I woke up itching my feet and hands all throughout the night , my mosquito bites are getting the best of me. I dragged myself out of bed and made my Radix with a huge scoop of peanut butter. My morning on the bike began on a salt lake, I thought that the hard crusty salt would be solid enough to hold the weight of me and my bike but I was wrong! As soon as I went out it cracked and I went through, it was dry and soft underneath, I might as well have been riding on sand.
The hills at the beginning of the day were rolling dunes that weren’t too big, roughly 3-4 m in height. It took me about 40 minutes to reach the turn off to knolls track where I would have popped out had I been on the Rig road. Just as I arrived a white troopy came powering over the hill with a trailer in tow. The family inside had taken the year off to travel Australia (the little girl in the back had the coolest looking dreadlocks!) They have been keeping a blog about artist life on the road. I asked if the kids in the back had seen any dingos but they said they and only seen footprints. I told them about the Dingo that follows me and they were so amazed. As they drove away I felt sad for them not having seen a Dingo. Without a lie as the dust from there vehicle settled ringo the Dingo appeared! I couldn’t believe it, my mate was back! He pranced along next to me for the next hour before disappearing into the thick mulga trees that I was riding through at the time.
Over the next dune the desert came alive the ground was completely covered in beautiful wild flowers and the smell they were giving off was very strong! It was magical. I made great time in the cool morning, I had hit my 20km mark before lunch. The sun was starting to get very hot, it was saying 30 on my thermometer so I had a rest under a tree for an hour longer before cracking into what I thought was going to be a straight forward afternoon. The sand on the hills had become scorching hot and whenever I had to push my feet would burn. The hills were the steepest they have ever been and it didn’t take long for the combination of sand sun and physical output to leave me feeling zonked. Every step I sunk into the sand, my calf muscles were burning and the rest of my legs were just like jelly. For the first time in a long time I was becoming absolutely exhausted.
The day seemed to stretch on and on. As I popped over the last dune of the day Ben came into view with the camera. I was overlooking a huge salt flat and between me and it was 2km of downhill! I clicked my rohloff internal hub into a high gear and dropped in! I was flying down this hill sweeping around the burms in the track and pumping over the bumps! As I came over a steep crest I felt the bike leave the earth for a moment, as I floated through the air for a few seconds my handlebar brushed against a small shrub on the side of the track knocking me off balance. I hit the soft ground full of adrenaline I rolled over and bust into laughter (borderline hysterical) I brushed the sand off myself and continued down to the salt flat at the bottom of the hill. I stopped for a brief moment to acknowledge that I was about to enter a new state and the sand hills across this lake would all be in Queensland, the same state my fiancé is in! I can’t begin to explain how excited that made me, it’s been roughy 130 days since I have seen her, it’s been too long.
As I rode sun set over the salt flat making it orange. At poeppal corner Northern Territory south Australia and Queensland all meet. As a novelty I rode around the spot that they all meet at, Peter, Loue and Ben were waiting with with dinner in Queensland. I ate dinner as the almost full moon rose, I was absolutely wrecked after a huge day on and off the bike and soon after crawled into my Kathmandu sleeping bag to rest my mind body and soul.