IF IT'S THURSDAY, THIS MUST BE CAIGUNA ...

It's a bit like a moveable feast at the moment, with us now five days into a twelve day stretch of continuous riding. After the two days between Esperance and Norsemen we have now completed three days of the ten day trek across the Nullarbor. So far conditions have been pretty favourable, without too much headwind to battle. Here are some brief details ...

Norseman to Newman Rocks

This shaped up to be an exacting day. We had 140 kilometres scheduled to ride, some climbing and a bit of headwind to contend with. Happily, Peter was keen to work together to knock of this first stage across the Nullarbor so we set off together. Conditions were cool when we set off so we were pretty well rugged up. Surprisingly we rode through a lot of forest for most of the day, but we did come to the occasional stretch where there was just low scrub alongside the road, and even the odd salt pan ...

Things went well and we arrived at the morning tea stop before Collis and Kathy. It was a very pretty spot, which had been rubbished quite badly by people stopping. But Peter found a picnic table away from the toilet block that was actually quite clear of rubbish, which was good ...

Enjoying a spot of morning tea

I took a few photos of the vegetation because it was such a pretty little place ...

Beautiful colour featured in some of the gums

An old grizzled tree stood on its own ...

Endurance

The base of another tree revealed lovely detail where tendrils of bark remained where it had come loose from the trunk above ...

Tree base

It was difficult to really capture the layers in the stands of trees, but perhaps you can get a sense of it from this photo ...

A peaceful spot

Peter has been doing his research along the way and says that the common name for these trees is "Gimlet", but in this case I prefer the botanical name which is Eucalyptus Salubrious.

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly and we were pleased to arrive at Newman Rock for our bush camp. Di and I got a fire going at the first camping spot off the road ...

Fire number one under way

... while Peter pottered off down to have a look at the rock pool. The others duly arrived and we had a great camp, with Kathy presenting us with a fortifying feed of Spaghetti Bolognese and a delicious desert of Peach Pudding. All good!

Newman Rock to Bush Camp

Day two promised to be an easy day, with a tail wind, a slight descent overall and only 110 kilometres to ride. Di and I set off first, and Di was keen to be on the front for a while after looking at various back wheels - but mostly mine - for the better part of 1500 kilometres. 

Dead things on the side of the road

We weren't on the road long before we came across the gob-smacking sight of a dead camel on the side of the road ...

Di! What have you done!?!

It was incredible that the camel was largely intact. It looked like it had just been clipped on the head by a passing vehicle as it showed no sign of damage anywhere else.

Shortly after we passed the camel there was another dead thing by the side of the road in the form of a car that had been stripped and graffitied ...

Desert canvas?

Conditions were so favourable that she led me the whole 50 kilometres to our first rest of the day at the Belladonia Roadhouse ...

Belladonia: the first roadhouse on the Nullarbor

A nice hot snack seemed the order of the day. I had a toasted sandwich and a cup of coffee and Di had some pumpkin and ginger soup. As breakfast had been a fairly light affair I decided to have a steak and mushroom pie as well! The others arrived in sequence shortly after Di and I and also had snacks, with toasted sandwiches proving the most popular. I don't know what Fran had, but I think a pie was part of proceedings ...

Fran refuelling

Belladonia is a neat little place to stop in if you're crossing the Nullarbor. There is a little museum contained within the roadhouse and included therein is a significant-sized part of Skylab that crashed in the desert nearby ...

Spacelab's airlock section

The museum also contains a lot of memorabilia of early life in the region, including this piece of machinery used for sluicing gold industry back in the day ...

The Warrego

A little further on we passed this sign ...

Royal Flying Doctors at your service

Punters outside Australia may not be familiar with the iconic Royal Flying Doctor Service but it is a fabled institution in this country operating throughout remote Australia, providing emergency transport for injured patients who need to go to a major centre for treatment. The airstrip just past the sign was on both sides of the road, which makes sense if you think about it. On one side a truckie had parked, which didn't seem quite right somehow. (I did take a little video of the airstrip as I cycled past but it was so pathetic I've junked it. Does anyone want to buy me a GoPro???)

