OnYaBike Sydney to Perth 2008

20 kms to Fraser Range Station - a sheep station with about 3000 sheep - downsizing because soon to be sold. Caravan park, shop camping etc. Stopped for water, washing, chocolate.

The view from top of the range is enough to take ya breath away but well beyond the capabilities of my little camera to capture.

Up late, slept in due to my new very comfortable mat - thanks Judi again! Sunny warm morning no cloud N to NE breeze did 15kms before breakfast/lunch. Past dead forest must have had a very serious fire out here recently covering tens of thousands of hectares. Rolling country side like the manic depressive country on the Eastern side of the Nullarbor but longer distances between peaks.

Took a side tour to Newman Rock - good view across the valley to the East- a chance to get away from the road to camp but too early to set up shop for me.

Did 43kms with light trailing breeze. Camped by roadside closer than I’d have preferred but no choice due to reappearance of fences.

Left Balladonia latish with a mild westerly blowing. Great museum with a display of events of interest including the fall to earth of Sky Lab during the Presidency of Billy Carter. Space junk fell over an area from Esperence to Balladonia. The US president personally rang the road house to apologise for dumping his countries rubbish on them and offered to make good any damage caused.

An unexpected guest, Miss America, in Perth for the Miss Universe contest, was not going to miss out on such a unique photo shoot opportunity and arrived with American photographer in tow. Some days later the largest piece was exhibited at the contest. Unfortunately for the organisers it was too heavy and collapsed the stage.

NASA offered $10,000 reward for the 1st piece of Sky Lab to be found. Stanley Thorton a 17 y.o lad from Esperence found the winning piece in his back yard and collected the prize.

The first camels, used to haul loads at Balladonia station came ashore at Port Malcolm south of the station in 1894. In those days there was no wharf and as no one on the ship knew if camels could swim one puny specimen was chosen and thrown overboard. When he turned on his side and started doing the ‘camel crawl’ towards shore the other were similarly mistreated.

Rest and recreation at Balladonia. Found the above graphic scratched into the paint on the front window of the backpackers. I cut off the ‘= stupid’ , presumably added later, to the right.

Woke to a calm day - gentle breeze from the east with patchy morning cloud. Slept like a log. 1 Wedge Tail Eagle day.

Did the 50kms into Balladonia on a confused wind NW, W, SW - anything but from behind.

A few of rally of 200 2CV cars to Kalgoorlie and Kathrine stopped in to fill up with a litre or so of petrol.

In the morning met Tony, a gold prospector and his mate Liz. He made me tea and toast for breakfast and showed me his most recent finds - 3 ounces, $3,000, found in one morning near Barridale in south west WA. His biggest nugget find was valued at $7,000. He wasn’t worried about telling me where he found his latest as he has a GPS fix on it and figured one one else was going to find the exact location easily.

Moderate South westerly in the morning. Overcast day after clear and cold night. Country very sparse giving way to more wooded in the afternoon which afforded some wind breaks.

Wind eased and turned into a following breeze in the late afternoon. Did 62 kms - camped 50kms out from Balladonia near Telstra relay station adjacent to a roadside campsite that was too close to the road and too crowded for my preferences.

Have been making so little headway decided to try cycling at night to avoid the worst of the winds. Made about 20kms in relatively safety - can see the traffic miles and miles away but near froze waiting for night to fall before setting off and not sure I had sufficient batteries to make the exercise a viable strategy.

Camped at roadside camping spot late at night.

15 kms in blustery north westerlies. Wind very uncomfortably cold and strong - difficult to find shelter from it. Extremely cold day even in the sun. No cloud in the morning but clouded over in the afternoon. Front coming?

Wind calmed a little today allowing some headway.

So many roos it reminded me of a paragraph in the biography of a rabbit shooter featured in the museum at Eucla that quotes him as saying ‘In 1954 they were so thick on the ground you had to kick ‘em out of the way to set the traps.’

Camped down a side road leading to another transmission tower. Very cold night.

Another shift in the wind to a strong westerly, 20 to 25 knots - so another day off at exciting Caiguna. So much night life I hardly know which club to go to. Heavy rain last night. Seems I’ve had rain about every second day.

Ha - the wind has shifted again, gusting today from north-northeast to north, to north-northwest in the afternoon, allowing me to make some headway. I did 40 km before breakfast, had planned to do 30km but must have missed the 30km signpost - a good thing I did because after lunch the wind shifted more westerly and I had as much trouble doing the remaining 20 km into Caiguna in the afternoon as I had had doing the 40 km in the morning. Cloudy sky until midday when the solid cover broke to a popcorn texture, allowing some sun. The wind strengthened in the afternoon with the sky clearing from the North. The last 10 km into Caiguna were really difficult, with the strengthening wind. I took a “budget” room in the Caiguna motel - $58 a night. I wonder which way the wind will blow tomorrow?

I picked up another parcel. Even though I sent them to myself I still get a thrill out of opening them.

A two dead, one live wedge tailed eagle day.

How fickle the wind. It did a 180° shift last night and the headwind today was so severe I chucked it in after 6 km. Not fair on body or soul. Close to a p.w. (personal worst). I was looking for somewhere to set up camp when I spied a rough track off to the left just before the Caiguna 60 km signpost. I was reticent about going too far as it was quite stony, but I persisted, heading for a line of trees about a half a kilometre down. Glad I did as it opened up to a large, flat, sparsely wooded camping area set out around a massive hole in the ground, a limestone cave whose roof had collapsed exposing a cavern large enough to park a couple of b-double road trains in. The roof of the cave must have only been a few metres below the surface of the ground and, as I figured there were bound to be more around, I camped well away in a small grove of trees.

Woke to a tail gale. It blew me all the way to the next roadhouse (Cocklebiddy) same day. A p.b. - 91 kms. It’s surprising what a difference a tailwind, 2 blocks of cadbury’s chocolate, 2 day’s rest and 60 PSI of air in my tyres makes, as opposed to the 25 PSI in the rear and 35 in the front that I’ve been dragging along on, probably since Ceduna (talk about dumb).

I met a cyclist, a young man who, with his partner, had sold their touring van in Perth and fitted themselves out to cycle to Sydney. I said, “What a good idea.” He said, “You’re the only one we’ve met who thinks so.” He was very keen on explaining how hard it had been pushing against the head winds. I must admit I was less sympathetic than I might otherwise have been, especially when he could only recall one other day of severe head winds, but I did try and explain that for me today’s wind had been the most favourable I’d had in five months. I reassured him he was going in the right direction and that today had been an anomaly.

A one dead wedge-tailed eagle day.

Spent the day and night at Madura.

Up and away again to discover Madura roadhouse only 300 m further up the road. Not a problem, as I couldn’t have afforded to stay there anyway. The cheapest accommodation was $65 a night. I will tackle the Madura Pass hill today.Just picked up a pamphlet from the roadhouse announcing the establishment of a unique, 18 hole, par 72 golf course which will span 1365 kms across the Nullarbor, with one hole in each participating town or roadhouse, from Kalgoorlie in WA to Ceduna in SA. Shame, I should have brought my clubs. What will they think of next.

They’re very honest about this tourist adventure: “The Nullarbor Links concept was developed … and hence a reason (for tourists) to spend more time and money in the region.”

Stayed the night at Madura