July 23, 2022
Day 5: Saddle Creek Rest Area to Lake Argyle
It was a day of wind at the wrong times. After my caravanning neighbours had watched a loud movie until about 9:30, I woke up at 2 because it was very windy and I hadn’t been able to properly secure my tent so it was flapping around. I was very annoyed about both of these things but put something headphones in and was tired enough to go to sleep anyway. I turned off my alarm but still woke up around 6:30, in time to enjoy the morning stars and sunrise over the escarpment behind the camp. I was the first to roll out about 7:45.
As implied by the name, the road quickly rolled off the saddle and the escarpment dwindled to a small rocky ridge and it was back to savannah cattle country. The wind had died down and was no help to me.
The other people from the rest area started to cruise past, including the couple who’d camped next to me, who promised to give me a bottle of water when they saw me. They passed me about 30k down the road but there was nowhere to pull over so they kept going with a toot.
After about 50k, I reached the next rest area. It was not very inspiring although there was a funny story written on the table about three single middle aged blocks called Matt, Rod and Dazza who all became friends there in June and waited for the single ladies to arrive but they never did. Luckily there were no middle aged men there today.
I was having a not very energetic day and could’ve stayed reading in the shade for a while longer except that I would then have had to stay at that rest area.
I pulled in take a photo of my bike and the windmill at Newry station, which I thought was a gouldian finch reserve but seemed to be a working cattle property.
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I went into the info board at Keep River national park which looked really interesting but the most interesting things were a bit too far off the highway for me.
From there, it wasn’t far to the border checkpoint. They just assumed I had no fruit or veg and didn’t even check. There were two women working there and while one was filling out a form for me very nonchalantly, the other one went inside and came out with a cold bottle of water that had been left by my caravan neighbours. I forgave them their movie. Still not sure about their intensely racist conversation with other caravanners but i drank the water anyway.
It had now gone 12 NT time but was only 10:30 WA time so I kept riding. It was a struggle on the road into Lake Argyle. The hills and escarpments were stunning but not so conveniently placed around a valley so I had to go over some of them. I struggled into a small spring at the bottom of a cliff for lunch and checked on my GPS to see it wasn’t far to the old Durack homestead. Unfortunately there was a big hill in between and there was an ominous noise coming from my bike. The original site was flooded by the dam but they moved it here.
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2 years ago
When I arrived, there were two tour buses and heaps of older people milling around talking about their itinerary and eating ice creams. Not that they deserved them. They all cleared out and it was just me and a guy from Melbourne called Kevin. The guide gave us a little talk, including about how Elizabeth Durack painted under an Aboriginal man’s name, and Kevin couldn’t understand what was wrong with this. I’m definitely outside my bubble. Although there was a lot of information recorded by Elizabeth and Mary about the Aboriginal people, including their lamenting the flooding of the dam. I got myself an ice cream and enjoyed the shade.
From there it was mercifully only two small hills to enjoy caravan park. I arrived about 3:30/4 WA time and was told they were fully booked. I was trying to explain I’m very small and also can’t go anywhere else, when a woman buying a shirt said they had a spare site cause their friends had moved to a powered site. So I paid the friend, $40/night!, and eventually found my way through the caravan city to a site that would fit at least 5 cycle tourists, possibly 10 if you were trying. I thought about going to say I could share because they were turning other people away but first checked my spokes, and found cracks developing in several places in the rim of the back wheel. This is BAD NEWS. I am hopeful I can limp into Kununurra but cannot take that wheel on the Gibb so will definitely be there for a while trying to sort it out.
But, having paid my $40 for two nights, I will stay here tomorrow, leave early Monday and hope for the best in Kununurra.
At least there was a BBQ dinner and I paid half price for a kids plate full of salad, chips and garlic bread so made up for the complete lack of veggies I now have. The place is absolutely heaving, it’s a bit of a shock to the system.
Today's ride: 110 km (68 miles)
Total: 525 km (326 miles)
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2 years ago