The Longest Straight Road in Australia

Our designated lunch stop for the day was at the beginning of the Ninety Mile Straight, the longest straight road in Australia. Jacquei arrived just after Di and I pulled over to wait for the others and took this photo of the two of us in front of the sign ...

Ninety Miles to Caiguna Roadhouse

Fran arrived and had a feed ...

Half-time: bring out the oranges

... and then we all posed for the obligatory group photo ...

Fran, Peter, Di, Doug, Jim & Jacquei

... before heading off once more down the road. We were enjoying a wonderfully steady tailwind so Collis decided that we'd stretch out the day's ride from the designated 110 kilometres to about 135 kilometres, meaning we still had another 55 k's to go. 

The Burning Big Toe Blues

The last stretch went by relatively smoothly except for the fact that I had to stop and take my right sock off with about 15 kilometres to ride. For the past few days I've been getting a very sore big toe on my right foot once we've been riding for more than about three hours. It had finally got so painful I just had to stop. Once I took my sock off the pain disappeared. I've developed a pressure or heat blister on the bottom of that toe and I think it's a result of wearing wool socks. 

Bush Camp Bliss

Last night's bush camp was fantastic. Collis and Kathy found a spot just short of the notional 135 kilometres that:

• was beautiful and level
• had abundant open spaces for camping
• was well back from the road
• had plenty of dry wood for fire building

The meal was a fantastic tuna casserole from Kathy followed by a lovely damper prepared by Jacquei. As usual, Firemaster Jim managed the combustion department superbly, providing the ladies with timely stocks of red hot coals for the cooking.

Bush Camp to Caiguna

Our longer than planned for day yesterday meant that today was just on 100 kilometres. Very pleasing prospect. Once we were underway we were even more thankful, as a headwind gradually built during the course of the ride. I had left Di at about the 16.5 kilometre mark to have a bit of a hit-out before realising the wind had started to get up. The designated stop for morning tea was at the halfway mark, so I took a photo of the sign while waiting for the others to arrive ...

Halfway through the day

I was feeling a bit bad about Di battling the headwind alone while I was waiting but was heartened to see her arrive in good spirits just before Peter, who had set out a little later than us. We waited for some time before Collis and Kathy arrived with morning tea, and then the three of us set out together to share the burden of leading the way into the wind. Di was feeling so good that she insisted on swinging turns at the front with Peter and me. It seems that she is finally over the stomach upset that has been plaguing her for the past week or so. 

Along the way two trucks transporting huge tyres went past going in the opposite directions. The turbulence they created was amazing. Luckily, Di had stopped to take a photo of a third truck that had stopped by the side of the road, so you can see the size of the truck and the tyres it is transporting ...

Now that's a load of tyres!

Things went really well until we got to about the 80 kilometre mark and right big toe started to play up again. It is so irritated that even the regular cycling socks I had on today started to give me grief. I tried to put up with it but had to stop just past the 85 kilometre and take off my sock again. The pleasing thing is that once I did the pain went away. I think it'll have to be socks off tomorrow and every day thereafter until the blister heals.

About 5 kilometres before Caiguna is a blowhole from one of the limestone caves that riddle the Nullarbor Plain. We stopped to read the signage ...

Caves on the Nullarbor

Blowholes on the Nullarbor

Peter, ever seeing higher knowledge, discovered in the museum at Belladonia that in fact more recently since this sign was erected that air movement at one blowhole has in fact been recorded at a whopping 124 km/hr. Amazing!

Di took this photo of me looking down into the blowhole, which looks pretty inconsequential really ...

Caiguna blowhole

... but there was a strong steady flow of much cooler air coming out of it.

