People are in too much of a rush these days: Burning the candle at both ends

June 8, 2015

I was up at 5:30 and my day began cycling under the light of the moon on an otherwise empty and silent road. I knew that I was going to have to do a fair bit of night-riding like this if I was going to maintain 140 kilometres per day but unfortunately the moon was nearing the end of its cycle and there would be no moon at all by the time I reached the Nullarbor, a fact made more worrying because my torch was useless. The lunar light was enough this morning though, until the sun arrived via a long and gorgeous sunrise that had me dreaming of how many more of those I had ahead of me.

After a quick 35 kilometres I reached the small country town of Quairadling at dawn, where I pulled into a rest area to quickly check the information boards. I nipped into the public toilets and could hardly believe it when I found that there were hot showers in there that were free to use. Incredible! This was looking like being my kind of country! I enjoyed a nice shower and then set about looking for a wifi connection as I needed to check my route.

The only person about was an old fellow across the street and so I went to make enquiries with him. He was a nice old man named Don, although he perhaps didn’t quite appreciate that I really was in a rush to keep moving as he talked for a long time about the town - about how it had 600 occupants, including two doctors, as there was a hospital, and how they took it in turns to be on shift at the hospital, and how there were lots of aboriginal people, but how everyone got on fine, about how good the shop in the town was, and about how mining money was invested in small country towns like this one, and about how the community resource centre where I could use wifi cost one million dollars, and about how the wheat farming was the livelihood, and how the farmers spent like the Watsons when they had a good harvest. I would have pulled myself away sooner, but at one point he said “people are in too much of a rush these days” and after that it was difficult for me to say I was in a rush, and what was more I had to agree with him, and it was nice to stand there and listen to him and find out about Australia, and I wished that I didn’t have to rush.

The wifi was only free for fifteen minutes, which was good because it stopped me spending too much time there, and it was just long enough for me to realise that my original route plan was a bad one. The Hyden-Norseman road that I’d planned on taking, so it seemed, was 300 kilometres of sand and washboard track with no services and nowhere to get food or water for its entire length. That would have been an error, but fortunately I’d spotted it in time to change my route and I could divert my route back to the main road to avoid it.

Next I went to the shop that Don had told me was very good. He was right about that, and in there I bought not only groceries but also a large heavy duty torch and a 30-pack of batteries. After all, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to succeed in my challenge without cycling at night, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to cycle at night without being able to see.

Then I had a 78 kilometre run along an empty road to get to the next small country town of Bruce Rock. All day I was travelling mostly past fields of harvested wheat, not surprising with this area being known as the wheat belt of Western Australia. The flies became very annoying during the hottest part of the day and were especially so because they kept going for my face. Stopping for anything more than a brief moment was torture. Also annoying was the wind. I had been told by every Australian that I’d met that the winds would be blowing from west to east at this time of year, strong and consistent. This prevailing-tailwind-theory was absolutely the foundation upon which my confidence that I could cycle across the continent in 33 days was based, and to find myself already battling into a headwind was not encouraging.

Things to entertain me along the way #1 - 'Pink' lakes

Things to entertain me along the way #2 - Shackleton

Things to entertain me along the way #3 - Flaming galahs

I made it to Bruce Rock by sunset, and found another quiet little ghost town. Life out here was seriously slow-paced. I hooked up my lights and carried on into the night, already burning the candle at both ends. I decided to press on to 140 kilometres. If I needed to average it, I might as well do it. And cycling at night, under a thousand stars, was simply beautiful. The headwind was gone, the flies were asleep, there was no traffic. I had only the stars and the open road.

Bruce Rock 'information' bay summing up the pace of life out here

Distance completed: 300km

Distance to go: 4,200km

Days to go: 30

Average distance required: 140km/day

Today's ride: 140 km (87 miles)
Total: 41,185 km (25,576 miles)

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