Enter Norseman: Begin Nullarbor

June 15, 2015

With the wind forecast to continue blowing the wrong way for the foreseeable future I’d realised that I was going to have to start cycling longer hours to get anywhere near the 120 kilometres that I now needed to average. With that in mind I had planned to get up at four or five in the morning, but after meeting Mario I relished the opportunity to have a little company to break the monotony of the long and lonely miles and so I waited for him. Sadly he wasn’t really up for whizzing across the Nullarbor at 120 kilometres a day and was cutting a more relaxed pace, planning to take the afternoon off in Norseman, but we had a very pleasant morning cycling there together. There wasn’t much traffic and we could cycle next to one another, chatting about life and things, and for some reason that I don’t really understand the conversation kept coming back to Muslims. Another strange thing was that my new friend skipped breakfast and didn’t eat anything all morning, just sipping coke to keep him going, although he was looking forward to getting some chips in Norseman.

“Good for energy” he said, “and with the salt you get some electrolytes too,” he added, ignoring the fact that it was a chilly winter morning.

“Is that what you tell your doctor?” I joked.

Boy, those kangaroos sure can jump, can't they

Can't imagine how Mario could have ever got hit with road position like that

To the left of photo the longest train that either of us had ever seen, at least a kilometre long and with an extra engine in the middle. Incredible.

We arrived in the infamous town of Norseman - at the western tip of the Nullarbor, it was to be our last town for an astonishing 1,200 kilometres. We first went to the Information Centre where I had a good wash in the disabled toilets and stocked up on drinking water. Outside there was a nice little park where we sat for a little while, with Mario trying to replace some spokes that had already broken after just a couple of hundred kilometres on his cheap bike that he’d bought for this trip. While we were there we met first a friendly motorcyclist, and then Grey Nomads of the loveliest kind, Anne and Roger, who fed us both sandwiches.

Anne and Roger, who also offered to put me up at their house, but unfortunately I have no idea where it is

Next Mario and I cycled to the IGA, the last proper shop for a very, very long time, and whilst it was more expensive than Woolworths it was still cheaper than the roadhouses would be and I somehow ended up stacking even more food on board. Mario went in next and came out with just a single loaf of bread and a jar of vegemite. He was too scared to risk putting any more weight than that on his fragile spokes, although he managed to find room somewhere for a large portion of chips from the chippy next door.

With regret I said goodbye to the lovely and super Mario. It would have been great to roll along with him all the way across the Nullarbor, but our time schedules were different and cheap plane tickets cannot be rescheduled. Alone again I sought wifi for one last time before heading out into the wilderness, needed to use it in fact, and did so with a tear in my eye after coughing up three dollars for fifteen minutes online.

But then there was nothing else to do except head on out for the long ride across the Nullarbor. I’d already cycled some empty stretches on this journey but nothing like this. 1,200 kilometres of road separated me from the next settlement, an incredible thought as I began the long journey. I’d wasted plenty of time and it was already 3pm with just 50 kilometres done as I began. But the road was empty and I felt strong, and as the evening drew on I decided I’d just keep on cycling after dark to make the 120 kilometres, and I did too. It was lovely. There was no wind, no flies, no traffic, just me and the white line of the road as I cycled on in the cool night air. Above me a million stars shone, the Milky Way so visible, like a wisp of cloud arching right across the sky. And then I saw a shooting star and gasped, because it wasn’t like any shooting star I’d ever seen before. This was a massive great white ball of fire, absolutely huge, that burned and shot across the sky like a flare, and was so big that I half expected a mushroom cloud to appear across the land where it landed. And I made a wish, and I wished for world peace, and it didn’t seem too much to ask of such an extraordinary shooting star. Except now I’ve ruined it by telling you what I wished for.

Only one word beginning with B springs to mind when you see that it is 180 kilometres to the next roadhouse.Bullseye!

Distance completed: 935km

Distance to go: 2875km

Days to go: 23.5

Average distance required: 122.3km/day

Today's ride: 120 km (75 miles)
Total: 41,816 km (25,968 miles)

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