At Caiguna Roadhouse

We put up the tent as soon as we arrived - well, after having a feed, actually, as Di had got her appetite back and was extremely hungry - and got a load of washing on as we both need fresh clothes for tomorrow. A bit of hanging around, and then it was off the the roadhouse for a meal. On the way in I noticed a bunch of trucks transporting heavy equipment had arrived so I made a little video to show some of the things that are passing us by day after day ...

Once inside we all placed our orders. Once again, Fran featured in the feeding stakes. Here's the meal he ordered for himself ...

Fran's last supper

Farewelling Fran the Scotsman

Fran the (Scots)Man

Fran's bike

I've taken the piss out of Fran in this post with the photos of him eating, but it's been an interesting and highly entertaining experience having him share the first third or so of our journey across the continent. He's here in Australia on holiday with his family, who he left in Perth with relatives while he joined us for just under three weeks. Before leaving Scotland Fran decided he wanted to undertake a big, self-propelled journey on this visit to Oz. He thought about doing a walk but soon realised that, in the time he had, a walk would look somewhat inconsequential on the map of Australia. He hit on the idea of a bike ride, contacted Cycle Across Oz and the rest is history.

The great thing about Fran's trip is he is raising money for a children's cancer charity back home in Scotland. That, and the fact that he didn't have a lot of time to prepare for this trip, as well as leaving his wife and three young kids in Perth while he put himself through purgatory is mighty impressive. There was only one - quite long and hilly - day that Fran had to resort to the sag wagon. The rest of the days he has stoically battled on, including a number of tough days when most of us thought he'd call for a lift. 

A proud Scots nationalist, Fran left no one in doubt about what he thinks went on the referendum, or on pretty much any topic for that matter. I stirred him up about riding a Boardman bike, suggesting he should be riding a bike made by the legendary, highly quirky Scot cyclist Graeme Obree, maybe something like this ...

Another Accomplished Scots Cyclist

(Actually I'm not sure Graeme Obree ever produced bikes for sale, but he was a very innovative and imaginative bike designer.)

So, farewell Fran. It's been fun having you along for part of the ride.

A Glance Back and a Glimpse of what Lies Ahead

Here's a Google image of the ground we've covered in the past three days ...

Norseman to Caiguna

Spare a thought for us tomorrow. We've got the longest day of the trip ahead of us and a thunderstorm is forecast. We'll be making as early a start as we can so we can get as far down the road as possible before getting drenched. And that's about it for now ...

North to Norseman: Canola to Wheat to Mallee Scrub

This post won't be a very interesting read I'm afraid, as neither the country we've been travelling through nor the riding have been particularly inspiring. Nonetheless, I'll share the odd highlight that we did enjoy as it might be a while before I can do another post.

Esperance to Salmon Gums: Out of Canola and into Wheat

We set out from Esperance with our rain jackets optimistically in our pockets but stopped at the first major road junction to put them on as the precipitation started falling ...

Wardrobe adjustment #1

We kept the raincoats on for about 10 kilometres: even though it had stopped raining there was still a lot of moisture in the air and it was quite cool. However, when we arrived at the base of a long hill we decided to take them off again. Wardrobe adjustment #2.  Here's a photo looking back towards Esperance at the top of that first real hill ...

Looking back towards Esperance

I kept my jacket off for the rest of the day, but Di eventually got cool again and put hers back on. Wardrobe adjustment #3.

Our first real stop of interest was at a little place called Scaddan. It was an early pioneering settlement in this part of the country, and they have documented their history for passers-by with a timeline and some murals, including this one ...

Note the bike in the mural!

I stopped a little farther along to capture this nice view of some canola behind a dry lake and some gum trees ...

A slash of yellow behind the gum trees

It was about the last canola we saw as the country gets too dry further north and transitions briefly into wheat before there isn't enough rainfall for cropping of any sort.

Lunch was at a quiet little town called Grass Patch. They've got a lovely sign welcoming visitors ...

Welcome to Grass Patch!

For those who like their history, Grass Patch is the home of Tom Starcevich, a Victoria Cross winner for his actions in Borneo on the 28th of June, 1945.

