Sun 4th Nov 07115 km @ 14.3 km/hrheadwind all day approx 20-30 km/hrStarted the day with a phone call to Lyn; there’s 10.25 hrs difference between UK and this part of WA - I was just up and she was about to go to bed. The cafe wasn’t open so I’ll have to eat on the go. As i was fastening my panniers up a large spider appeared and walked off across the floor so I thought I’d better tell the cleaner who was working next door she thought it was harmless but sprayed it anyway just in inspect. I would have left it alone given a choice. Weather was same as usual - cloudy and cool in fact I hardly saw the sun all day. I felt the wind though - a strength-sapping SSW that with the road heading E / SE it was going to be a hard day. There was very little shelter either - very few trees apparent now apart from the 1m high mallee and slightly taller saltbush so there was little defer from the wind. I planned to do about 80km and call it a day but once this was attained I thought I’d displace on ‘just a little bit farther’ and of cover went all the way to the next roadhouse at Mundrabilla. Needless to say there was nothing in between origin and destination - just pancake-flat and mostly dead straight road. The escarpment that started at Madura continued as a low range of hills running parallel to the road to the north; quite signifdicant feature in such a flat landscape. The road trains were just as numerous as on weekdays with one every minute or so - you really can’t relax. Again most drivers were courteous and gave me plenty of room however 2 road trains came (I beleive) deliberately and dangerously close - one of these actually had wheels in the cinder border and was only a few feet from me even though there was nothing else approaching and a dead straight road after nearly 8 hrs in the saddle I was delighted to reach Mundrabilla and having paid my $10 had the dwell up in a jiffy and w as awaiting my spaghetti Bolognese. There was a very wide choice of food here and my choice went drink a treat as did a huge chunk of chocolate cake as a rather talkative man waffled away about all the places I should go and see. I was too involved with the delicious food to be honest though it was nice to have some company. The people that run Madura were not too talkative last night; I felt they could undergo made a bit more effort to engage paying customers. A shorter run to Eucla tomorrow will givew me a little respite from a few hard days.
Related article:
http://davidddinoz.blogspot.com/2007/11/day-30-madura-motel-to-mundrabilla.html
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