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Journal: |
I was on the road by about 1:30am, hoping the new bike was going
to go OK in its first outing. Two problems were immediately
apparent, though neither of them were showstoppers. Firstly,
the brake/gear levers were not set evenly on the handle bars, i.e.,
the left side was at least an inch lower than the right, and to fix
it would involve unwrapping the handle bar tape and moving the
levers, neither of which I was disposed to do at this time.
The second problem was that I could not change the gears onto the
big front chain ring, so didn’t have access to gears 19-27. I
can fix it with a bit of time, but wasn’t disposed to in the dark
with a big day scheduled.
The early riding was very pleasant with no wind or moon and a
brilliant starry sky. It would have been more enjoyable if I
could have stopped thinking about the task I had set myself. I
very narrowly missed (by less than a foot) small wallabies which, on
two separate occasions, bounded across the road in front of me.
As the sun rose I climbed out of the Victoria River Valley and was
treated to some spectacular red rocky bluffs and many alien-like
boab trees. The bike was running fine and I was making good
time. However, as the sun rose and the road became more
undulating, it rapidly became hot and a headwind made things
unpleasant. I laboured on to the West Australian border where
I was quizzed by a quarantine inspector about whether I was carrying
any fruit and gained 90 minutes by entering the western time zone.
From there it was about 45km to Kununurra, my only town for the day
and a regional tourist, agricultural and mining town. Along
the way I was flagged down by some caravanners to see if I wanted a
cold drink, but I declined, having plenty of fluids and not wanting
to lose any time.
At Kununurra I stopped in at the 24 hour roadhouse/supermarket
and got a pie and pastie for lunch, plus some preserved fruit and an
ice-cream, and a lot of drinks. I left around noon for the
last 105km to Doon Doon roadhouse and endured the worst heat of the
day, ~35C, on a narrow and busy road through arid country surrounded
by rocky hills. After 45km, I turned south, got the wind
behind me at last and enjoyed a reasonably pleasant run to Doon Doon
by the light of a setting sun and surrounded by spectacular
Kimberley mountain ranges, though I was feeling very tired. I
got to the roadhouse at 5:10pm, 20 minutes before their kitchen
closed and ordered a schnitzel and vegetables dinner from the female
proprietor who remembered me from last year. I booked a
campsite for the night and had a shower before sleeping inside my
one man tent as a bivvy sack on the grass. Tomorrow is a short
day to Halls Creek where I have booked a motel room. The next
week is pretty much defined by where the roadhouses/towns are and
I’ll stick to my originally-planned daily hops until nearer Perth
where I will try and claw some time back.
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