Day 40: Whim Creek to Cossack

August 27, 2022

Another caravan pulled into my carpark just as I was going to bed, but luckily no more road trains woke me up in the middle of the night. I had a very strange dream that I was watching my housemate from Brisbane demonstrate synchronised swimming and I was very anxious she was going to drown. Thanks for a restful night, subconscious.

It was very cold when I woke up about 5:20 for sunrise. I had to put my jacket on. Today was particularly slow, I didn’t get going til 7. I blame Megan cause I had to call her for her birthday. Never mind that took about five minutes as they were about to fly back to Darwin from brisbane. It’s now been sixteen years since Megan’s 18th when she left her ID in the down under bar. I’m sure her day today was very similar.

There were still some hills immediately out of Whim Creek. This is Black Hill. The one next door was Red Hill. I didn’t take a photo so you can keep guessing what colour it was

Then the road opened out into plains again. There was a rest area about 25k on but no toilets again so I stopped before it.

Sherlock station provided a convenient gate to rest my bike against

The rest station at Sherlock river actually looked very nice.

Sherlock River still had a big waterhole

While I love plains where you can’t see anything but horizon, some interesting hills are nice borders sometimes

After the Sherlock river, I didn’t find any nice places to stop so kept going to Roebuck in the hope the cafe would be open. It wasn’t. The only thing open was the visitor centre. I went in, they had local art for sale and panels about some of the artists of my grandparents generation probably. But I could only read so many stories about people being continuously screwed over by the government, station owners, mining companies etc and still trying to make life better for their people before I got too depressed.

I went on a tour of Roebourne’s old stone buildings like the post office instead

The old gaol is closed to visitors indefinitely

Then I went to the BP which has a fried chicken franchise and was crazy busy on Saturday lunchtime. Everything was also behind the counter so you had to ask for everything. I got an egg sandwich and small chips and an iced coffee. I should’ve got medium chips and had a peanut butter and banana wrap cause the sandwich was average and the chips too small. But then I wouldn’t have a lovely little half banana in a baggie to put in the fridge to horrify Mum with tomorrow so I guess it all worked out.

I had a scenic lunch spot on the Harding River anyway

Then I rode out to Cossack. Dad has booked us three nights in the old police barracks. No one lives in Cossack, they’ve just done up the old stone buildings as a tourist attraction. I had a bit of headwind and it was busy with cars heading to the Rio Tinto mining town of Wickham or Point Samson beach town. But once I turned off to Cossack the wind was more favourable and the traffic lighter.

On the salt flats I finally found a suitable leaning post to do some botanical photography

I arrived in Cossack before Mum and Dad who were coming from Karajini via Tom Price and Millstream. The police barracks have five rooms with a shared bathroom and kitchen but only one other is occupied. We went for a wander around town as the sunset and tried not to get eaten alive by sand flies.

Sunset over the mouth of the Harding River

Dad drove us to the Point Samson tavern for dinner. Last time I was there in 2014 I had the “vegetrain” (sic) pasta that tasted like it came from a can. The veggie burger I had tonight was a marked improvement and Mum and Dad seemed to enjoy their calamari and prawns. I’m looking forward to riding nowhere tomorrow and sleeping in a bed!

Today's ride: 95 km (59 miles)
Total: 2,872 km (1,784 miles)

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