Not surprising, due to the amount of rain that had swept through this part of the world there was plenty of water in the many shallow lakes along the ride. Di took this moody photo which I quite liked ...

Is that more rain coming?

Not long before arriving at Salmon Gums, the town where we would spend the night, I stopped to take a photo of some roadside gums which, although not pink in colour at the moment,  I presume were of the eucalyptus salmonphloia variety ...

Roadside eucalypts

We lucked in with our destination for the night: a lovely, quiet community caravan park well away from the main highway. Here is the sign that welcomes one to the caravan park ...

The community caravan parks often rely on an honour box

I apologise in advance for the next photo but felt that I had to include it due to the sentiments contained therein ...

Please think of others

And I thought the following sign really encapsulated the friendly and informal nature of the folks looking after this particular caravan park ...

Showering instructions

On this occasion Collis was shouting the pizzas for us at the Salmon Gums Hotel, which was nice. The pub itself is a lovely old stone building ...

Salmon Gums Hotel

The pizzas were great, as was the company. I let Fran beat me at a game of Eight Ball, and then it was off to bed, as the morrow promised a steady plod into a headwind.

Salmon Gums to Norseman: on to the Edge of the Nullarbor

Conditions from Esperance to Norseman were really quite benign: relatively cool but almost no wind whatsoever. It was a lot colder when we got up this morning: just under freezing! There was a bit of frost on the ground, but the high humidity meant that all of us had significant condensation inside our tents. Di and I even had quite damp sleeping bags. 

We started off with a light headwind of only 5 kms/hour. However, that increased fairly quickly and for most of the 100 kilometres of our journey were into a 15 kilometre headwind with gusts to 22 kms/hour. That much wind on the nose isn't bad for 20 or 30 kilometres but it gets pretty tedious when you're banging into for as long as we were today. Combined with a pretty dead road surface, the day wasn't one that will go into the memory bank to be pulled out and shone up from time to time. Of course it could have been a lot worse, given that we knew there was a strong chance of headwinds and they can get pretty strong in this part of the world.

Because of the conditions we just plugged away steadily, and there honestly wasn't much to photograph. The most pleasing thing was the fact of there being very light traffic on the roads and relatively few road trains, despite it being a week day again. I did stop to take a photo of yet another shallow lake. What I found interesting about this particular lake compared to the ones we'd been past the previous day was that the setting was much more reminiscent of Central Australia, with mostly grass and low shrubs on the margins rather than trees ...

Another shallow lake in this flat country

Just as a bit of a contrast and to see if you're really paying attention, I'll throw in a photo from our rest day in Esperance which I missed out of the previous post ...

Roots and bark and such

It's the base of a tree along the main street of town. Loved the textures.

Anyway, back to the arid interior. Peter, who is a forester in his working persona and interested in all things climatic tells us that the annual rainfall in Norseman is only about 11 inches per year. He's pretty much spot on, as the BOM says the median rainfall over the past 105 years has been 277 millimetres. Not enough to grow trees for timber: Pete says you need about 1000 mms per annum for that.

Perhaps this set of camel sculptures at the entrance to town is a bit of a give-away to the arid nature of this part of the world ...

Norseman camels

The great thing about the day was that it didn't rain and we were all able to dry out our tents upon arrival in Norseman.

Here's camp ...

Settling into the Norseman Caravan Park

 In the photo at the back is Fran in red; Jim is the one carrying the bag in the foreground; Pete's back can just be seen poking out of his orange tent on the left and Di's purple shoulder is poking out of our tent on the right. Everyone is happily settling in: unlike some of our recent camps set up either with rain threatening or in progress, the sun is shining and it's warm!

Tomorrow will be a big day. We've got 140 kilometres to a bush camp, and the first 20 or so kilometres look like being into the wind again. So that's about it for this post, but I will leave you with this image showing the route and relative altitude gain and loss for the past two days' riding ...

