small truck going northwards.
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The traffic is relatively light in comparison to other days we have been on this road. Still heaps of mines along this road and alot of fenced of areas. Sometimes we had a good shoulder and sometimes we had no shoulder but our last 40 odd km we had a beautiful smooth one that was great to ride in.
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We had a gentle tailwind with us today so it was coming from the north mostly with a tendancy coming from the east.
There are heaps of lakes to our left or east of us but we only saw them occassionally but we did see this big one - Lake Cowan
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So this Lake Cowan is a huge lake that covers a major part of the land here.
We got to Norseman at about 2.30pm but the IGA closes at 3pm so we had to go past the caravan park to get to the IGA to get tonights dinner - bacon and eggs and a Chocolate Bavarian for dessert!
the caravan park is nice - has a camp kitchen with jug, toaster, microwave, fridge and hot plate and a TV room. So I am typing this from the kitchen with a table and chair and a light, it is a bit warmer than the tent.
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We are staying here tomorrow - a rest day before the long haul across the Nullabor. Will pop down to the IGA tomorrow to pick up a few bits and pieces - like shoelaces as I just realised mine are beginning to fray and there is not like a lot of opportunities in the next 1200km to get a pair should they break!
Today's ride: 188 km (117 miles)
Total: 5,311 km (3,298 miles)
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