Real bushman-pushbiker!
I slept not so good and wake up at three in the morning, trying to sleep agsin. In the morning the worker staying at the hotel started really early and with no thought about other still sleeping.
After yesterday’s long ride I wasn’t sure if my muscles were ready for another day of riding. I took my time at the caffe with breakfast and send some emails. In the meantime, a young couple enterred, who were working as sheap sharer. Incredible: in eight hours, they can do up to 200 sheaps, so 25 per hours or 2-3 minutes per sheap. When I think how long I need to shave myself… Oh, no: thex don’t shave humans…Then I packed everything and said good bye to all.
Bevor leaving the town I just wanted to pass-by at the police station to be sure that the road I wanted to drive were open more in the north. Mark the police officer, called just around and told me that it should be ok – of course if no more rain in the north would fall. Then I went to the other pub as he had recommended, because the men there would may be know if someone had arrived from north with news passages might be flood, but drivable.
I just had left the town and I car stopped me: Mark asked me for my contact details and that I should ring him when I had arrived in Windorah. That gave a good feeling – thanks a lot!
The first 30 km on sealed road were easy but I felt yesterday’s long day: as if I had no power in the legs. I took a rest (as usual fighting again the flies) and ate a little bit. 9km later, the road changed to dirt and stones… and there was a quite sharp one: another punction. There was still some liquid / sealant in the tire, but no rubber. I’ve got two guesses: Either the sealant don’t really like the hot weather here (it was no problem in Chile) or there was many punctures I haven’t seen which were automatically sealed.
Anyway: I removed all the baggages and put the bike “down under”. The puncture was very little. And as I anyway needed to open the baggages to get the sealant milk, I as well took the patch I had bought in Tibooburra and glue it.
When everything was back on, I continued the road, arriving to the first challenge: the first flooded area. It was only 10cm deep and on a concrete underground. No problem to drive that one. A little bit later, it changed: the water was now 30cm deep and with loose underground. I followed the tip of the men yesterday at the dinner and pushed the bike. It was no real problem. The next flood was very small… and made the biggest problem: I thought I could take the easy way on the left border of it. Result: much more muddy than through the middle and I nearly lost a shoes… 😉 So, I changed the direction back to the middle. That unsealed road was in total about 17km and I was glad to leave it. But it was only for some 8km as again later the road was dirt for 23km, until I reached the main road from Quilpie to Windorah (total: 85km).
As I still was fit, I wanted to catch some time back and drove ahead towards Windorah and found after 17km on the side a place to put the tent… well, not directly: it was were the stockman (Australian for “Cow-boy”) had brought some animals in the past. The ground was so hard, that it was not possible to ram the fixation into the ground. So I moved the tent some further… being carefull to make enough noise (ground vibration) so that eventually present snakes would leave. The discussion yesterday about the most dangerous snake as neighbour and which could kill within 10min (?) had had some affect…
So, now I cooked some spaghetti with “soupe-sauce”… I’m ready for sleeping time – with the mosquitos noizzzzzzzzzing outside. brrrrr
Cheers, Georges
The day in numbers:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78934151
