Day 28: Willare to Broome’s Gateway

August 15, 2022

I set my alarm for 4:15 as I wanted to get riding at first light. I hadn’t had a great night’s sleep cause of the highway noise and noise of the generator so I wasn’t immensely alert at 4:15. But I got up, went to the toilets, retrieved my battery from its sneaky charging point in the laundry and came back to realise I’d put my alarm on snooze accidentally and it had been going off for two minutes. Sorry fellow campers.

First light is later here, not until 5:30, as opposed to 5:10 at Lake Argyle. I don’t have a way to rig up my back light to be visible with my tent on top of the rack so I was very cautious the first few ks to get off the road when a car came.

Willare Bridge is one lane and quite long which seems a bit nuts on Australia’s Highway 1. But they’d tacked on a mesh pedestrian walkway. It was quite disconcerting to ride on cause the slope of each individual panel made me feel a bit like I was riding drunk. Then I dropped my bank card out of my phone case as I was taking a photo which contributed to that effect. Luckily the mesh was fine enough to catch the card.

Fitzroy river at first light from Willare Bridge

The first 10k were lovely, along the floodplain in early morning light.

Ski lake looked more like a mogul course at this stage of the dry

Then I realised that stopping to take so many photos wasn’t taking best advantage of my 4:15 wake up so I put my head down and rode. It took about an hour for the sun to rise above the trees on the other side of the road so it was lovely and cool. The shoulder was mostly pretty good except for one section that is going to be upgraded, they’ve started work by putting up the sign and nothing else.

As I was getting close to the Nillibubbica Rest Area, there were lots of blue signposted attractions: a massive Meatworks and a mineral sands mine. Finally it was the rest area. I rolled in at 8:30, there were still about 10 caravans and campers from last night, I guess there aren’t a heap of options out here but it was fairly basic. Someone came over and offered me food and water. I didn’t even really need cold water as it wasn’t that hot but I can’t say no. I didn’t tell them I’d done the Gibb as I think it might have blown their minds. Then another guy pulled up in a car, parked, put on hiking gear and started walking back up the road. I felt like I was not the craziest person in the rest area.

I also called Roebuck Plains, cause Vince hadn’t been able to stay there, and they were fully booked again. So I booked a spot at Broome’s Gateway, 5k further down the road to Broome. At least I know.

I also changed my bike shorts cause I’m still struggling a bit getting comfortable and one pair of shorts seems to make my butt hurt more than the other.

I’d gotten so far so quickly thanks to a screaming tailwind and I didn’t want to risk losing it so I got back on my bike quickly. It immediately seemed busier. Welcome to the next few weeks. The shoulder was super gravelly after the first 20cm so it was not that quick to be riding off the road.

My neighbours from last night beeped merrily and waved out the window as they went past so I guess they’re not too upset about the alarm situation.

Then I reached a section where they’re actually doing roadworks. It was a 15k stretch and I reckon 5k of new tar and 10k of active work. The road workers were really lovely and I got a rear escort to get me through but even with the tailwind it was a long stretch to keep hustling. This demonstrates the difference between endurance and effort, I don’t reckon I’ve been that puffed since my last soccer game. Finally I waved goodbye to my escort and could slow down. I wasn’t very far from Roebuck Plains by then but I’d really lost motivation and it was a very slow inch up then final slight rise to the roadhouse. Still, 130k before 12:30 was pretty good going.

Lunch was a slight improvement on peanut butter wraps and warm hydralyte

I had an iced coffee and an ice cream for dessert. Then I went back and bought a soft drink to break a $50 in preparation for washing clothes at the caravan park. In unrelated news, after I’d reached the caravan park, my stomach hurt a little bit.

I cleaned myself, my clothes and my bike in preparation for our arrival to Broome tomorrow.

The caravan park is massive and a pretty good business model: they are overflow for Broome and also let you have pets, wash your cars, stay long term etc. They had a country music singer playing around the fire pit area at sunset which was a pretty nice way to end the day.

Today's ride: 135 km (84 miles)
Total: 1,924 km (1,195 miles)

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