I arrived in Meekatharrara two days ago after my biggest day yet. I have travelled a long way already and I'm now in the biggest town between Steep Point and the Red Centre. Getting to Meekathara was really my first big objective and now that I'm here I'm having a few down days to catch up on all the things that make these adventures possible. My physical health and the obligations I have to my sponsors.
The morning of day 20, I woke up in this small outback town, I was very sore and overtired, my body felt like it had been pushed to its absolute limit. For the first time in 19 days I slept past 0700 hours and it felt fantastic. It was about 0830 when I finally got out of bed, cleaned up then hobbled off to get breakfast. I was a bit gutted to find that if I had wanted the cooked breakst that came with my room I would have had to have ordered it the night before, so I settled with the continental option. The town is pretty much a mining town and all the blokes had eaten almost all of that too! I had 2 bits of toast and some bran flakes before leaving to find something a bit more substantial. With my bike fully packed I left the accommodation on the great Meekatharra food crawl! The first shop I got to had chicken and chips,after devouring that I carried on towards the supermarket. When I get to towns supermarkets and the museums are my two favourite places.
I spotted someone else on a bike that looked like it was set up for some extrame adventures, they walk into the supermarket. I wanted to know what he was doing so I waited for him to come back out. Aaron Lisco, a bike mechanic who has riden around the world and fell in love with bike touring Austrailas outback emerged from the store! His bike was exactly what I had imagined using to cross this dusty continent. He told me he is getting ready to ride the canning stock route ( Its said to be one of the toughest rides in Australia). He had some amazing stories to share! When we finished taking he invited me out for dinner that night so we could share some more stories with each other. Aaron asked if I had somewhere to stay and I told him I was looking for somewhere a bit cheaper than where I had been. He pointed down the road to a building that looked super quirky and said “ go talk to Anna at made in Meeka, because she has rooms to let for 50% less than everywere else in town, 55$ a night! He even rode down there with me and introduced me. That was me set for accommodation during my stay. Before he left we decided to meet at 1700 for dinner at the pub.
I put my gear in the room and disappeared down to the supermarket to get some snacks for my rest day. It was like being a child in a candy store, I must have walked up and down every lane at least 5 times before getting corn chips and every thing I needed to make a killer guacamole. I have an obsession with gummy bears also so I got a pack of them and some yogurt.
Back at Made in Meeka I opened my corn chips, made my guacamole then jumped into bed to watch a movie and do absolutely nothing.
It was quite a special day because my brother in laws uncle, John, was on his way from Perth. He was bringing Loren and my new expedition partner Dylan! John is an absolute legend, he arrived at about 1630 after a nine hour drive, so I went down to great them. Loren and John sorted out their accommodation while me and Dylan went to get the bike from where it had be stored.
Aaron shouted dinner for Dylan and I that night. I had a big steak with mushroom sauce and mash potato, we had a few drinks and talked adventure before going and doing the same with Loren and John. It was such a crazy feeling after being alone for the last 10 days to suddenly being in a busy pub at dinner time. It was all a bit overwhelming for me so even though I was enjoying myself I was very happy to get back to my quiet little room to sleep for the night.
I woke up the next day feeling a whole lot better, my right knee is still just a touch tender but I'm sure it will come right soon! I left at 0800 to meet with John and Loren before they left Dylan with me for the next month.
We were sorting the final things when I spotted two more bikers in the distance coming towards us. I had heard about cycling legends Ed & Gaye who were riding from the red centre to steep point, I rushed over and discovered that it was them! I told them everything I could about where I had been to help them out. They told me about where Dylan and I were about to go and it made me so excited. They are very inspiring and made me want to adventure travel with Ngaio so much more, they do lots of big riding trips and have a website called epicrides.com.au I'm stumped and can hardly believe that in this small town that's truly the middle of nowhere there is not 1, but now 4 cycle touring crazys who are pretty much all on different journeys, I would say that doesn’t happen in Meekathara very often.
John and Loren said goodbye and dylan and I went back to work on getting the bikes ready to leave in the next few days. The day disappeared pretty fast and I still have lots of jobs to do before we leave civilisation for the next month. Dinner tonight was roast, something I have been dreaming about for quite some time, it was soooo delicious.
At this point I have planned to be out of town on Tuesday morning, but there is a cool opportunity at the local high school tomorrow afternoon so it might have to be a Wednesday morning departure. This will give me time to get all my obligations to sponsors and media releases done and dusted for this part of the journey. It is definitely nice to be in a town but I can’t wait to get back out into the wild with my new mate Dylan.