Esperance to Norseman

The distance isn't quite correct: all our computers say that we covered about 208 kilometres rather than the 200 shown (it all adds up!).

Oh yes, one more thing - the right hand turn tomorrow morning that takes us into the next stage of our journey: off the Coolgardie-Esperance Highway and on to the Eyre Highway across the Nullarbor towards Adelaide ...

Into the desert via the Eyre Highway

Albany to Esperance: The Soggy Southwest

Puncture #2

Leaving Albany

Getting out of Albany took some doing. Due to a severe weather warning Collis called another rest day, which worked out well in terms of the weather. This also allowed me to get a tooth fixed that I'd broken back in Pemberton. Being long in the tooth as I am, I thought to just have it extracted,  but the nice, transplanted Canadian dentist at the surgery convinced me that it was worth saving. If you are ever in Albany and need some dental work done, look for the Harter family dental care clinic ...

Tooth problem solved!

Darryl (the nice Canadian) and his Scottish wife Mary (also a dentist) were travelling around Australia twenty-two years ago looking for somewhere to settle and open a practice. They landed in Perth, made their way to Albany and thought, "This will do nicely!" and have been there ever since. They were great in accommodating me and my tooth feels great so I highly recommend them.

Not long after leaving Albany I had a puncture. As you can see in the photo above, it was the rear wheel. I've got my wet weather gear on because it was wet when we'd left the caravan park. Luckily the rain had eased up by this stage rather than increasing, so fixing the flat wasn't nearly as onerous as it could have been. In fact, the rest of the journey was pretty dry with the wind mostly over our left shoulders, so pretty good going. 

I liked the look of this tree in a pond a little further down the track so circled back to take a photo ...

Another roadside attraction

A little further on we were greeted by a strange sight across the road ...

Rural (very) still life

 I'm really not sure what kind of carcasses they were; perhaps the three on the right were kangaroo, and I thought the one on the left might have been a feral cat.

Today would be the longest day of the trip to date: somewhere around 150 kilometres was the estimate, and a bush camp at a small township called Gairdner our destination. However, we stopped for lunch beside a roadhouse at a place called Wellstead and Di and I got chatting to the proprietor. He arranged for us to use the community hall, which meant that our first bush camp turned out to be a relatively luxurious and largely indoor affair. In fact, everyone except Peter, Dianne and I opted to sleep inside, with one of our party even erecting a tent in the hall ...

Indoor camping

It was so exhilarating seeing the sign for Gairdner that I let out a series of whoops as we swooped down the gradual descent into the township. Unfortunately however, although I'd checked the inside of my tyre carefully when I got the first puncture of the day, I got another in the same tyre just as were arriving at the community hall, so I wheeled my bike the last couple of hundred metres.
Examination of the exterior of the casing this time revealed a tiny pebble or rounded piece of dark glass embedded in the casing. It seemed rather ironic that we'd done almost four and a half thousand kilometres of training in Tasmania on far worse roads than we'd been experiencing in Western Australia and only had one puncture between us, and now on brand new tyres we'd had three in less than 1000 kilometres - all in the back end! Anyway, it was good to arrive in sunshine and be able to carry out repairs to the tyre and patch up both the tubes in case we have multiple punctures down the road. The day came in at 148 kilometres, so pretty close to the 150 mark predicted and the unexpected bonus of hot showers gave us all a tremendous lift and allowed us to look ahead to another long day in the saddle with some sanguinity. 

Canola Country: Gairdner to Ravensthorpe

With another 150 kilometre day ahead we were all keen to get a fairly early start, and were away by about seven-thirty, which was a good thing. The day's route started with 32 kilometres slightly uphill overall into a cold headwind, where Di and I managed just a shade over 20 kilometres an hour. Luckily we knew that once we turned the corner at Jerramungup we would have the wind over our shoulder again. 

This part of the world is largely devoted to farming, with canola cultivation occupying vast tracts of land, often almost as far as the eye can see ...

