Sunshine and desert flowers-Expedition Dust day 89

I woke up in the morning feeling sore and tired from the relentless amount of pushing I had done the day before. I was so tired last night I fell asleep before I got the chance to write my daily update so when I managed to get out of bed I stoked up the fire and started writing. It takes me about 2 hours to write my update but it’s something I now enjoy! At 0930 I was finished, as quickly as I could I packed my bike bags. I decided to wear my hat today because I burnt my nose yesterday, it is getting hotter out here. I stood over my bike looking up at a huge sand dune, I had looked at it a few times throughout the morning and thought it was going to be a hard way to start the day. As I reached the bottom I found that the sand was so soft I actually couldn’t ride up it! I slowly pushed and pulled my way to the top. It was a total relief to see that the size of the next 20-30 dunes wasn’t as big as the one I had just climbed.

A few dunes ahead I could see a convoy of vehicles slowly coming  towards me, not quite as slowly as I was moving towards them, we crossed paths shortly after. They gave me lollies and we chatted about both of our trips, they were headed out onto a track called the Madagan line and I told them I was headed for Byron bay. I didn’t hang around for long, I thanked them for the sweet treats before continuing over the the dunes. This section of the desert is alive with desert wildflowers, they add little tiny bits of vibrant colour to the desert landscape. On closer inspection most of them harbor life for caterpillars which would explain the hundreds of little gray butterflies that started to appear on everything today. I can feel times are changing, winter is becoming spring. There are more bugs, more lizards and the animals are becoming more active.

The heat from the sun is far hotter than this time last week and as the hottest part of the day was upon me I decided it was a good opportunity for a rest. I pulled up under the shade of an old tree for my lunch. When Calumn was with me a few weeks ago he brought with him some crunchy Pea mix, I had made rice over the fire last night so I mixed the two together and had a delicious lunch. After eating I put my hat over my face and went to Sleep for about 40 min. I woke up feeling like I had been hit with a tonne of bricks, my legs didn’t want to move, they were so stiff. I was no longer in the shade and the sun was blasting me with it’s full force. I gathered my things and got back on the bike to ride the last 20km of the day.

I listened to music for this part of the day, i put my six60 playlist on and let the songs take me away. I have been saying how hard the dunes are but, what goes up must come down and riding downhill on some of these 40m + dunes is more than worth the climb, there’s actually been a few that I have considered pushing back up...

when I had 10km to go Ben was waiting on the hill with the other bike the vehicle had dropped him off to keep me company for that last bit. From where he was I could see across the desert to a dry salt lake. That was where I wanted to camp, we made our way down over the last dunes for the day. I traveled exactly 40km today and am set up on the edge of the Tamblyn lake. The moon rise was the best one I have ever seen, the horizon started to change colour and the night sky began to take over as the full moon slowly floated into the sky. Ben and I only snapped a few photos before just standing there, being present with the magic moment. We both smiled at each other because we are alive and I can’t think of a better reason to smile than that.