June 21, 2015
I might be crazy: But I'm not the only one
No matter how mad you are, there is always someone out there doing something more crazy. I was trying to cycle across Australia, and that, so I’d been told by many of those ‘normal’ people more inclined to using motor vehicles, is insane. But, according to some Grey Nomads that I’d met somewhere, there was some daft bugger trying to cross Australia on foot. And I thought I’d found him when I saw a young guy jogging towards me along the shoulder of the road in a place which could very accurately be described as the middle of nowhere. “What are you doing?!” I asked as he stopped to chat, fully expecting him to tell me about his mad attempts to run across a continent. “Actually I’m just out for a run” he said, almost embarrassed, “I’m not going across the country or anything. But you’ll meet a guy just up the road who is!’
I’d bumped into Ben, one of two guys acting as the campervan-based support team for Gary, who was the one actually walking across Australia. I kept cycling and soon spied the madman up ahead – he wasn’t hard to spot as he was dressed all in bright fluorescent yellow safety gear. But just as I got close to catching up to him a most peculiar thing happened - a police car overtook me and, lights flashing, pulled over and called the luminous walker over to them. This was unexpected and, not wanting to get involved in police business, I stopped and maintained a safe distance. Gary might, after all, have been an escaped convict making a very slow getaway.
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After a few minutes the cop car drove away, and Gary, who presumably wasn’t a wanted criminal after all, came over to see me. “What are you doing?” he said to me with a big smile, stealing the words right out of my mouth. We then had a nice chat about which one of us was the most crazy. He was an absolute giant of a man, but a gentle giant, a real great character. “I was a bit of a couch potato,” he said, “I just decided to sort myself out, to do something to show anyone can do anything they set their mind to.” Most people would join a gym, but Gary had decided to walk from Perth to Brisbane.
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I felt quite motivated by my meeting with the inspiring Gary, and I wasn’t even put off by a sudden heavy rainstorm that blighted my progress soon after. ‘At least I’m not walking’ I thought. And the rain soon passed, and I saw another eagle, and was once again astonished by the incredible size of it. Then, after cycling up the small hill optimistically named ‘Eucla pass,’ I arrived at Eucla roadhouse. I’d been looking forward to this one for weeks, because, according to my pdf guide, there were one dollar showers to be had here. Seeing as I hadn’t taken a shower for, ahem, two, err, two weeks, I was certainly looking forward to this one. I walked into the reception area and was greeted by a smiling woman.
“Can I take a shower please?”
“Yes certainly, but you’ll have to pay.”
“One dollar is it?”
“Yes, it’s one dollar to use the shower. But there is also a ten dollar fee.”
“Ten dollars?”
“Yes, ten dollars. It’s a cleaning fee. A ten dollar cleaning fee.”
I figured I could give it another week.
Still smelly, I arrived at the border between Western Australia and South Australia, a significant milestone which made me feel like I was finally making some meaningful progress across the country. There were some information boards around here that told me the eagle I’d seen was a wedge-tailed eagle, and they really genuinely do sometimes feed on small kangaroos. Incredible.
South Australia didn’t immediately endear itself to me with the road suddenly becoming much narrower and the shoulder changing to loose gravel that was impossible to cycle on. Diving out of the way of vehicles would now require coming to a skidding halt. Luckily there weren’t very many of those.
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Thanks to a combination of my pdf guide, the Grey Nomads, and the very realistic sculpture at the Eucla roadhouse, I by now understood what Awesome-Stripper-Cycling-Girl had been talking about when she said that she hoped I would see whales. For part of the route through South Australia, the Nullarbor highway runs closely parallel to the south coast, and it is possible to spot whales from the cliffs during the months of June-October, when they come up from Antarctica to breed. And it wasn’t very long at all until I came to a viewpoint from which I could look out over the ocean for the first time since I’d begun my long ride from Fremantle. It was a beautiful sight too, although there was no sign of any whales. I knew spotting them would require patience, a slightly difficult thing to come by with a demanding schedule like mine.
At another rest area I spoke with a Grey Nomad woman, who told me that she had been out to the ‘Head of Bight’ which is the prime whale-watching spot on this stretch of coast (but would mean a 30 kilometre detour for me), paid fifteen dollars, and seen nothing. But she also said that whales can be seen all along the east coast as well, as they migrate all the way up to Queensland. I reckoned I’d have a lot of time to look for them when I got out there, and so I decided not to lose any more time looking for them here.
Once again I cycled on after dark. Judging by the lack of road-kill this seemed to be an area with a far lower kangaroo population, and I saw or heard nothing from them as I once again enjoyed my ride under the stars. Only the howl of a wild dingo broke the silence. It startled me and I quickened my pace to get away from it. At least I wasn’t walking.
Distance completed: 1661km
Distance to go: 2149km
Days to go: 17.5
Average distance required: 122.8km/day
Today's ride: 136 km (84 miles)
Total: 42,542 km (26,419 miles)
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