Canola country

This is fairly flat to undulating country with long, straight roads. However, the South Coast Highway east from Albany to Esperance is not a very grand affair, with very few passing lanes and often no shoulder at all. Traffic roars by at 110 kilometres an hour. The verge varies between having a smooth transition from bitumen to dirt and significant drop-offs. Road trains abound, which can be a bit unnerving at times. In fact Darryl the Dentist warned me to be wary of the road trains, suggesting that it would be good if our support vehicle(s) followed closely behind our group(s) of riders. On the other hand, looking at things from a cycling point of view, the good thing about the widespread cropping and relatively flat roads with long straights means that drivers generally have plenty of opportunity to see us.

One thing that we touring cyclists come to value with our mode of travel is the ability to appreciate the minutiae of life along the road. Di and I very much enjoy touring about the country with our camper trailer as well, but we know that we don't get quite the same connection with the environment when we are actually on the move as opposed to being in camp. On the bike we hear the birds in the bush alongside the road; we smell the perfume of the flowers; we feel subtle shifts in temperature and wind direction. And, unfortunately, on these roads with fast-moving traffic, from time to time we see the mayhem that is caused to native wildlife and birds ...

Beauty's finish

The riding was mostly gently undulating, with a good breeze over our shoulder for the rest of the day. It was made a little tedious however by the fact that I'd been up and down all night visiting the toilet with a rather inconvenient gastric complaint, meaning I felt like I had no energy. Di had developed a cough during the day, probably from our slow plod into that cold headwind at the start of the day. Still, we were pretty pleased with our progress overall, given the condition we were both in and were looking forward to arriving at the finish.

Eventually after riding across what was really a rolling plateau for pretty much 110 kilometres we could see what we thought was the town ahead, but it seemed to off to the side more than we expected. Soon we started a long and quite exhilarating descent to what turned out to be the Phillips River just a few kilometres out of town, but then of course there was an equally long and slow ascent back up to Ravensthorpe. But that was more than compensated for by the experience we had riding through some major roadworks on the outskirts of town. There were flocks of galahs ahead of us on the verges of the road and indeed on the road surface itself. They kept flying up, wheeling and skirling away and landing in front of us.

For those of you not familiar with these wonderfully charming and quirky Australian birds (actually a member of the cockatoo family) here is a little video that will give you just a hint of what they are like ...

Now imagine riding towards large flocks of these these wonderful birds that take to the wing as you approach, becoming clouds of keening, wheeling, wing-beating pink and grey creatures moving as one entity, calling out playfully as they effortlessly move away in front of you. This happened several time with perhaps half a dozen successive flocks over a kilometre or so, and was the moment that made our day. In fact, I'd have to say that it has been the moment of the trip for me so far, despite feeling more relieved than exhilarated upon reaching Ravensthorpe - unlike our arrival into Gairdner the day before.

We had discussed the notion of upgrading to a cabin once we got to the caravan park in Ravensthorpe. The distance for the day tallied up to 147 kilometres, meaning a total of 295 kilometres over the two days, which was by far the farthest we've ridden over two consecutive days. We both felt we really needed the rest that a good bed in a warm sheltered roomy space would provide, and decided that's what we'd do. It was a good decision as we both felt we much better the next morning.

Road-train Roulette: Ravensthorpe to Munglinup

It was great to know that we had a nice easy day ahead: only 85 kilometres, slightly downhill overall and with the wind at our back. The only downside to the day was the frequency of  road-trains roaring by and the (literally) patchy nature of the road in places. Actually, the quality of the South Coast Highway between Albany and Esperance was generally not as good as it had been from Walpole to Albany. In fact Darryl the Dentist had warned me to beware of the road-trains along the way. 

We found the nature of the drivers behind these steel behemoths varied enormously: some would give a quiet warning toot as far back as half a kilometre, then pull right over on the other side of the road to pass. At the other end of the spectrum we found them bearing down on us with no warning, passing no more than a metre from our right shoulders. Luckily, the latter type of driver seems to be the exception, otherwise one's nerves would be so shot it would be impossible to get back on the road each day. 

