June 18, 2015
The ride to Caiguna: Unadventurous cycling
‘The ride to Caiguna is mentally difficult and a headwind will make it downright torturous.’
A quote from Mike Boles pdf that I was periodically reading as a guide to the Nullarbor. Of course I had a big headwind on the ride to Caiguna. I was really starting to lose my patience with the wind by this stage. It was supposed to be blowing me across the country, how could it be so consistently against me? It seemed so unfair. Even starting two hours before dawn and riding all day I only managed to battle through 80 kilometres, the long straight road offering me no protection from that awful wind.
The only moment of any interest came five kilometres before the roadhouse at Caiguna, when I pulled into a rest area to look at a blowhole. The blowhole was slightly interesting, but the experience was made much better by the nice Grey Nomad couple who were also there. John and Pru, from Tasmania, were lovely, and offered me fruit and a drink. Also touring cyclists, they were soon about to embark on a trip in Europe, through Reims and Luxembourg, then along the Mosel and Rhine rivers in Germany. It was almost the same route that I had taken on the first few days of my journey – how very long ago that seemed now. My spirits were lifted by our encounter, although as I tried to talk with John and Pru I realised how exhausted I really was, almost completely sapped of energy, drained by the ceaseless wind.
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Caiguna roadhouse was unexciting, although a first corner for 146 kilometres and a first time zone crossing raised hopes that I was beginning to make some progress across this vast land. I camped early, with good intentions to get up in the middle of the night, despite my fatigue, in order to make up the lost distance. The Nullarbor was proving a challenge, although I have to say not in the way you might expect. I’ve often seen the Nullarbor described as ‘adventure touring’ and, just to set the record straight, it really isn’t. In fact, in my opinion, it’s the opposite. Water, and even food if you can afford it, is easy to come by every day, or at least every other day, at the roadhouses. The road surface is perfect, it is generally flat, and there are very few difficulties to be overcome. And if you do get into trouble some Grey Nomads will surely come to your rescue within minutes. The only real challenge is surviving the boredom, but I’d say that just about every single road in Asia deserves the term ‘adventure touring’ more than the Nullarbor. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t complaining - I was really appreciating that, headwinds and my own pressing deadlines put to one side, it was generally easy cycling, but it was not adventure touring. I was spending all day waving at old people.
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Distance completed: 1251km
Distance to go: 2559km
Days to go: 20.5
Average distance required: 124.8km/day
Today's ride: 80 km (50 miles)
Total: 42,132 km (26,164 miles)
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