Waking up without Loren was a bit of a shock, it’s really just me out here now. It almost seems pointless carrying a 3 person tent just for myself but it’s also quite nice to have the extra room If it rains... haha I think the chance of rain is pretty low in the desert, but you never know!
I watched the sunrise this morning and it was beautiful.
I had pored my water into my pot for breakfast last night and who would have thought the cheeky ants were thirsty, they had climbed inside. By the time I realized it was already too late, the ants were in my Radix breakfast. I packed up my bike and then sat down to enjoy it I’m telling you right now, I did not! Whatever kind of Australian ants they were, they tainted my mixed berry breakfast I was dry reaching with almost every mouthful, they were so bitter! I only managed half and tipped the rest out.
I got on my bike for the day and started spinning, My legs are starting to get quite fatigued, uphills are quite daunting, thankfully my day started with a down! The corogations are almost worse than the deep sand, they are tough to ride over and they just seem to go on forever. (I hope my brain doesn’t rattle out of my head) At the bottom of the hill I spotted a hairy Caterpillar so I stoped to take a photo. While I was laying in the dirt a truck pulled up to make sure I was ok, I must have looked and sounded like a crazy person because I’m in the middle of nowhere and said “yeah mate, I’m good, I just found a Caterpillar and wanted a closer look.”
About halfway through my day I got to a particularly long hill. I had to drop to my lowest gear and just crawl up it. ( I actually felt a bit like the caterpillar) as I reached the crest my eyes lit up, about 200m ahead was a tar sealed road. With a smug look on my face I cruised along the new terrain, but was short lived as there was only about 2km of it and then I was back on corrugations... (Damit)
A short time later a truck pulled up and and a familiar face from yesterday called out! “Good on ya mate, keep it up!” 200m further down the road the truck pulled over and two kids jumped out of the back, one of them was holding something in her hands and started to approach me as I rode down towards them. She said “I’m Olive, do you want a cookie?” I couldn’t believe it I was so happy! I said, I’ll tell you what I have a trade for you and pulled out a packet containing two peanut butter cups and swapped it for two cookies! At this point the other child had come over and introduced herself, her name was Ruby and she wanted to know if I wanted her mum and dad could make me a coffee! My day just went from great to exceptional and when Gill (Mum) poured me a cup of chilled water it became supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Michael (dad) brewed the coffee which was delicious! Once we were all done I said thank you and they waved goodbye. Just as I was leaving I looked back up from where I had come from to check if any trucks were coming and a family of emus ran across the road.
The flys got out of control this afternoon. I could deal with them when there was like 50 but there was at least 2000 of them on me and my gear. They were getting in my eyes and nose and mouth! Eventually, I couldn’t pretend they were giving me a face massage any more, so I put my face net on and felt like a new man! At about 1500 hours I hit the real road! I got down and gave it a kiss, I said “hello my old friend!” I was so done with the corrugations for now.
The last part of the day was mega, I pumped up my tires to there max (35 psi) so I had less resistance and span till the sun went down. I pulled off the road and made camp about 200m into the Bush.
I set up the tent and heated my water over the campfire. After eating my freeze dried dinner and a bowl of noodles I drifted off to sleep listening to the bugs, frogs and bats make all there wonderful, weird and wacky sounds.