At sixty kilometres into the day's ride Di stopped to adjust her clothing. I was in pulled over in front of her and, hearing a road-train approaching, whipped out the camera to shoot this short video of it passing us by (if you turn the sound on your computer/tablet/phone up to high, you will get some hint of the noise they make going past) ...

You will have noticed that this guy has given us plenty of room, for which we were thankful.

Munglinup became our first true bush camp, and it was great despite not having the best climatic conditions. It was relatively mild when we arrived early in the afternoon and got the tents up, which was great. Here is an overview of the camp ...

Munglinup bush camp

It was a bonus having a table to put stuff on, and plenty of room to spread out.  But don't let this peaceful setting fool you: within a few minutes a blast from the southwest had swept through chasing at least some of us into our tents. Nonetheless we soon had a fire going ...

A fireside chat ...

The evening was terrific, with Di and Fran entertaining us up until dinner with tunes on their Celtic whistles. But what really made the camp was the wonderful meal that Kathy put together over the fire once we had developed a good bank of coals. She served up an almost bottomless pot of delicious Japanese chicken curry, followed by a heartwarming fruit crumble. It was exactly the sort of food my stomach wanted after the trials it had endured over the past 36 hours or so (and the assault of the pub meal I'd prematurely subjected it to in Ravensthorpe the night before). 

The Munglinup Roadhouse was, unusually, situated off the main highway. As such it seemed to cater largely to local farm workers rather than passing truck drivers. There was little on offer that was tempting, but they did have a nice sign over the shop ...

Cockatoo country

Munglinup to Esperance

Before leaving Munglinup the next morning I took a photo of a road-train that pulled in a little earlier so the driver could get a bit of kip. If you haven't travelled the outback of Australia, this might help get the message across of what we're dealing with on the roads ...

Road-train at rest

I wasn't in a photo-taking mood on the last of our four days from Albany to Esperance. Di took this photo looking ahead towards a rolling hillside with an attractive but somewhat ominous sky behind ...

Green hillside and darkling sky

I couldn't resist turning back and grabbing a photo of this sign ...

Rabbit Proof Fence Rd

I'd always thought that the famous Rabbit Proof Fence was along the eastern border of Western Australia, but found out that I was totally wrong on that score.

Something else of a manmade nature I couldn't resist stopping for was this signage, which I just liked the look of ...

Home on the range

Even though it is just over halfway through winter there are plenty of wildflowers about ...

Bottlebrush

After lunch at the 77 kilometre mark, Collis gave us the directions for finding our way to the caravan park. I've generally got in the habit of taking a picture with my phone so that I can easily check details where necessary. This is what our directions for the run in looked like ...

Directions to Bathers Paradise

Perfectly clear. Pity I didn't consult the phone as I - like Peter before me - missed the turn into Goldfields Road. At least I realised my error before going more than a couple hundred metres past the turnoff, so Di and I didn't have to backtrack too far.

Our distance covered so far is just under 1200 kilometres, over 10 days of riding and 5 rest days after our pause  here in Esperance. We are about one-quarter of the way to Melbourne via the route Collis has painstakingly set out. Here is a graphic that shows how much of the route along the coast between Perth and Melbourne we've now covered ...

Southwest corner: TICKED!

There's still a long, long way to go, but we feel we've made real progress. It's a great route to be riding. Di and I have done our shopping and girded our loins for the next 12 days of uninterrupted riding, with approximately 1520 kilometres to be covered before we reach Ceduna and another break. 

To leave you with a last impression of this little coastal gem - which we didn't see at its best because of rather wet and blustery conditions - here is a photo I took on our way into town this morning ...

There should be another post when we reach Norseman the day after tomorrow.

Until then ... cheers!

Postscript:

Di's hip continues to improve, so thanks for all the positive karma. Now can you please make her cold go away?